CARDENDEN Boxing Club celebrates 100 years of producing quality fighters for the Scottish amateur scene next weekend.

The club will hold a special centenary dinner at Bowhill Community Centre at 7pm on Saturday night.

The development of the club was closely aligned with the pits of the ABCD villages and long time club secretary and former Scottish champion, Bill Burns, has been busy over the past few months ensuring everything is in place for this weekend.

Said Bill, who is co-organising the evening with President George McIntyre and treasurer Sharon Abercrombie: "Boxing as we know it began in the village in 1919 just after the First World War and became an active part of the community and was a solid place for young people to learn the skills of the noble art.

"This was due to the total commitment of a few dedicated volunteers both as coaches and officials and included Kenny Herd, Jimmy Gardiner, Tom Carruthers, John Mitchell, Peter Munn and many more.

"However, without the support of the local coal fields it might never have progressed.

"Within Fife there were a total of ten clubs all supported by the local pits and the local club was known as Bowhill Miners Welfare Boxing Club and was affiliated to the Scottish Amateur Boxing Association and this was the case until the early 1960s."

As the miners clubs developed local championships came about under the banner of the Fife and Clackmannan Miners Boxing Championships. However, as the local pits started to close in the 1960s families began to move to the English coalfields.

The local club still operated during this difficult time and produced many champions.

The club had continued to develop over the years and produced a huge amount of championship boxers at District level, national level and even some participated at the Commonwealth Games.

The gym at this time was at the Old Miners Institute, in Main Street, next to the cemetery and was part of the youth club, which at that time was run by volunteers.

The Boxing Club became the main thrust of fundraising running boxing shows in the Miners Institute and then dinner boxing shows at the Dean Park Hotel, Kirkcaldy.

At the dinner shows everyone got involved with many of the girls from the youth club running raffles and auctions and all cash raised went to the youth club funds.

Added Bill: "Over the years we built up contact with clubs from England and Ireland and at Saturday's event we will be delighted to welcome guests from St Mary's Boxing Club, Derry, Micky and John; and also Karl and friends from Bulkington Club in England.

"Over the years these clubs brought teams to Cardenden to compete and some great memories were made."

Among the championship winners, were Bill, who lifted the Scottish Light Middleweight title; Barry Laidlaw, the Scottish Light Middleweight title; Davey Adams, who win a Scottish title; Scottish Youth title winners, Joe Park and George McIntyre; while Pete Munn won an East District belt.

Those who won caps for Scotland were Bill Burns, Joe Park, Pete Munn and Jim Izzard.

TV presenter Billy Kay will be hosting Saturday's event when 200 people are expected including CABC members over many decades.