Budding young Rockies at an up and coming amateur boxing club on Anglesey have received a knock-out sponsorship boost from a top self-storage company.
The Holyhead and Anglesey Club, which is based on the town’s Vicarage Lane, has been helped out to the tune of £400 to kit itself out with vest, shorts and tracksuit for each of their boxers.
The donation has come from Lock Stock Self Storage, the UK’s largest containerised storage company, which opened its first storage park on Anglesey, off Kingsland Road, at Holyhead two years ago.
It’s a welcome boost to the club formed eight years ago by chief trainer Tony Maguire who was a founder member of the old Holyhead Red Dragon Club and boxed from the age of 16 to 28.
He said: “I didn’t really have much proper coaching and it wasn’t until my last couple of years that I really developed as a boxer but by then my wife was expecting our first child so I had to stop.
“But now I feel I want to pass on those skills and give youngsters the benefit of my experience to help them develop and also to create much more than just a boxing club – I want us to be a real focal point for the community.”
A newly-formed Little Rocky Class sees boys and girls aged six to nine put through their paces every Saturday and it’s proving a big hit while the older boys and the seniors have regular training sessions three times a week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 6-7.30pm.
Lock Stock Commercial Manager Jeff Woods said: “We always like to be part of the communities in which we operate and we support a wide range of sporting and other organisations across North Wales.
“These include the Welsh Alliance football leagues as well as Denbigh Town Football Club, fishing, rugby and bowls clubs in Rhyl, Mold and Wrexham, a primary school in Saltney and charities like Ty Gobaith.
“This is important to us and it’s why we’re pleased to help out the boxing club here in Holyhead and hopefully we’ll soon see some Welsh champions and internationals from among its ranks.”
That looks increasingly like according to Tony who said: “We box all over the UK and compete in Welsh championships and boxing events cups throughout the year and we’re also holding our own show in Holyhead in December.
“We’ve got some great young prospects with young Ben Williams who is only 11, and Kyle Owen while Mattie Griffin is another of our best and he won four Welsh titles as a schoolboy.
“Boxing as a sport is great for fitness and for self-discipline, hitting a punchbag is a great way to release tension but they’ve got to think as well. It’s not just about throwing punches.
“It’s about self-respect and respect for your opponents as well.”
Brothers Nick and Shon Powell launched Lock Stock Self Storage in Denbigh in 1999, and the company now has 2,900 containers at 20 sites across North and Mid Wales and the Border Counties and as well as offering units to hire on their sites they sell a range of used and new containers delivered by their specialist lorry – they also sell fireworks at Chester, Rhyl and Llandudno and on-line.
Their existing sites stretch from Holyhead along the North Wales coast at Bangor, Llandudno Junction and Rhyl, on the Dee at Flint and Chester and inland at Denbigh, Mold, Wrexham and Newtown in Powys, and at Oswestry and Shrewsbury in Shropshire.
For more information on Lock Stock go to http://www.lockstock.biz/
