Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

'Touch gloves” will be the final call of instruction from the referee to the boxers entering combat at the Tauranga Boxing Club tournament this Saturday.

The weekend pathways boxing tournament will mix together youngsters having their first or second fight, with nervous family members ringside.

The more experienced counterparts will be seeking to put another a W in their competition record book on the night.

Boxing in our city has roots that reach back more than a century.

A Bay of Plenty Times report dated August 16, 1911, stated that a meeting for the 'purpose of establishing a Boxing Club in Tauranga, was held in Messrs Norris and Bells rooms last night”.

Sixteen people were present at the meeting, which elected Mr W Herries MP (Member of Parliament) as the inaugural president of the new boxing establishment.

It was decided that the entrance fee would be two shillings and sixpence and that members contribute sixpence per week if in attendance.

It was further decided to procure rule books and that all non-members be excluded from the boxing room.

While 1911 is a milestone in pugilism in our city, it's likely that the noble art had its original roots with the British militia that were stationed in Tauranga during the New Zealand Wars in the 1860s.

Amateur tournaments interspersed with professional contests flourished through the thirties and forties.

The end of World War 2 saw boxing gymnasiums reopen, with Tom McCord (proprietor of Tauranga Plumbing) giving good instruction to many likely candidates.

During the 1950s, Bob Thomas and new arrival Chris Easterbrook were active in the training ranks.

Easterbrook later returned to the sport in his late 70s, and there were plenty of moist eyes, after he trained Don Giles to win the New Zealand Heavyweight title in Invercargill in 2004, at 83 years of age.

Gib Roper became a local boxing legend through the 60s to the 80s, training out of his Waimapu sawmill near Yatton Park.

In more recent times, Peter Flurety, Denny Enright and Pat Bishop have had stints mentoring local boxers, with current Tauranga Boxing Club coach Chris Walker clocking up 20 years training in Tauranga.

Just three Nationals champions in Gerry Simms (1958), Dave Black (1960), and Daryll Leabourn (1991) emerged in Tauranga, before the floodgates opened with the arrival of Coach Walker.

Ariane Nicholson has won three senior national titles, while Kelly Woolrich, Anthony Taylor and Dave Aloua have all experienced double senior title success.

Justin Potters Oceania title and Katie Flyger and Michelle Nuku's dual success, are more indicators of huge success of the TBC boxing mentor.

Coach Walker's attention to developing age-group boxers has seen Hannah Walker, Michael Crossa and Te Kehu Kerr all win youth national boxing titles.

Tauranga Boxing Club, under the tutelage of Chris Walker, never rests on its laurels, with the main purpose of hosting the Western Bay of Plenty amateur event to provide another step on the pathway of development for the clubs emerging boxers.

It's expected that up to eight TBC boxers will receive a big base of home-town support when they step into the ring at TGA Box Health and Fitness on Waihi Road on Saturday.