Bowling News
The delayed 2020 Annual Accounts for the BCGBA have finally been published even if they haven't been released by the BCGBA who fail to mention them at all on their website.
The copy I obtained came from the Bowls Observor website. Communications once again being all over the place from the BCGBA who are developing a bit of a reputation for having their documents leaked prior to formal publication. The last set leaked being an end of year report from the BCGBA Chief Executive which was leaked on 10th December last year before the formal release by the BCGBA of a slightly different revised version over two months later. Getting to be a bit of a habit.
The document itself indicates that the Annual Accounts were signed off by the Executive Committee on 6 February 2021 but are still awaiting official release to the membership.
When looking at these figures you have to remember that they are for the 12months leading up to 31 October 2020 a time when only a few winter leagues actually bowled at all. The headline figures that stand out to me are:
Surplus (profit) on the year of £37,077 compared with £12,550 in 2019.
General Fund at year-end of £45,216
Reserves at year-end of £205,544
Investments currently valued at £161,515
I may have misinterpreted these figures but I believe that they add up to show that the BCGBA currently has access to just over of £411,000. Someone please tell me if I have got any of these figures wrong and I will correct this posting. A copy of the 8-page document is below for you to download and read in full.
The Bowls Observor article goes on to provide the comments below whilst avoiding mentioning the really big numbers at all.
At the latest BCGBA Management Committee meeting an item of business normally done at the Annual Meeting was completed. The ongoing problems caused by the pandemic and the various lockdowns had caused a delay in the publication of the BCGBA accounts. The accounts include the fund managed by the Trustees which are only used to support the development of the sport (more on this shortly).
The accounts of crown green bowls national governing body showed a surplus of just over £37,000 on the year to 31st October 2020. This is mainly due to a couple of items. Firstly, the loss of all competitions saved the association over £18,000 in the men’s account when compared to the previous year’s accounts. This coupled with the decision to take part in the government furlough scheme which saved another £10,000 or so in payments to the salaried officers.
The annual club fee, which should have showed an increase to match the newly increased club fee, showed a small deficit. It was reported that work is ongoing to find out which clubs have, so far, survived the pandemic and the BCGBA is working with the counties to make sure that clubs pay the fees for last year. For the clubs who have paid the BCGBA is offering a subsidy on this year’s fees.
With all activities restricted by the pandemic the various meetings throughout the year were held over the internet. This saved over £4,000 and went a long way to offset the drop of over £7,000 in sponsorship. There may be good news on the horizon regarding competition sponsors, but this will be published later when final details are confirmed.
The accounts are published in the BCGBA handbook and if you were able to get, and keep, them then you can see the evolution of the accounts. I strongly recommend if you do then you should invest in a good magnifying glass as there is a lot to fit in each page, the font size is small! You will find the Ladies accounts were not included as they were shown as a separate governing body until the latest accounts.
Men’s Competition’s account
For many years, the competition account has been in deficit and the amount depended on the size of the crowd at the Champion of Champions held at the Waterloo in Blackpool. With its huge stands in place the Waterloo could look after a crowd in excess of the numbers who went to each Champions event. Even with a proportion of the gate money being given to the Waterloo, to cover their costs on the day, the event remains the most profitable of the year.
As a rule, the success of the Senior Merit depended on where it was held and the cost of erecting temporary seating. Since then, the trend for the account is to show an increase in the deficit as a review, an increase, in prize money also corresponded with a drop in sponsorship and income.
In 2004 (the earliest accounts I could find) the income from the Champions was £8,093 and the expenditure £6,361. The Competitions account for that year showed a deficit of £4,724. The Senior Merit, held at the superb Rolls Royce Club in Derby, showed a loss of over £3,000 that year.
The broadcast budget was also moved over from the Development account (therefore paid by new player registrations) and increased the deficit even more before this was cancelled. For the record that year the broadcast fees of just over £20,000 contributed to a deficit of nearly £35,000. The broadcast budget had been managed by the late Mel Evans MBE. His last year in post showing that he had grown the income from advertising to over £11,000 (up from approx. £6,000 the year before).
The pre-pandemic accounts showed a deficit of over £19,000 with the Champions event still profitable but the Senior Merit deficit had steadily grown to over £2,400. Opinions on this account differ widely. To some it is a waste of money as only a small number of player’s benefit. To others it is a reward for being the best in the sport. A copy of the accounts are below for you to decide for yourself.
More details on Bowls Observor website.
The BCGBA made a surplus of £37k with inevitably lots of variations in income and expenditure caused by lack of competitions etc. etc.
The Accounts show it to be in good financial shape with net assets of £205k.
This is made up of what is called FREE RESERVES of £55k and TRUSTEE RESERVES of £150k.
I don’t know what these TRUSTEE RESERVES are meant to be used for, but they are a very sizeable amount of money.
One item which caught my eye is the Investments which fell in value by £24k from £186k to £162k which , no doubt, reflects the fall in stock markets during the pandemic..
Stock markets have recently picked up and so I’d expect th…