Express & Star

Warley walking tall in bright new home

Two knee operations might have left John Nash temporarily walking with a stick but nothing can slow Warley Boxing Club’s head coach down right now.

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After more than a decade of uncertainty, when the club’s very existence was often in doubt, Warley are approaching their 80th birthday celebrations with renewed hope for the future.

Having gained stability in the shape of a new home smack bang in the middle of Oldbury’s industrial heartland, Warley are also flourishing inside the ring with Solomon Dacres becoming their first fighter since Pat Cowdell to win a senior ABA title.

And while, for obvious reasons, there may not be a literal spring in Nash’s step right now, there is a definite twinkle in the eye and excitement in the voice of a man who is also about to mark his own a 50-year association with the club.

“It’s just a joy to be around the place at the moment, this is a nice place to be,” he says. “We had a few bad years but now things are really looking up.

“I’m pleased with the coaches we’ve got and I’m pleased with the boxers. They are really coming on now.”

Formed in 1937, the club’s first 65 years were spent at The Pheasant pub before an ownership change saw them relocate to the former Mitchell’s and Butler sports ground, located off Portland Road on the border between Smethwick and Edgbaston.

It was never anything more than a temporary home and the club were unable to put down permanent roots until three years ago when they moved to a building at the back of Warley Rugby Club, off Tat Bank Road.

With a 25-year lease signed, ambitious expansion plans which will see the gym double in size should be completed later this year.

“This has proved to be a good catchment area,” says Nash. “When we first moved in we went round putting flyers through doors to try and drum up interest. Now I’ve got people phoning me asking to join.

“It’s just the funding has held us back a bit. We don’t get any help from the council, even though we do a better job than them of keeping kids off the streets.

“We had plans drawn up (for the extension) but the council lost them, which has set us back a bit further.

“It will be nice when it is all done. I have been envisioning it and I have been here for a lot of years.”

Nash’s involvement at Warley goes back to 1967 when he joined as a 16-year-old after being encouraged by Cowdell, then his neighbour.

While Cowdell went on to win British and European titles in the professional ranks, Nash – who describes himself as having been a ‘steady boxer’ – fought for England as an amateur before going on to work as a doorman and lorry driver.

It wouldn’t be long, however, before he was drawn back to Warley, this time as a coach.

“I came back into the game and quickly got the bug for it again,” he says. “There is nothing quite like it. I just love it. There is no better feeling than when they raise a fighter’s hands with the words ‘the winner is Warley Boxing Club’.”

The club is far from a one-man operation. Nash’s team of coaches includes Sodhi Singh, who in 1969 became the first Asian-born man to win the British Schoolboys Championship.

Neither is Dacres, a former professional rugby player who only took up boxing three years ago, their only recent success.

Craig Cunningham and Jason Welborn are just two of the club’s former stars now enjoying success in the paid ranks.

The most high-profile of the lot, meanwhile, is Sam Eggington. The 23-year-old, crowned European champion in May, first joined Warley at the age of 11.

A photo of Eggington and his former coaches, taken when the Stourbridge fighter attended a club show last year, now hangs on a wall in the gym and Nash hopes it will act as an inspiration for the next generation.

“It’s nice to have boxers who go on and be successful,” he said. “It’s great to have a national champion in Solomon, someone who still visits the gym to train and who the kids can look up to.

“We’ve got lads who have been here a couple of years and are just starting to build their experience. Now we’ve got to the stage where the older ones are encouraging the younger ones.

“When we’ve got all the building work that needs doing sorted the club will be in good shape. The hard work never stops.”