AN amateur boxing club will look the part when members visit Canada on what is likely to be their last ever long haul tour.

Spennymoor Boxing Academy has spent two years fundraising to send 16 players and officials to Toronto on Monday, May 25.

The week-long trip will include a rigorous training regime and tournaments in Kitchener, at Lennox Lewis’s arena where they hope to meet the star, and in Montreal.

Other experiences will include visiting the CN Tower, a police department and an Amish village and meeting Canadian parliamentarians.

Spennymoor-based sportswear firm Avec, whose owner Peter Crawford went to King Street Junior School with club founder and head coach Robert Ellis, has sponsored them and donated a new strip.

Mr Crawford said: “This association has been in place for many years and is founded on the enthusiasm and inspiration of Robert.

“We wish Robert and his team every success.”

The club has a tradition of touring overseas and has visited Australia, New Zealand, America, Sweden and Singapore but it has become more difficult to arrange and raise the money needed. Mr Ellis and wife Diane, who works behind the scenes, say this year’s will be the club’s last long haul trip but they hope to enter European tournaments in future.

Mr Ellis said: “This will be a trip of a lifetime for our boxers, some have never been out the country before.

“We hope to do everybody proud in Canada and thank them for their support, we do improve young people’s lives through this amazing sport.”