Boxing Club Update

Please support St Mary's Amateur Boxing Club for Natwest Community Force funding

What does your charity/project do?

St Mary's ABC has been established for 70 years. Recently we have been raising funds to ensure St Mary's ABC stays within the local community. We are non-profitable organisation & need to raise funds to ensure we have a stable future & can continue to take our boys across the Nation in order to attend other clubs boxing shows. We train over 220 boys a week, offer guidance, coaching and competitive opportunities in boxing. This club is heavily involved within the local community & boxing world.

How does your charity/project support the local community?

Our organisation currently keeps the youngsters off the streets 7 days a week. We train them from as early as 8 yrs old through to adults. We encourage boxing within the local community irrespective of race, culture, belief, gender, the acquisition of physical fitness, self discipline, confidence and responsibility. We are looked upon as a family within Luton and are very well known across the nation for producing world champions, junior titles and even the opportunity to box for our country.

What do you plan to use the CommunityForce award for?

The Community Force award would be spent on ensuring our Minibus is safe to transport our boys across the Nation. As we are non-profitable club we accept donations from parents to ensure the minibus, is taxed, mot and insured and the standard you would expect. We cover so much mileage across one weekend so regular services are also very important not to mention fuel. We also have some girls down the boxing club and currently one changing room so we would like the opportunity to extend also.

Please vote here

Fighting for St Mary's ABC, Chatham

St Mary's ABC, Street End Road

Labour Councillors in Luton & Wayfield will be supporting the campaign by our local St Mary's ABC which is currently threatened with closure after the ownership of the land changed.

I along with Councillor colleagues met the campaigners yesterday evening and it is clear they will fight to the end for a club which spawned former world champion Johnny Armour and top heavyweight Tom Dallas.

St Mary's Amateur Boxing Club in Chatham is one of the oldest and proudest clubs in the county and has support from across the region. It is the epitomy of a small sports club fighting against corporate greed.

You can join their Facebook site and a petition is currently being organised to safeguard this piece of local heritage. The Council has a responsibility to local sportsclubs to ensure they are safeguarded; one such as this with such a proud history must be looked at.

St Mary's has been at the site for more than 50 years. It has previously rented the property for a peppercorn rent of just £26 a year, but following the death of its landlady, the future of the club is in doubt.

Club secretary and head coach Dave Bowler said to Medway Messenger:

"We are very worried. We don't know who is going to buy it and if they will let us stay. If the new owners put the rent up, we wouldn't be able to afford it, and we can't afford to go anywhere else."

St Mary's most famous son is Armour who reigned the WBU bantamweight division for three years. He trained at the club from the age of 10 until he signed a professional contract aged 21.

He said:

"It would be a great shame if the club had to close. A lot of people would feel the same as me. It has been there such a long time and a lot of people will have fond memories of it.

"It is a blinding club, I don't think you will ever get a club as good as St Mary's in Medway. I couldn't have done anything I have done in my career without the start I was given at that club."

As Councillors - Sam Craven, Tristan Osborne and Christine Godwin will be fighting for the boxing club and are currently engaged with the Council to ensure that the tradition of this much-loved sport continues in our community.