‘Smelters Boxing Gym’
This season has finally seen the club complete our new build gym project, after many years of trying to secure capital funding the club finally received an award of £68,000 from Sport England after a nomination and backing from the ABAe.
This is a real dream come true for all at the club and we now have a gym we can all be very proud of, this will help the club to continually develop for many years to come.
Please bear with me, as there’s so many people that deserve a mention in helping us achieve this. Firstly without Roger Eady the Western Counties Boxing Development Officer’s resolute support and hard work we would have never seen a penny. Our Architect Mike Nangreave was pivotal in securing the funding award and without his many hours of free labour I’m sure we’d have never been awarded the funding. Boxer’s Dad Mark Shackhill when he heard about our plans said he’d put the building up for us, not only did him and his team put the building up they did it mainly for free. Without Mark and his lads we’d still be fitting the 9,000 bolts it took to get the shell up. I can’t thank Mark enough, he’s a superstar, from painting the gym to making the bags frame, he has spent hundreds of hours some of it on his own, helping us get the gym completed. There’s was a huge team effort also from many club members and their families, Barry the Brickie, Andy the locksmith, John Davies the builder, The Musgrove’s, who helped build the ring and weights equipment, Sam Mogg with painting (105 litres of it), and all the boxers who in wind and rain turned out weekend after weekend to get the job done. As a club we should be very proud of all the efforts we’ve put in and the end result is one of the best-equipped boxing gyms in the country.
We held five successful boxing shows, two at Pill memorial Club and three at Patchway Sports Centre, considering these where both new venues for the cub, we did extremely well in running, organising and promoting these shows in difficult financial times.
Thanks goes to Richard Alan at Pill and Beckie Cramer at the Patchway for helping us host them. I now have boxing clubs ring up all the time to box on our shows and found getting enough bouts for each much easier than previous years. We hosted over 70 bouts, giving not just our own clubs boxers but also many clubs boxers the chance to compete.
We have three shows planned for the coming season at the Pill Memorial Club all Thursdays Nov 12th, March 4th, May 20th, which leaves us calendar space to arrange a couple more at Patchway, if the financial climate picks up.
Schools
We have an ever-growing award winning schools program with many schools both primary and secondary now engaged in non-contact recreational boxing. This has been centred on Patchway School where we’ve set up a fully equipped boxing gym, we’ve had great support from the school and especially Rache Nightingale and Becky Cramer who have worked tirelessly to keep the schools boxing going from strength to strength. With the continued help of boxing tutors Jake Whiteside and Wayne Cockhram we have plans to take boxing into more schools this season. Local school Oasis Brightstowe where we will be running boxing programs from Sept 2009 and I only hope these can be as successful as the one at Patchway.
Committee
The boxers, coaches and I would like to thank all the members of the committee for their efforts over last season. It’s the fact that everybody does their bit that makes this club such a great club to be a part of. I would like to say a special thanks to my wife Beckie Cave (and thankfully….for me she still is) for putting up with me and all the boxing mither through what has been a very challenging year.
A special mention for top trophy supplier and our clubs main sponsor Declan Harrington who has provided the club boxers with team tracksuits and all our trophies for the shows and awards. Many thanks Deccy your generosity is very much appreciated.
Boxers & Coaches
We had 25 boxers compete for the club over the season and participated in excess of 80 bouts. Six represented the Western Counties in reps matches, they where, Jerry Connors, Tyler Davies, Bradley Collingbourne, Terry Richards (twice) & Jo Ross. They competed in Birmingham, Jersey and Guernsey. It’s a testament to the club reputation especially for reliability that so many NSC boxers are getting picked to represent their county. I received some very complementary feedback from the regional coach, win or lose the NSC boxers where the pinnacle of sportsmanship. A special, mention for Tyler Davies and Jake Musgrove, both won junior county championship titles. A massive thanks must go to all the club coaches, who without their many hours of voluntary service we couldn’t open our doors, Club Coach Lee Cummings who with no fuss has continued to coach a growing team of successful boxers at the Southmead gym, Jake Whiteside & boxing Tutor Wayne Cockram who are the backbone of our ever growing schools and recreational boxers program centred on our Patchway gym. Both Jake Whiteside & Lee Cummings passed their full coaches course this year. Team Captain & assistant Coach Sam Mogg, has been my right hand man in the Smelters Gym, and despite taking on a demanding work shift pattern still found the time to both coach and box for the club. Andy Buftan & Jimmy Connors both qualified as boxing tutors and regularly help out at the gym, as does senior boxer Liam Poole. We have four new coaches awaiting the coaching course in November in Jo Ross, Terry Richards, Robert Clark & Josh Stone. It’s great to see so many ex boxers and boxers coaching with the club and secures our clubs future.
Last but certainly not least the boxers and their families deserve a massive round of applause for all their dedication, sportsmanship, teamwork and performances both in and out the ring. The NSC boxers have once again done this club, their families and themselves proud.
They have, as always, made me very proud to say I’m the NSC head coach.
Yours in sport
Garry Cave
NSC ABC Head Coach
