CANVEY Amateur Boxing Club boss Terry Dainty believes things are looking up for the organisation as it celebrates its 60th anniverary.

The last decade has seen the club move to a string of different locations but Dainty is confident the club is heading in the right direction again as it marks its diamond jubilee.

“We had a lot of success in the eighties, nineties and early part of this century,” said Dainty, who has been with the club for 40 years.

“Over the last eight or nine years we have moved gyms a lot and ended up being shunted around, which affected us.

“But we have been at our current gym on Charfleets Industrial Estate for two years now and it has given the club a new lease of life.”

The club was formed in 1954, a year after the floods on Canvey, and held its first show at the Bay Club in 1955, where fighters on the card included former professional John McKenna in a schoolboy contest and Bert Smith, who went on to run Blue House ABC.

Canvey ABC grew in the 1960s and produced Essex, Eastern Counties and East London middweight champ Mic Cain, who also turned professional.

When Waterside Farm Sports Centre opened in the 1970s, the club moved there for 10 years before returning to its former home at The Barn.

The club spent 20 years at the venue and it was during this period that it had much of its success, with 21 national schools finalists, 10 junior ABA finalists, 16 NABC ABA finalists, 18 PLA senior finalists and 14 senior ABA semi-finalists.

And Andy O’Rawe, Leed Woolcock, Darren Humphries, Georgie Smith, Darren Dainty, Matt Woodcraft, Jack Gillingwater, Jamie O’Rawe and Aaron Dainty all went on to represent England at international level.

One of the club’s proudest moments was when Woodcraft became the first boxer from the Eastern Counties region to win a British ANA title in 1992.

And last December current Canvey boxer Michaela Aubrey followed in his footsteps by winning the national 54kg final after being inspired by watching the sport at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The club is based at 1A Runwood Road, Canvey, and is open most evenings. Contact Terry Dainty on 07757 050223 for more information.