Former world super-middleweight champion Glenn Catley stepped back into the ring last night to give tips to young boxers in Yate.

Glenn, from Frampton Cotterell, was guest of honour at the official launch of the Yate branch of the Police and Community Amateur Boxing Club.

The club was started at Downend Boxing Club in 1998 by Police Community Support Officer Craig Turner.

Now his colleague Tony Bristow,  36, a PCSO in Yate, has started a branch which meets on Monday evenings at the Yate Outdoor Sports Centre in Broad Lane.

Among the youngsters who have taken up the sport is 10-year-old Alex Creese, from Yate, who said: “It’s really enjoyable.  It’s one of my favourite sports.”

Becky Henley, 13, is also a member of the growing  club. 

She said: “I wanted to learn how to box. One of my friends  boxes and it made me think I would like to do it too.”

Glenn, 36, said: “When I was young all my mates used to watch Match of the Day and I would stay up to watch Saturday Fight Night.

“A friend of my father’s used to take his son to the Empire Sports Club in Bristol to box and eventually he took me as well.  I took to it like a duck to water. Not only does boxing instil fitness, it instils confidence, discipline and respect – there’s no greater sport to instil discipline.”

Some 20 youngsters aged 10 to 15 attend junior training sessions and a dozen older boys have taken up the sport.

Mr Bristow, who lives in Chepstow, trained as an Amateur Boxing Association tutor so he could coach the youngsters.

He said: “We got talking to the kids in the local parks and a common theme was that there was nothing for them to do. There was a big ‘yes’ from everybody when we suggested a boxing club. We scrounged a ring from the Downend club and have had a lot of help from the local community.”

The youngsters are also getting expert help from former Scottish international Bob Munro, 33, from Yate, and Mr Turner, 34, who took up the sport as a boy after being bullied at school.

He said:  “Boxing benefits young people in so many ways.

“There’s a natural instinct to compete and it’s better to do so in a disciplined way rather than out on the streets.”