A Magnificent Seven at Wolves ABC

It's an institution that has stood the test of time - and 'the Magnificent Seven' are set to take Wolverhampton's oldest amateur boxing club into the future.

Wolverhampton ABC will celebrate it's 75th birthday in May of next year, having marked the 25th anniversary of their home on Willenhall Road this year, on the site of what used to be the Old Eastfield Girls School.

It's a club steeped in the city's history and one of only two organisations permitted to use the City of Wolverhampton crest - a request granted the year after they were formed in 1937 - next to Wolves.

But the East Park area they serve is in the top four per cent deprived wards in the country, with their members reliant on the club as a part of their lives.

Not all are there for boxing stardom, some use the club just to keep fit and others just to keep out of trouble.

The seven coaches - who double up as directors and all own a piece of the club - are volunteers who devote their time and energy for no financial reward to their 200-strong membership seven days a week.

And these are respected men in the sport, led by club secretary John Thomas, the likable face front of house who has been involved in amateur boxing for the last 50 years, ever since coming out of the Navy in the late 1950's.

Dennis Stephenson, George Murrin, Nick Griffiths, Mick Thomas, Ken Dolman and Conroy McIntosh - who was a pro until three years ago - form the rest of 'the Magnificent Seven.'

Actually, that could soon be eight, Wolverhampton's last British champion Tony Wilson - one of two Olympians the club has produced with Tipton's Roy Addison - is set to join the staff in the near future.

It's as good a guidance as any young amateur can hope for, but Thomas explains that the club is about more then just boxing.

The 73-year-old said: "We take the raw materials from the street as it were, the kids that people can't seem to control, put a bit of discipline into them and hopefully come out with a decent person at the end of it.

"We are more interested in producing a good lump of people rather then stardom, we are more like a community centre in many respects that tries to use boxing as a away to put kids right.

"We are completely anti-drugs, alcohol, all of the things that teenagers seem to be falling into, we won't stand for any of it.

"It's like a family here, the boxers and the trainers all look after each other."

It's not a spit and sawdust establishment either, the facilities that the club have to offer rival anything around.

It's the only club in the Midlands to boast an Olympic sized boxing ring, donated by none other then WBA world champion Amir Khan - it's the one he used to train for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Word of what's on offer has reached as far as the Commonwealth of Dominica, who plan to bring their national boxing team to Wolverhampton for training ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Thomas is hoping that is not the last contribution his club will make to the games either, with club coaches becoming increasingly hopeful that their amateur Alex Shepherd can make the cut at light welterweight.

The Wolverhampton fighter is back home after serving his country as a Grenadier Guard around the world and, as an army champion, has real boxing skills to go with it.

But, whether that comes to pass or not, the show will go on for Wolverhampton ABC.

Thomas said: "This club owes nobody in the world nothing, if we can't afford it we don't have it, I am old fashioned in that respect.

"We must have seen 14, 15 clubs open and close in the time we have been in existence, we are still here because we have lived within our means."

By Craig Birch