STILL STANDING TALL
Daniel Herbert finds that, two years in, the Alliance is pursuing its vision of amateur boxing
TWO years ago a number of clubs left the national amateur governing body, England Boxing, and created a rival organisation called the Alliance. In the heat of the moment over-the-top claims were made: that the Alliance would quickly take over the sport, or that it would just as soon crumble to dust.
Neither of those things has happened. Two years on, the Alliance is still offering an alternative to the mainstream branch of the sport – which, while its international results have stayed healthy, faces the alarming prospect of boxing being dropped from the Tokyo Olympics due to the International Olympic Committee’s dissatisfaction with world governing body AIBA.
It’s a moot point for Alliance boxers, who are currently denied International competition along with central government funding (agencies recognise only one governing body per sport). So why did the breakaway happen?
Ted Goreham, who this summer takes over from Keith Walters as Chairman, is satisfied with the Alliance’s progress.
“We’re going all right,” he says. “Our targets were to improve domestic grass roots boxing, and to improve discipline and democracy. We’ve done that.
“We started with 130 clubs and are up to 160 [England Boxing have close to a thousand]. We lose one or two, but gain five or six. We’ve cracked on this year. We have better championships and better insurance in place than before. We’re not funded but we cover our money, and it’s all done at a lower cost to clubs.
“The number of shows is fine and the number of bouts on them is fine. If we can increase by 30 to 40 clubs a year, that’s good. People who come to our shows say they are like old-time boxing – they’re enjoyable.”
Goreham says one of the main reasons the Alliance came into being is that England Boxing was undemocratic – that edicts were being handed down uncontested from AIBA, often with no relevance to the grass roots. He says, “We listen to the clubs and if change is proposed, we discuss it.”
The Alliance has retained headguards for all ages and both sexes, unlike AIBA/EB, where elite (senior) males compete without them.
Its bouts are scored on hand-held “clickers”, whereas EB has gone back to the old penand-paper, 10-point-must scoring for club shows while higher level competitions use the computer.
And Alliance boxers compete at the old 12 weights used before AIBA cut two divisions at the IOC’S behest, to limit numbers for the Olympic Games.
Goreham explains the reasoning behind these differences. “AIBA said headguards coming off senior men was to sell the sport, to make boxers recognisable. But the reports they’re using now [to justify no headguards for men] are based on old Top Ten headguards.
“I was against headguards at first but I’ve changed my mind. I’m old enough to remember when there were no headgards. Skeletal structure is soft and still developing, so you had kids with 30 or 40 bouts getting damaged cheekbones. We’ve stopped that.
“In England Boxing there are a lot of cuts now with all the head clashes and boxers rushing in. With us there are very few cuts – we get four or five a year in championships. Duty of care is very important to us. “And the weight differences, especially in the upper weights, were far too great. AIBA weights are intended for national championships, but on the domestic level, duty of care matters. Heavyweight [81-91 kilos, a gap of 10 kgs] was just ridiculous.
“Newer coaches would just put a boxer in at a weight and give eight or nine kilos. Even for good kids, that’s too much. We have to protect the boxers. Our coaches are happy with more weights because they don’t have to boil boxers down - they can box at their natural weight. It’s that enjoyment, again.”
Goreham believes clickers produce greater transparency. “Computers are fine for the Olympics, where you have lots of pressure on judges, but they’re ridiculous for domestic boxing at a church hall in Romford. With clickers, three judges score what they see and all scores count. ➤
“Fans are comfortable with our rules because they know what’s happening.”
Yet the Alliance faces problems, most obviously not being allowed to box in any events run by AIBA and its national affiliates. Considering certain clubs in the Alliance have a proud history of producing boxers who represented their country, it might have been a bitter pill to swallow. Yet Goreham counters, “We entered 11 boxers in a Portugal multi-nations and it went well. We’re discussing home and away matches with Spain, and there’s also Canada and the USA [to talk to].”
Another concern is that Alliance clubs are concentrated in a few areas. The organisation’s website lists 118 shows held during the 2017-18 season (including championships events). London dominates with 25 clubs staging shows, followed by “Other” (Southern, Eastern, Midlands) on 11, then South West and Home Counties on nine each. No clubs listed are further north than Northants, which has Kettering ABC and Kettering School of Boxing.
Comments Goreham, “The Alliance started with the larger part of London, and the larger parts of Western Counties and Home Counties. Our development area is the Southern Counties – they’re joining in Kent and Surrey.
