How Banknock's FCG Boxing Club recovered spectacularly after folding during coronavirus pandemic
Just six years on from setting up a temporary fight ring on grass behind Denny Sports Centre to try and rebuild from scratch, FCG Boxing Club supremo Gordon Dicker is delighted to report that the Banknock club – now affiliated to Boxing Scotland – is thriving with members winning medals at top competitions.
The current level of success has featured club member Alexa Moira Binnie, of Banknock, winning a novice schoolgirls 51kg silver medal at last year’s Scottish Championships in Motherwell. This was followed by her clubmates William Anderson (19 years novice) of Denny and Ethan Tiffney (17 years 65kg novice) of Dennyloanhead also winning silver medals in the Eastern District Boxing Championships at Grangemouth Stadium two months ago.
Yet these achievements are a far cry from the state the crisis-hit club – formerly called Fight Club Gym Strength and Fitness and run in Denny by Willie Airnes – was in when it folded during the coronavirus pandemic.
“We had to pack the club in during Covid,” head coach Dicker, a 42-year-old compressed air engineer from Denny who is now a level two boxing coach, told the Falkirk Herald. "But then we set up the boxing ring on the grass and five to 10 young boys took part in fights.
"We ended up hanging punch bags off the Portakabin and on the trees. I made up a boxing ring just out of cones and tape, and the fighting there only lasted two-and-a-half to three months.
"People just liked it for helping with their mental health during that difficult Covid era, just getting out and bonding.
"The young boys used to come down would ask if they could join in and I was like: ‘Aye, no problem’.
"I never took money off them or anything, it was just for them to join in and get a sense of community because there was nothing like that for them.
"It seemed to be a good way for a lot of young boys to channel their energy.
"But then the old gaffer Willie Airnes, who used to do the old club, came back and saw it all. He set a gym up with somebody in Banknock but that didn’t work out and it folded a year later.
"So I kept the club on and got it affiliated with Boxing Scotland, all through myself.
"And we’re now back based in Banknock, doing it as a voluntary service so all the money just goes back into the gym. That's why it's all really nice and clean and good.
"We've got a nice new floor put in, we've got a ring in that and we've got all the bags and everything.
"We have really promising novice fighters at the club. There's another eight-odd getting carded and there's two young boys that are pretty good in there as well.
"So we are competing at a good standard for being a new affiliated club.”
Although he doesn’t box any more, Dicker – who takes club training with Johnny – was formerly a semi-professional who fought in five non-card bouts between 2020 and 2022.
He added: “I have ADHD, some of the club members have ADHD and some have asthma, but we've built it all up to a very, very big family and everybody's friends with everybody.”