Homeless boxing club finds new premises at school

A boxing club that was given weeks to leave its premises after 40 years is expected to move into a new site at a city school.

Triumph Amateur Boxing Club is hoping to use a boxing facility at Woodfield School in Coventry but the new site has to pass an inspection by England Boxing first.

Head coach Dinesh Darbar said he was confident the move to the school would happen.

The boxing club has run for about 60 years and currently supports about 100 children, many of which come from deprived or challenging backgrounds. It had to leave its old site in Canley when its lease came to an end.

"We're feeling good about this, [I'm] looking forward going to work in partnership with the school," he said.

"We've still got a few hurdles to jump over before we get there, [but] it will be great.

Darbar said there was currently no timescale for how long they could use the school site, but members of the club were really positive about the news.

"They're looking forward to it, so we just need to arrange the final setup, [work out] when we can start and we can get going."

While there's no reopening date for the club, the new agreement has provided Triumph with a base, free of charge, into September.

Darbar thanked Taiwo Owatemi, Labour MP for Coventry North West for her "swift action and determination" to secure the school site.

Owatemi told the Local Democracy Reporting Service she wanted to "bring people together and do the practical work needed to help Triumph Boxing Club find somewhere it could continue operating".

Woodfield School Principal, Nico de Groot, and Declan Connolly, Sport & Physical Activity Development Manager at Coventry City Council for helping with finding a new site, were also thanked by Darbar.

Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.