He has been a community legend in one of Bristol’s toughest estates for decades – so much so that when some new homes were built recently, they were named after him. And now Chris ‘Skemer’ Winters is hoping to expand and improve his offer to the young people of South Bristol, after moving his famous boxing club into bigger and better premises.
Skemer’s Gym is now on the top floor of a unit at the Novers Hill trading estate on the western end of Knowle West – overlooking the Malago Vale with Bedminster to the right and Hartcliffe up the hill to the left. It’s a perfect spot for a man with a passion for keeping kids out of trouble, and instilling generations of young people in South Bristol with courage and confidence to do anything from standing up to bullies to getting that place at college, but also with self-discipline and teamwork that comes from being in the world of boxing.
It’s a mission that, after the events of 2024 have proved more than ever, is still just as badly needed in South Bristol as when Skemer set up his first gym in a space at the Park Centre in Knowle West more than a decade ago.
He was forced out by that centre’s redevelopment and for five years was based at the Jubilee Hall at the bottom of Wedmore Vale, in the area between Knowle and Bedminster. Now, he’s moving up in the world – literally and geographically, to the first floor of a unit at Novers Hill, with a bigger and better gym than ever before.
His good friend Edwin Reed moved into the premises earlier last year and created 81 Gym, a fitness, weights and lifting gym. When Skemer was looking for somewhere new, Edwin offered the upstairs, and the location and setting is perfect.
Scores of young people from across South Bristol head to Skemers boxing gym every week. The new premises has a community cafe too, open all day and into the evenings, feeding the parents and their youngsters, as well as workers in the neighbouring units.
“It’s pretty much perfect. The parents have somewhere to hang out, have a cup of tea, and they can watch their kids in the classes, and then we can do everyone some tea at very reasonable prices, if I say so myself,” said Skemer.
The boxing dynasty is in good shape. After a not too shabby amateur career of his own, Skemer’s son Duane is recently retired from a pro career. Nicknamed ‘the Gasman’, he fought in blue and white Rovers quarters. Now, Skemer’s grandson McKenzie Hand is on the cusp of turning a promising spell as a junior amateur into something more serious.
But for Skemer, it’s about something more important than fights and boxing careers, and he said his boxing gym is like every other one in the country, with one main mission.
“It’s about giving them something to look forward to, you know what I mean?” he said. “That’s the main thing, you’ve got to give them something to look forward to ‘oh, I’ve got to go to boxing tonight, and when they get a bit older, it’ll just be their natural way of life and when they’ve got children, they will naturally just take that child into the gym, and it’ll be their way of life, instead of being a way of life, say, on the streets. If I was to change 50 or 60 kids’ lives, these 50, 60 kids, when they get older, they’ll have their own kids, and their own grandkids and it’ll just come down the tree, like that.
“You’ve got to be disciplined, it does, it disciplines you, and it gives you so much confidence as well, so when you go to school, I find that when they go to school, they’re better at their work, and when they get to 16, 17, they go for these job interviews, or they go to college, because they’ve got confidence, because a boxing club will give you so much confidence.
“When they first walk through the door, they’re little scared rabbits, they’re thinking that all they see on the TV is two men or two women going in a boxing ring on the telly, and having a fight, punching the hell out of each other, but they don’t see what they’ve done for years and years and years before they got to that stage. Everybody starts from zero.”
A lot of the talk in South Bristol has been about the ‘postcode rivalry’ that has been a motivation for much of the tragedy and trouble. It’s something Skemer has no time for at all – in his boxing gym everyone from all over is one big family. “We’ve got kids from Withywood, Stockwood, Knowle, Hartcliffe and Bedminster, they are all coming to the gym and hopefully it will break it and they will never have that postcode rivalry, because they are mates in the gym. It’s stupid, postcode wars, what a load of rubbish, fighting over a postcode,” he said, disdainfully.
“Every boxing club in the whole of England is for one thing – keeping those kids off the streets. It doesn’t matter what boxing club you join, as long as you enjoy it, and when you walk out of the gym you’re happy – that’s what matters at the end of the day. We’re not just boxing coaches, we’re like a second parent, like a second auntie or uncle, we’re like a social worker.
“Some of these kids come in here and they tell me everything – what’s going on in their personal lives at home. I’ve had them crying, I’ll give them a cuddle, I’ll listen. I’ve had kids come into the gym and say to me: ‘I’m frightened to go out on the street, can I come to the gym because I don’t want to hang around with my mates any more, I want to change.
“When you’re in the gym, you’re safe. It’s the safest place to be, in a boxing club, because when you walk through that door, it’s a boxing club family. Everybody is there to look after everybody,” he added.
Skemer has big plans for his new home – including securing grants to extend the mezzanine level above the gym below to expand the area in the long term, and in the short term – starting this month, muay thai kick boxing classes every Tuesday and Thursday, from three-times world champion Johnny Para.
“The bigger it gets, the more kids can come in, and that’s the aim,” he said. “I work my b******s off every day and put every penny into the gym. Who else is going to do it?”