Boxing club says hunt for new home now 'desperate'

A boxing club which welcomes hundreds of people through its doors every week is desperately searching for a new home to avoid closure.

Gladiators Boxing Club, in Huddersfield, has produced national champions and recently saw its first fighter turn professional.

But the club has so far been unable to find a new base after its landlord at Turnbridge Mills served notice earlier this year to renovate the Grade II listed building on Quay Street.

"We will just be out on the street if we don't get somewhere soon," said head coach Den Doyle.

Mr Doyle said he had identified several potential new sites for the club, but affordability was often a stumbling block.

"It's looking pretty bleak at the moment, but we keep trying," he added.

"We are just desperate for anything really. I'm clutching at straws and knocking on doors that might not be open."

The club has been based at Turnbridge Mills for 10 years, but has now been told to vacate the site by February.

As well as producing a string of talented boxers, it also hosts classes for people on probation and offers teenagers an alternative to crime and inactivity.

"It's getting kids off the streets and giving them something to do," Mr Doyle said.

"Do you want them at home playing games all the time or do you want them out being healthy and meeting new people?"

The future of the club's brightest stars, including Florence Mangeni - thought to be Kirklees' first female professional boxer - also rests on it finding a new home.

"It's just desperate times," said Mr Doyle.

The Huddersfield Table Tennis Centre, based above Gladiators Boxing Club at Turnbridge Mills, is also on the lookout for a new home.

The club has about 60 members, from teenagers through to people in their 80s.

"In an ideal world we would find a purpose-built or modern sports centre available at a peppercorn rent, but it doesn't really happen in the real world," said Jeff Adams, who added that the club's search had been hindered by a lack of leisure facilities.

"We haven't got that much money and we are looking for somewhere that's a great facility for cheap rent."

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.