THE mystery saviour of Poole Sports Centre has been revealed as a fund managed by financial company AXA.

And sport will continue unchanged after it bought the threatened centre and leased it back to Wessex Sports Trust, which has operated it for more than 35-years.

It has been hailed as "a good deal for the people of Poole," by Nigel Williams, chief executive of the trust.

Lengthy negotiations have been underway since the spring, when relieved staff were told there was a deal on the table.

The popular sports centre had been threatened with closure from the end of March if a "knight in shining armour" did not come forward.

The three-floor purpose built leisure centre at Poole's Dolphin Shopping Centre with its 60-year lease was put on the market for £975,000 and there were seven or eight expressions of interest.

Providing sport and classes for around 1,000 people a day, the ailing fitness centre had been subsidised by its sister Broadstone centre for five-years. Trustees decided this could not continue but the threatened closure provoked an outcry from users desperate to keep playing badminton and volleyball, five-a-side football, the gym, attending yoga and judo or children's parties.

The trust now has a lease for at least 20 years, achieved a sale price of over £1m and all jobs have been safeguarded.

The transaction was handled by Poole commercial property agents Sibbett Gregory and Dickinson Manser Solicitors.

Mr Williams said: "It was worth waiting for. It's a satisfactory conclusion to a very protracted and great deal of negotiation.

"In the end we achieved the overall preferred option, the asking price was there and really as far as the public were concerned there is no change," he said.

He said there was now a schedule of works for maintenance and refurbishment of the centre, which opened in 1969.

Roy Carder, secretary of Dorset Badminton, one of the largest users of the centre, who launched an action group to save it said: "Dorset Badminton is delighted to learn that badminton will continue and sport is safe in Poole Sports Centre."