Amateur Boxing Scotland staged the first ever amateur boxing
event at St. Andrew’s Sporting Club last night, which saw a Scotland select
emerge with a narrow 3-2 victory over a very strong English team.
The Scotland select featured hopefuls for the 2014 Commonwealth
Games in Glasgow such as Joe Ham, Scott Forrest, Mark McKeown and Josh Taylor.
Lochend ABC’s Lewis Benson also featured for Scotland.
The evening started with the Bantam-weight 56kg boxers and
saw Renfrewshire ABC’s Joe Ham take on England’s Alimaan Hussain. Joe started
the contest very strong with fast flurries of combination punches to head and
body, good head movement and a very tight defence, when required. The round ended
with Joe Ham in a 5-2 lead.
Round two went very much the same as the first, and, although
Hussain tried to put the pressure on, Ham managed to keep it tight and ended
the round on the front foot, cruising into a 13-5 lead by the end of round two.
Round three saw much of the same but this time Ham started
the round on the front foot and carried on to finish it that way. Hussain was
visibly tiring due to Ham’s work rate and in the end was convincingly beaten
19-9 when the final bell sounded.
Scotland 1-0 England
The second contest saw Springhill’s Middle-weight Scott
Forrest take on England’s John Newell in a bruising encounter with both of boys
giving there all. The first round saw a fast start from Newell, landing some
good counter punches as Forrest stalked him round the ring. By the end of the
first round, Newell’s cleaner punches told with him going in 4-2 up by the end
of it.
Forrest came on strong in the second round, forcing his
opponent back and landing some good shots. Forrest took the second round 4-3 to
make the overall score 7-6 to Newell with one round remaining.
Forrest started the third round on the front foot and kept
the pressure on throughout. After a brave effort, he was unlucky to lose out by
just one point in a contest that could have gone either way. This was another
very well matched bout and that showed through in the scoring with only one
point separating the two at the end of round three, with Newell running out a
10-9 winner.
Scotland 1-1 England
The third contest of the evening was an all action affair
with the Barn ABC’s Mark McKeown taking on English prospect and counter puncher
Jake Slater at Light-weight. Both boys started very quickly with Slater going
straight on the back foot to avoid the pressure of the advancing McKeown.
Slater landed the first clean blows of the round as McKeown took a minute or so
to settle into his rhythm, but once McKeown found his rhythm and timing, he
went on to score some excellent shots, taking the first round 6-5.
Round two saw the same format with Slater on the back foot
looking to catch Mark on his way in. This worked well a couple of times in the
early stages of the round to gain Slater some good points. However, the persistence,
strength and determination of McKeown saw him over power and outfox Slater
toward the end of the round to claw it back to 6-6 and to lead 12-11 overall.
The third round started with very much the same but McKeown
had clearly found his timing and his range by now and was scoring with almost
every attack. He carried this pace right to the end to gain a well deserved
victory and put Scotland 2-1 up on the night.
Scotland 2-1 England
Bout four of the night was between Lochend ABC’s
Light-welter weight Lewis Benson and England’s Tabs Simmamandie. This was
another very well matched contest and that showed through in the scoring with
only a count back able to separate them at the end.
After a very close first round and some fine counter
punching from Benson on the back foot for the whole round, he had gained himself
a 4-3 lead.
Simmamandie kept the pressure on right through the second
round and landed some very good shots in reply to Benson’s counter punching
tactics. When the bell went to end the round, the only thing separating the boxers
was Bensons point lead from the first round, as the second round finished 4-4,
8-7 overall.
Simmamandie started round three as he had started round one,
on the front foot and Benson was finding it difficult to keep him at distance
as he had in the first round. The Englishman’s constant pressure told in the
end, as he managed to win the round 5-4, making the overall score 12-all but
the computer declared Simmamandie the winner after a count back.
Scotland 2-2 England
The final bout of the evening and the one everyone had been
waiting for featured Delhi 2010 silver medallist Josh Taylor against a very experienced
and capable Robbie Davies. This was a fast paced encounter with both boys
starting off in the south paw stance, which made for a very tactical first
round. Davies took the first round 2-1, as he seemed to find his rhythm quicker
than Taylor and landed some good clean shots as Taylor tried to put the
pressure on.
Taylor came out with more purpose in the second round and noticeably
more head movement, which paid dividends when attacking. Not only was he making
Davies miss during the round but he was starting to make him pay for those
misses. Although he was on the front foot for most of the round, Taylor was
drawing shots from Davies and landed some excellent shots on the counter to
take the round 7-3, which put him in an overall lead of 8 points to 5.
Round three, again saw some excellent tactical boxing from
both boys with each of them switching occasionally from south paw to orthodox
and back again to look for openings and draw their opponents lead. Taylor won the round 3-2 to take the decision
11-7 overall. Scotland win 3-2 on the night to take the Road to Glasgow 2014
Cup.
Scotland 3-2 England
The evening was a great success and went down very well with
the St. Andrew’s members and guests. ABS Chairman Richard Thomas presented
Tommy Gilmour with a gift to thank him for inviting ABS to hold the first ever
amateur boxing event at the St. Andrew’s Sporting Club.
