TORBAY Amateur Boxing Club return to their spiritual home at Torquay's International Riviera Centre for their next show on Friday, April 30, writes Gordon Hines.
It's immediately ahead of the early May Bank Holiday weekend, which makes it potentially awkward for visiting clubs bearing in mind the amount of traffic likely to be pouring into the Bay.
Nevertheless, they believe it worth the risk having staged the last two shows at other venues.
The first was The Play nightclub on Torquay's harbourside, after which the option was snatched from them when the business was forced to close its doors.
Then came the most recent show on December 11 at another Torquay night spot, Valbonne, when there were more boxers and club officials present than paying customers, thus leading to a financial flop.
"To be fair, it was a fantastic setting, but the timing could have been better with being so close to Christmas. Plus there was the Apollo show at The Imperial Hotel the following week," conceded Torbay ABC secretary Nigel Western.
The reasons for dropping the Riviera Centre in the first place, were purely financial as the hire fee was considered to be too high.
However, the club has since re-negotiated terms with the Centre's management, with Western announcing that everyone is happy and the club looking forward to welcoming back the many sponsors who've supported Torbay ABC down the years.
"We've lost some of our sponsors along the way, so could do with more for the April 30 show," said Western, who can be contacted on 07989 133 364.
Meanwhile, the club had mixed success after sending 14-year olds Gary Corbett and Joe Preece to box on the Poole ABC show last week.
Corbett celebrated his first ever victory following six defeats by unanimously out-pointing Tim Phillips from the host club. And Phillips was an opponent who had won all four of his previous contests.
However, Preece lost for only the fourth time in 11 bouts when he lost a majority points decision to Martin McCann, also from Poole.
Quoted from the Herald Express on 8/02/10.
