Member Article

North East fitness club set to expand following All Blacks visit

North-East fitness club CrossFit DL2 is set to expand on the back of hosting rugby world champions, the New Zealand All Blacks, for five days.

The club helped to provide a training base for New Zealand during the build-up to their pool match victory over Tonga at the Northern Echo Arena.

Now, as the All Blacks prepare for this weekend’s showdown with rivals Australia in the World Cup final, the fitness gym has announced plans to extend the gym to meet increasing demand.

Based in the Arena as part of Darlington Mowden Park’s impressive facilities at Darlington Football Club’s former ground, work is set to begin to increase CrossFit DL2’s existing gym by 2,000 square metres to more than 6,000 square metres.

Managing director Joanne McCue Bannatyne has built up the membership of the CrossFit box from zero to nearly 200 since opening the facility at the Arena just two years ago.

The CrossFit box played a key role for the All Blacks during their five-day stay in Darlington when they used the Arena as their daily training base.

Joanne said: “To be right at the centre of the World Cup with arguably the world’s most iconic sports team was just incredible.

“It has given us the confidence to expand, knowing that arguably the world’s most iconic sports team chose our gym over any other fitness facility they could have chosen. For the All Blacks to choose us just confirms the ever-increasing confidence in CrossFit.

“We planned the expansion before hosting the All Blacks and actually had to postpone the work to avoid disrupting their training sessions. But we are now starting our expansion work in fantastically positive spirits as everyone is still on a high after hosting the All Blacks.

“We’re expanding to meet the demand from our ever-increasing membership numbers from Darlington and the surrounding areas, but we’re now experiencing a surge of interest on the back of the All Blacks visit.”

Previously a director of Bannatyne’s Health Clubs, Joanne runs four other North-East CrossFit centres with ex-Marine Lee Howe, along with a new WattFitness gym chain in Ingleby Barwick and at Middlesbrough Sports Village.

But Joanne, who will be attending Twickenham to shout New Zealand on in the final, believes hosting the All Blacks will help DL2 make a great leap forward.

“It was a privilege to host them and they were all such gentleman. Despite being focused on their World Cup campaign, they had time for all the staff and everyone they met, inviting us to watch them train every day.

“To see the level of attention they give to performing the basics well is what separates them from the rest. They also took time out to tell us that they thought we had a really cool CrossFit facility, which was great to hear. They loved it.

“All of the All Blacks use CrossFit as a key part of their strength and conditioning training wherever they go, as it’s perfect for working on the upper body strength and explosive power that are so integral to rugby.

“But I had some particularly great conversations with brothers Ben and Owen Franks, who co-own four CrossFit boxes back in New Zealand. They were full of compliments about the great set-up we have here.

“We not only exchanged ideas but also exchanged CrossFit T-shirts, which is a convention among CrossFit facilities.”