IT'S the purest sport. Two men in a ring trying to knock each other out with their fists, a minimum of rules, nothing between them but gloves - the fundamentals of boxing don't change. But at Lancaster's boxing club at the youth centre on Dallas Road, life long member Alan McCabe has witnessed a transformation in the atmosphere and techniques of the sport. Alan first entered the club more than 30 years ago and has been fighting, coaching and judging there ever since.

"It was all spit and sawdust in the early days," he remembers, "that was the smell of boxing then. And amateur boxing itself was different, they would stand toe to toe clocking each other full on, right until recent times.

"These days they come in when they're about 17, 18, or 19. In the old days they were younger, but the young ones are into all sorts now. We had one young lad coming in whose girlfriend had a baby when he was just 13. You don't want to come in boxing when you've those kind of things going on in your life at that age. But they're still coming, just a bit later."

Perhaps another change is the type of young fighters who come in to the club. Alan says the so-called hard men around town would always come in and find they couldn't lift their arms after hitting the heavy bag for more than a minute.

But these days young men from all walks of life find their way to the club. Men like Nick Watson, 20, a university law student.

"I didn't start until I was 17 and I did a bit of kick boxing. I think all that stuff about tough street kids getting into boxing is rubbish. They're just good lads here. No-one at the university has ever seemed really surprised when it comes up that I'm into boxing. They just look at my nose and go: 'ah!'"

Lancaster lad Adam Bearse, 14 and a pupil at Morecambe High School, also doesn't fit in to any kind of Rocky style, street fighting image.

He said: "I just came to get fit at first and then I got into it more and more.

It's just good fun, a sport like any other."

Boxing a fun, harmless sport? Not quite, it's still about hitting things (and people) as hard as you possibly can. But at Dallas Road you can be sure laughter will be a sound of the hall along with the constant beating on the boxing bag.

Adam Bearse and Nick Watson square up to veteran boxer and coach Alan McCabe.

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