“In our first year we did have a Manchester club [Ashton Albion]. Clubs made a special effort to bring them down for matches, but it added costs to shows. It’s no good having one or two clubs in a region – you need a group of them.
“The problem is making enough matches and could we supply officials? After the split we had to train up referees and judges quickly. Luckily we retained four very good referees.”
Fewer clubs means a small entry for the national championships the Alliance runs: April’s Senior finals produced bouts at just nine of the 12 weights, with SIX all-london affairs.
Goreham doesn’t evade the issue, saying: “In England Boxing the biggest entry was always for the Schools. Now the biggest for us is the Novices. We had four rounds [of competition] and it was packed out for the semis and finals. The novices should come through to the seniors soon.
“Championships always vary in quality. This year we had four really good class senior finals. Our super-heavy finalists are two of the best in the country [Dale Youth’s David Adeleye beat Balham’s Courtney Gillard].”
Ted has no doubts he made the right move in 2016. “None of us could ever go back to England Boxing under its current rules. There’s no democracy, with edicts handed down from AIBA. You get so much paperwork.
“The Alliance is here to stay. We concentrate on the grass roots. England Boxing look after the elite – but with no grass roots, you’ll never have an elite.”
One Alliance member with no regrets about his decision to leave England Boxing is Clive Hogben, for many years the main man at Kettering School of Boxing.
“I’m very, very happy,” he says. “I talk to friends in England Boxing and everyone moans about it. Over there it’s all for participation figures. In England Boxing we had no say in the running of the sport. The Alliance wanted to continue the grass roots level.
“Our club still has three shows a year. We have to travel to Home Counties and London, but people want to make it work. It’s proper boxing people behind the Alliance.
“Four of our boxers left for England Boxing in October but, interestingly, haven’t had bouts yet. We’ve still got loads of kids in our gym. Everyone travels to get bouts but you get fresh clubs, a bigger choice of talent. There’s not so many boys to choose from, but much more cooperation.
“We had five national champions this year. There’s not the volume of competitors [in our
NO MATTER HOW GOOD THESE LADS ARE, THEY CAN NEVER NEVER BOX FOR THEIR COUNTRY”
championships] but at least our figures are correct and honest. England Boxing say they have all these clubs, but there are lots of walkovers and byes in their championships – so where are all their boxers?”
Hogben is definitely staying put with the Alliance: “We won’t go back to England Boxing. We have core values, the right ethos in the Alliance.”
More nuanced about the future is Mick Delaney, head coach at Dale Youth in London’s North Kensington. The club is famous for producing numerous champions including James Degale and George Groves
[pictured with Delaney in May, right], but a year ago was in the headlines for tragic reasons – the Grenfell Tower disaster destroyed its gym, based in the building’s first floor.
It now operates in a disused parking garage in Ladbroke Grove, while awaiting new premises a few minutes from Grenfell Tower.
“We’ll sit down in a few weeks and decide what to do,” says Delaney. “I’m not politically minded but sometimes I think, ‘Why have they done this?’
“There’s other big clubs around like the Lynn and Fitzroy Lodge, but come the championships you sometimes box only once or twice including finals. Basically, we’re boxing Finchley all the time because there’s no Northern clubs.
“Getting out on shows isn’t bad – we actually go to more now than when we were with England Boxing! But my big bugbear is that good kids meet the same lad again, or get byes.” The issue is pressing because Dale have a good crop of young talent coming up, kids who need competition to fulfil their potential. Explains Delaney, “Next year we’ll have four promising boxers who will be 17 or 18. And there’s JP O’meara, 19, a lightweight who got beat in our senior championships final by a kid who’s been around a long time, Charlie Harrison of Fitzroy Lodge. Harrison nicked a good bout on the last round.” Dale also have a superheavyweight hope in David Adeleye, who won the Alliance title in April. While the 20-year-old has potential – “he isn’t mature yet but he’s got power” reckons Delaney – he will struggle to be the next Anthony Joshua or Joe Joyce if his competitive horizons can’t be expanded. It’s something the highly respected Delaney acknowledges when he says: “No matter how good these lads are, they can never box for their country, that’s my bugbear. Their mums and dads feel the same way. “The Alliance said we’d get London versus Wales or Ireland, but it hasn’t gone on. The only ones suffering are the boys. They’re there to box.” By surviving two seasons, the Alliance has already confounded its gloomiest critics. If it lasts another two, it may find the whole landscape of the sport changed if boxing is booted out of the Olympics and wholesale changes to funding follow. These are interesting times for amateur boxing in England.