A POPULAR boxing club will soon be moving to a new home - a newly fitted out gym at a secondary school.

Carlton Bolling College in Undercliffe is in the process of refurbishing the Duke of Edinburgh Awards Centre on Undercliffe Road, turning it into a fully fitted out community boxing gym.

And when it opens, the Bradford Police Boys amateur club will be making the gym its new home.

With the lease soon to come to an end on their current base, on Nelson Street in the city centre, the popular club was looking for a new home.

Head of Carlton Bolling Adrian Kneeshaw, himself a former boxer, had been to see the club at their Nelson Street venue and was impressed by the passions shown at the club, and offered to let them make the boxing gym their new base.

He said: “I’ve never seen a gym as full. It is a thriving club. The young people there were so focused.

“We’re having to expand our plans for the gym to accommodate what they need.

“For us it is great to have an established club operating from the gym. We see it as a gift for the community.

“Having a gym like this is great for the school and the community. It shows what hard work and self belief can achieve. We will be using the gym as a school too, but the majority of what goes on there will be community use.”

The club has told the school what equipment they need at the gym, and the plan is for the facility to be ready by December, and for there to be an official launch in January.

The club is run by Julian Cyprien, who is better known in boxing circles as Gentleman Jim. He said the club was looking for new city centre premises, but the offer to use the Carlton Bolling gym meant they would be able to keep going.

He said: “There are a lot of buildings in the city centre, but the landlords want a lot of money for them.

“We didn’t want to lose any of the kids who use our gym, we’ve been going quite a few years and we’ve had lots of successes.”

The Duke of Edinburgh Centre was transferred to the school from Bradford Council earlier this year, and work has been ongoing to transform the centre.

As well as being used for training, and as a facility the school can use for PE lessons, the plan is for the gym to host matches.

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