Star coach Allan in spotlight (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Star coach Alec Allan in spotlight

6:55pm Friday 28th September 2012 in Sport By Simon Parker, Bradford City Reporter

Half a century of Bradford boxing memories was marked with a special party to remember a former coach.

Alec Allan, who died in May aged 83, was the guiding light behind countless boxers taking up the sport he loved.

Junior Witter, the city’s only world champion, has always put his success down to Allan’s teaching and he joined many of his former fighters at the event in Thornton thrown by Allan’s widow Margaret.

She said: “Alec collected so much boxing memorabilia and I thought it would be nice to share the items like old photographs and newspaper clippings with the people he trained over the years.

“They date back to a 1957 programme for the National Schoolboy Championships in London and I know how much everything meant to him. Boxing was such a big part of his life.”

Witter is preparing to defend his British welterweight title against Frankie Gavin on October 27.