Boxing - End of round one for club after 39 years

9:21am Monday 17th November 2008

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AMBLESIDE boxing guru Dave Reynolds severed links with a major chunk of his life this week when he said farewell to Ambleside Amateur Boxing Club’s premises at the back of the Golden Rule public house off Smithy Brow.

The club has already moved on to a new home at the “Rec” in Windermere, but Dave was removing the last few transportable items and taking down the club sign on Wednesday.

Next year would have been 40 years since the club started at the Golden Rule in 1969, and Dave explained: “It needs a lot of work done to bring it up to health and safety standards and the club’s finances cannot stand it, so it’s time to move on.

“It’s nostalgic because hundreds of people have gone through the club’s doors - most of the kids in that era in Ambleside and lots from Windermere and Kendal, too.

“A lot of them are grown up with families and still say hello to me which is nice to have.”

A bad waterpipe burst last Christmas was probably the last straw, but Dave said the building’s proprietors, initially Hartleys and now Robinsons brewery, had been very fair down the years about allowing the club use of the premises.

“We have it at a peppercorn rent of £250 a year and Robinsons have been very good to us,” he said.

Dave, who began the club with Howard Rainey, has been head coach at Ambleside ABC during that time and has risen through the ranks of boxing to become an adjudicator for England and is also on the Referees and Judges Comission, which oversees the running of the sport at amateur level.

Ambleside ABC offers boxing coaching for both boys and girls - sewing lessons were available for the females when the club first started - and looks set to continue for years to come.