Dunfermline Boxing Club could be on the move

Following the closure of their previous base at Halbeath Community Centre, they relocated to Woodmill High School last March after working together with Community Use Fife and Fife College.

An under-used squash court was converted into a custom-built boxing room, with club members also having access to the school's sports hall, strength and conditioning equipment and changing facilities.

However, last year's fire at Woodmill, and the coronavirus pandemic, has impacted on their time at the facility, with the club telling Press Sport that they may not be able to access it until mid-October.

That has prompted them to look for somewhere that they can use 24/7 and, although the club has resumed training outdoors, coach Stuart Rowa-Dewar explained: "The council have indicated we're not getting back into Woodmill until mid-October at the earliest.

"They've given us a caveat that we might be able to get into the ring room, but that's still being discussed, so we're going to have to back onto Zoom once again.

"This means that, unless people have got bags at home, they're not going to be hitting the bags etcetera, so that could be a handicap. We'll see if we can work something out with the council to get a solution for that but there's willingness. We want to do it, and the council seem keen to try and create a path to get us in early, but things change so quickly on a national level that nobody really knows at the moment.

"We've all just got to do what we possibly can to make the club work in what is unchartered territory that we're all on it at the moment.

"We're getting a lot of the younger members, the teenagers particularly, saying it says all gyms can open on the 31st (of August), why can't you open? We've got a landlord, therefore we've got to sit in with the restrictions the landlord puts upon us.

"At the moment, Fife Council's priority is on education rather than community use, which I totally understand because the whole schooling scenario has changed radically.

"That's what prompted the Facebook post – has anybody got any buildings? – just because of what happened with the council saying it wouldn't be until mid-October until we got back in there.

"We're always open for options. The Woodmill set-up is good; we have our own ring room, it's heated, there's changing rooms, so it is a good facility. It's just unfortunate, during the holidays it shuts, and we have to train outside or whatever and that does have impacts on members.

"Everybody's been getting free training but, had we had a commercial property, the landlord would've still been demanding rent, we wouldn't be charging anybody, and then it comes down to the office bearers or whoever has signed the lease to actually come up with the money.

"That's quite a big step forward from giving your time to actually being prepared to guarantee a certain amount of money. At the moment, no-one has come forward and said that they have premises that is available, so it is very early days on that."