AN amateur boxing club is planning an overseas tour for members to broaden their horizons while representing their home town abroad.

Spennymoor Boxing Academy will take ten boxers, aged 13 up to seniors, and a team of club officials on a nine day trip to Kitchener, in Canada, next May.

They will train and compete with a host club as well as visiting an Amish village, an Indian reservation and Niagara Falls.

Head coach Robert Ellis said: “This will be a great experience for our selected boxers, many of whom would never get the opportunity to travel never mind represent our community in an amazing country like Canada.

“The selection process was difficult as we have a gym filled with talent.

“This is not a holiday for them and the lead up to the date will mean vigorous training regimes as well as a very strict itinerary once over there.

“We will however find time between training and boxing to broaden their horizons and show them different cultures.”

Touring abroad is a returning tradition for the club which has visited Australia, New Zealand, America, Sweden and Singapore but has struggled to fund such trips in recent times.

It had to cancel two tournaments last year and spent 18 months raising £9,000 to pay for flights, with the host club providing accommodation.

More fundraising is needed to pay for return travel to Manchester airport, meals and official strips.

Mr Ellis, who founded the Spennymoor Leisure Centre-based club in 1991, said he and his wife, Diane, spend endless unpaid hours organising the trips with vital support and generosity from the community.

He added: “I have been involved in boxing for 40 years now, 17 as a boxer and 23 as a coach.

“The desire to change people’s lives through this amazing sport is still as strong as ever but I must stress that all this hard work is not for financial gain as every hour we put in, along with our brilliant coaching staff, is voluntary.

“We know in this financial climate everyone is feeling the pinch and that is why we have not taken part in any huge tournaments, we do not want to take liberties with local people’s generosity.”

There will be an afternoon of boxing to raise funds at Spennymoor Leisure Centre, on Saturday, October 25, doors open at noon and 14 bouts of boxing begins at 1pm.

Pay on the door, £12 per person and £6 for under eights.