Boxing News

‘TO SEE THEM SMILE IS EVERYTHING’

George Gigney catches up with James Cook and discovers a man on a mission

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THE Pedro Club in Clapton, London is well known for tackling gang crime and giving young people in the area some direction and an outlet. Former British super-middleweig­ht champion James Cook runs the club now and was awarded an MBE in 2007 for his work in the community. However the club is struggling for funding and this weekend (May 27) they hold a fundraisin­g show. Here, Cook talks about the club and the good it does. Give me some background about the club and your involvemen­t in it.

The club was opened in 1929 by Baroness Harwood, a cousin of the Queen. In 1973 Elizabeth Taylor became a patron of the club. In 1991 Prince Phillip opened part of the club. The area was known as ‘Murder Mile’. There wasn’t much to do here, it’s surrounded by three estates. I live round the corner and I wanted to do some work with the youth, I’m the sort of guy who if he can do something, he goes back in the area and helps somebody out. There was a riot at one stage round the estate because the kids had nothing better to do. The club was closed for a while, I started getting in touch with people like Derrick Williams and Marvin Stone and a few more to try and keep the club up and running. We’ve been struggling but we’re coming to a time now where the club needs to provide more, like disability access. It’s an old building, we have over 50 classes [a week], some people can’t get down the stairs to the toilet, sometimes the roof leaks. Sometimes I have to fix the roof myself, but I’m not a roofer [laughs]. It’s a community project and I just want to carry it on for the young people so it stays there for the next 30 years or so. They’re building on all these new houses in the area but they don’t understand the problem. I tell them, no matter what you do, if you don’t have anything in the area for young people, you’re gonna have problems. The days of Girl Guides and Boy Scouts are gone, so you have more young people on the streets. The Youth Club now has got four football teams. We’re looking for a lot of money, we’re looking for money for refurbishm­ent, which I don’t think is impossible. If you go round the area and ask about the Pedro Club, people will tell you it’s the one place where we don’t have problems with the young people. At one point, the police weren’t even allowed in here, now we play football with them.

‘SOMETIMES I HAVE TO FIX THE ROOF MYSELF!’

So you have a close relationsh­ip with youth in the area?

Yeah. I feel confident that I can leave them in the gym for a short time, because I know they won’t mess up anything. If they mess things up, then they haven’t got anything. If they see me walking down the road and one of them is smoking, they’ll hide it or something, they don’t want me to see it, and these are big guys doing their thing. In the morning, if I say be at the gym at 9am, they’re there at 9am because they know that if they’re late, they won’t get in. I teach them that if you go to bed early, you can get up early and get things done. We’re doing a lot of stuff with them and none of us get paid, it’s all voluntary. We teach them about knife and gun crime, we tell them what will happen if they go down that road. Parents don’t speak to their children, they’re frightened, but we’re not. We just tell them how it is. Parents ask us to speak to their daughter or son for them.

What improvemen­ts have you seen in the community because of the club?

Like I said, we’ve got four football teams, they’re all under 12. This is the generation coming through who aren’t on the street, their parents want them to make something of themselves. I have under-15 boxing classes, under-16 boxing classes, women only classes and these are people in the community who still come and use the club. That’s the difference, people have something to do. Young people know about the Pedro Club. They learn about manners, respect, certain attitudes. If six people are on the streets and four go to the club, there’s a chance that the other two will go ‘oh, they’ve gone to the club, let’s try and get to the club.’ That’s the difference. The police will tell you, there is gun crime surroundin­g the area but we don’t have it in our area anymore.

What was your motivation to first get involved, and what keeps you going now?

I’ll be honest, I think some of the young ones are waiting for me to die so they can get away with things! When I was a young man at my boxing gym, sometimes my trainer would ask me to take the class. Sometimes, when I finished the class, some of the guys would be smiling and I remember thinking ‘no matter what I do, no matter what I achieve, I want to work with young people,’ because to see them smile is everything. When I finish there’s always a smile or a running joke and they’ll come to me if they’ve got a problem. I’m no different to them, that’s why I’m so passionate about it because if you can go and help, it’ll probably cut down on crime.

 ??  ?? BACK IN THE DAY: Cook pictured in his heyday when he defeated the likes of Michael Watson, Errol Christie and Mark Kaylor
BACK IN THE DAY: Cook pictured in his heyday when he defeated the likes of Michael Watson, Errol Christie and Mark Kaylor

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