Boxing clever for Nairn club
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A Nairn boxing club has found an ingenious way to continue to support young people within the lockdown restrictions.
Bobby Russell of Jacobite Boxing Club has joined forces with one of his business neighbours David Douglas from North of Scotland Marquees to create what he believes is Scotland's first, and only, outside boxing club.
Days into the venture Mr Russell is already seeing results.
Mr Russell said: "This is a tremendous step forward.
"It is certainly a first for Nairn, and possibly Scotland - we have an outdoor boxing club.
"Thanks go to the outstanding and incredible support and understanding from David and Sharon Douglas of North of Scotland Marquees, we are able to lead the way in supporting our club members.
"To have a marquee set up for the club is a game changer, having an area that is weather-proofed and outdoors will benefit all the members.
"We will be open and supporting young people eight weeks before we could be if we were only able to meet indoors.We will run the club outdoors, and to protect us from the weather we will have the marquee.
"With this superb initiative we are not only getting back to some sort of normality as the Covid restrictions ease - but we are supporting young people who might otherwise get into trouble, as we have seen in recent weeks in Nairn.
"Let's make sure we are all continuing to be Covid safe - but let's start building up again."
He continued: "The last few weeks have been particularly hard. Not only for me - but for everyone.
"So this is the best news I can imagine."
Mr Douglas from North of Scotland Marquees said: "I was down at the business last week when the outdoor boxing club was taking place, they had only been there a matter of minutes when they had to be sent home because of the weather.
"The pandemic has been a struggle for everyone and when we saw these young people turned away it was really sad to watch.
"When Bobby approached us to support him we were delighted to do so. It is great to see our young people motivated and able to get out to doing something positive under cover. And it is great to see a local business able to keep going as the lockdown restrictions lift."
Another Nairn business, Hydrainer Pumps has also provided flood lights to allow the club to meet in the evenings.
