The Camborne and Redruth Amateur Boxing Club, Cornwall’s oldest boxing club, is working hard to ensure a future for itself. They have exciting plans to bring it all together by replacing their aging facilities with a new, modern, purpose-built facility. The club’s base on the outskirts of Camborne has only recently moved from a pre-fabricated building that was in use since the 1940s. For the last half a century and more, it has…
Paul Murray, the coach of the club, raised alarm about the present condition of the venue. He announced that the current building just isn’t cutting it anymore. It struggles to live up to expectations established by its guiding council. “Our changing rooms and facilities are not up to the modern standards our governing body expect, so it’s now time for us to replace the building with a modern, vibrant building that will be sustainable,” he said.
The club now runs training nights for under-10s, juniors and adults, six days a week. Kyros, a 15-year-old member, wrote beautifully about how the club changed his life with the following passage. “I like that it’s a really good place and it’s better than going outside and creating a ruckus,” he said. Without the club, he continued, he’d probably go home and just be on his phone all day.
The ambitious plans would replace the existing facility. In turn, this will produce an exciting space which brings in additional kids and young adults. Tegan, a 16-year-old from Redruth, emphasized that better infrastructure is needed to attract more women and young girls into the sport. Or if we had the new building, it would provide female changing rooms and female restrooms. I hope we can get more bigger facilities to train and develop at,” she expressed.
In addition to the center’s benefit to existing residents, Murray wanted to stress the new facility’s potential positive impact on the community. Simply put, a reinvigorated modern club will draw more children and young adults to our town. Not only will it provide them with more good productive things to do to keep them from roaming the streets and getting into trouble, but it’ll get them off their iPads and their computer games. He added that a new facility would help inspire pride among young people from the region. “It’d give the youth of Camborne and the surrounding area somewhere that they’re proud of,” he added.
The club is deeply invested in this effort and participating in every step of the way. Additionally, they’re actively engaging with DCMS to obtain government grants to help pay for the new building. The club is looking to secure around £750,000 in matching funding and has aspirations to have construction completed by early 2028.