OUR SPONSOR
Sponsorship at last – a big thank you to Mark Harris of AMC New Homes
As the Fitzroy Lodge ABC nears it's centenary it finally managed to secure sponsorship. We had to wait 99 and a half years but when it came it was certainly worth it!
Mark Harris, Chairman of AMC New Homes, a property development company in Bromley, used to box for us as a junior and was sufficiently impressed with our work to offer us sponsorship of £10,000 for each of 3 years which we were able to ‘SportMatch' to a total of £19,000 a year for the next 3 years. The club are immensely grateful to Mark. |
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The money is being spent on new equipment for the gym, tracksuits for the boxers, new headguards and some is also being set aside to pay for Coaching Education Courses for club members and 2 have progressed to ABAE Full Coach status and 6 have now gone on to become ABAE Tutors.
The sponsorship will also pay for some of our juniors to attend the CYP residential course run by the ABAE in association with the Royal Navy.
We have also set aside some of the money to pay for extra sessional coaching hours along side the 2 Community Sports Coaches, Mark Reigate and Adam Martin.
Suddenly a club which never had a sponsor in all its history has a generous patron. We are really grateful .
Mark Harris hands over the cheque for £10,000 to Mick Carney and Billy Webster at Billy's 80 th Birthday celebration at the club
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HISTORY
Way back in 1910, Lionel Baly was an eminent surgeon practising
in sunny Lambeth. At a time when the local youngsters would
have been running round with empty stomachs and no shoes n
their feet, old Lionel would have been known as a man of some
means. But far from being a typical "upper class toff" of the day, remaining aloof from the local riff-raff, Lionel
had a real social conscience. To help the local kids get off
the street he set up a sporting organisation and called it
the Fitzroy Lodge. It started off as a multi-sport's centre,
but over the years became a dedicated Amateur Boxing Club.
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The Fitzroy Lodge went from strength to strength and
settled down to business in a gym sporting three rings
in Walcott Square. Things changed dramatically in 1939
when Hitler sent over a big hairy pilot who dropped
a bomb on the club and destroyed it.
After a nomadic existence in the years that followed,
the club finally found a permanent home under the arches
in Lambeth Road in 1946.
The arch had been used as an air raid shelter and was
more or less derelict. But undeterred, the lads rolled
their sleeves up and made it habitable. It's a shame
the boys of '46' can't see the club today looking more
like a palace than a bombsite.
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The 50's and the 60's saw the Fitzroy Lodge emerge
as one of the top clubs in the country with champions
too numerous to mention at every level.
From the early 60's onwards, the consistency in coaching
methods was assured when Mick Carney and Billy Webster
hung up their own gloves, to concentrate on passing
their impressive wealth of knowledge to new lads. Over
the last forty years, they have been one of the most
successful partnerships in amateur boxing producing
many ABA champions.
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The club still sends its warriors out to do battle in the
famous white vest with black hoops and long may it continue.
'GOOD OLD LIONEL'
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