Sudbury Amateur Boxing Club’s soaraway success leads to fundraising drive
Punching above its weight is a phrase that lands right on target when applied to Sudbury Amateur Boxing Club.
The club was founded 65 years ago. At the moment it takes members - including a growing number of girls - from the age of eight, and has a huge waiting list of young people wanting to join.
With a string of successes under its belt, including members winning national championships and representing their country, there is little doubt even better results could lie ahead.
But to fulfil its potential and meet demand the club needs a bigger gym. It is looking for a site and launching a bid to raise money to fund the move.
The club, which is based in Great Cornard, runs four or five training sessions a week, and many youngsters attend most, if not all.
First in are the youngest members. They start with a run around the block. Then it’s into the gym for an intensive session of floor work punctuated by spells pummelling the punch bags.
Urged on by coach Billy Bird - a former pro-boxer and 2018 Southern Area champion - their commitment, concentration and enthusiasm are awe inspiring.
“Ten press ups,” he yells, “and now you know what I’m going to say, ten more …”
Billy is one of the club’s success stories. “I started off here at 10, turned professional at 21, and my career took off from there.
“Now I’m retired and doing training courses to help give back to what was given to me as a youngster. Boxing gives you the right path in life. Discipline is drummed into you at an early age.”
While his group of primary school-age children are training hard and display formidable physical fitness, national rules bar them from sparring until they are at least 10.
The club’s child welfare officer Michelle Street says: “They won’t step into the ring until we know they can take care of themselves. It can take two years or more to get to that stage.
And young people wear head guards and gumshields.”
An hour later the seniors - who include anyone weighing more than 50kg - return from their longer run to start their training session which includes work in the ring. There is also padwork, where they don boxing gloves and practice hitting pads held by trainers.
The club - with around 50 child members plus some who are older, and run entirely by volunteers - is based in a building tucked away behind Great Cornard’s Kings Head pub.
Now a fully kitted out boxing gym with a ring, punch bags, a wall lined with gloves, and other training equipment on two floors, it was once the home of the local branch of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes.
“The club started in 1958,” said head coach Neil Anderson, who first joined 40 years ago aged eight.
“Originally it was in Sudbury and was given this building in the 1970s. I think at first they used to share it with the Buffaloes.
“It belongs to Greene King and they don’t charge us rent. They have been very good to us.”
Boxing’s popularity is not only soaring in Suffolk. Coach Connor Blezard, who joined the club aged 10 and whose father James is also on the coaching team, says it is one of the fastest growing sports in the country.
Neil said: “The club had always ticked along, now it’s mental. It’s a fun place to be. We are constantly inundated with applications.
“For the last five or six years we have been growing but in the last two or three it has really taken off.”
There is a waiting list of almost 30 eight to 15 year-olds, plus some older would-be members.
It came through a bad patch about 15 years ago when closure looked a real possibility. “From where we were then we are now in a really good position,” said Neil who became head coach in 2011. Now we’ve got to keep the momentum going.
His father Brian is an ex-chairman of the club. “My dad got involved when I joined, and my mum Linda was treasurer for several years.
“Our chairman now is Frank Jarvis whose son boxes. Parents get involved, and sometimes stay involved longer than their children.”
“We are members of England Boxing. They teach coaching, and you don’t have to be a boxer to be a coach.
“All boxers have to have a medical every year. Dr Adrian Kemp has done all our medicals for years.”
They all emphasise the benefits to young people go beyond the sport. “It’s not just the boxing, it’s commitment, discipline, being part of a group. It puts them on the right moral track and sets them up for life,” said Neil.
James Cullen, who became club secretary this year and is busy upping their profile on social media, added: “We get a lot of parents saying their kids are no longer misbehaving.”
Michelle says: “I think it plays a big part with some of the kids’ mental health as well. It gives them time when they can just be themselves.
“It's about getting them to spend their time productively. And they’re working towards something, like being in one of the shows.” The club holds four show tournaments a year, normally at Sudbury Rugby Club.
In the past ten years members have notched up a string of impressive results in national contests, and box cups (tournaments) in the UK and abroad.
In 2019 Ellie Mateer became the club’s first national champion with a win in the schoolgirls’ competition.
But others have come close. They include Jack Wiffen who was the first to reach a national final in 2018, and Scott Stannard who got through to the Three Nations final the following year.
“We punch well above our weight for a little club,” says Michelle.
Boys still account for most of the membership, but more girls are now joining often inspired by the likes of British Olympic gold medallist Nicola Adams, and Irish world lightweight champion Katie Taylor.
Women’s boxing was banned in the UK until 1996. “Our first girl was Ruby East,” said Neil. She started about 10 years ago and won a gold medal in a box cup in Sweden. We’ve now got nine or 10 girls coming to the sessions.”
“It’s brilliant for the girls confidence-wise,” says Michelle. “And some of the younger ones look up to the older girls in the club. We have a really good bunch of kids who all get on.”
Ellie Spencer, who won gold in her category at the Hull Box Cup last year, is 14 and has been a club member for five years.
But she got into the sport by chance. “My dad was doing some building work here and I came along with him and thought it looked cool,” said Ellie.
“I come down here four or five times a week. Katie Taylor is an inspiration for me. It’s good to have women role models.
“The crowd gets really involved in amateur boxing, but you can’t really hear it, you’re concentrating too much.”
Twelve year-old Dolly Bishop has been boxing for nearly two years. She finds it has helped her improve at other sports too.
“Before I started, I couldn't do any sport. I was really bad at it. Now I'm better,” she says,
Dolly’s brother Teddy is also a keen club member. He has just turned 10, the minimum age children are allowed to get into the ring and take part in sparring, “I really want to get in the ring and win,” he says.
Harry Anderson, Neil’s son, is 13. “I’ve been coming here since I was seven or eight, but taking it more seriously for the last three years.
“I’ve had two fights and won both of them. It was exciting. I love it, it’s a really good sport and when you come down to the gym you meet a lot of mates.”
Logan Street, who is Michelle’s son, is also 13 and started at the club on his seventh birthday.
He has grown up with both his parents watching boxing - Michelle recalls he first started asking about it when he was three.
“I’ve been the only one in my school following boxing,” says Logan. “Everyone else is into football but I think that’s a bit boring. I’ve made a lot of good friends through this. I’ve had three fights and won two of them.”
The annual cost of running the club is £10,000 to £15,000. Members pay subs of £8 a week, which entitles them to go to all the training sessions. All the money goes back into the club. When they go to tournaments, coaches go with them, and the club funds it.
A new bigger gym is a vital part of their future plans. A fundraising static bikeathon is in the pipeline - probably to be held in September in the Kings Head car park with junior and senior sections taking part, and the club doors open for people to look around, join in on the bikes, and donate.
They also hope businesses will sponsor the club.
“We’ve done a business plan with Sport England and there is quite a lot of funding available for youth provision, but it is finding the right place,” said Neil. “Once you have the funding it is a lot easier.”
“At the moment we manage but we haven’t reached our full potential.”
To find out more go to sudburyabc.co.uk
