Issue #7

Welcome to issue #7 of Hastings Westhill ABC's newsletter.

The newsletter is published on an, as and when basis so check back to our web site www.westhill-boxing.com on a regular basis .

We are always happy to publish editorials from guest authors, so if you wish to assist us with this newsletter, simply email your suggestions to info@westhill-boxing.com

A slightly changed format for our first newsletter of 2007 as we have so much to catch up on and much to report. It has been a busy start to the New Year, however before we report on 2007 let's round off 2006, which certainly ended with a bang.

As reported in Issue #6 we held our Home show on December 9th 2006 at the ATHA Sports Centre, Bexhill-on-Sea - It was a huge success!

With 15 thumping bouts contested between lads from 12 separate amateur boxing clubs we felt the show deserved a report all of it's own - Click here for full details

Moving on, 2007 - You will notice that we have not included any guest editorials this month or any additional features, don't worry it's just a one off.

We have much to offer but are concentrating solely on reporting club activities in this issue as it is has been a while since our last issue.

One service, you can look forward toward, that will be launched in the near future is:

"Ask The Ref"

Referee brothers Rees and Peter Hopcraft will be on hand to answer all your questions.

Send your questions via email to:

info@westhill-boxing.com

Keep it clean please :-)

All suitable questions and answer will be detailed in upcoming additions of this newsletter.

Boxing Action & Results

The first action of the year involving Westhill boxers, three in total, took place at Fairfields in Croydon where first up, James "Paddy" McMahon unanimously out-pointed Ricky Stevens of New Addington.

James was to soon follow up this, his first victory, in style as detailed later in this issue.

Club captain Barry Buchanan, put everything into the last round of his contest with Earlsfields Aaron Khan, but couldn't do enough to pull back the deficit of points that Aaron had built up in the first 2 rounds, and lost on a majority.

Trainer Paul Martin described Barry's last round performance as "storming". Both Paul and Barry hope there will be the opportunity of a rematch in the near future.

Last but not least was light heavyweight Adam Haniver who completed a 3 fight series with Honour Oak ABC's Diego Burton, earning a hard fought but extremely satisfying victory.

The two boxers had fought twice previously. Adam took victory in their first encounter before Diego took victory in a return bout in front of Adam's home crowd at the Westhill Home show in December.

With honours even the third fight lived up to expectation, and Adam dug deep to take victory in style. Both boxers should be commended as all three bouts were of the highest quality.

Next Up - Margate

Dave Warren was the lone Westhill representative to box at Birchington Hall, Margate.

Dave suffered his first defeat at the hands of Grange ABC's Jack Beeby.

It was a hotly contested bout and either boxer could easily have been given the nod but the judges tipped the balance to Jack via majority decision.

Dave was gracious in defeat, an example we encourage and applaud at the Westhill saying "No complaints, I wish Jack well, if he is up for it I would love a rematch sometime in the future"

Next Up - Crawley Jnr Show

We at the Westhill ABC are great admirers of the efforts and accomplishments of Crawley ABC and particularly George Brown and Paddy Harmey, as they are part of a team that tirelessly organise events for and run Southern Counties Boxing, therefore it was our great pleasure to have four junior boxers appear on the 28th Jan on the Crawley Junior Show, held at the Ifield Community Centre.

Crawley local and former boxer Andy Watson, detailed the day's events for the local press as follows: -

Crawley ABC served a Sunday afternoon treat for junior boxers at Ifield CC. Best winner for the Crawley lads was tall Brian Keveny who stopped Jamie Harbut (City of Portsmouth) in the third.

Keveny looked very awkward but turned his jab into lead hooks very well in the first. Harbut’s nose bleed profusely in the second as Brian kept him on the end of long stinging jabs and the odd solid right thrown in for good measure. Harbut tired in the last as Brian continued to land hard jabs. Further bleeding led to ref Rees Hopcraft waving the bout over with about thirty seconds remaining.

Brothers Cameron and Hayden Bulloch experienced mixed fortunes on the day in their bouts..

Elder Cameron won a close hard fought battle with Kieran Hale from Epsom. Hale was dangerous with his head and both were desperately tired after two rounds. Cameron scored with the better punches in the last to seal his unanimous points victory. Hayden looked very unfortunate to losing a majority to Bill Jones of Seahaven. The stocky Bulloch landed solid jabs and many clean rights, even in the last when both were tired. The decision went against Hayden just a week after winning his debut.

Chris Hood won a very close decision over Jeff Darcy of Portsmouth Stacey. Hood kept composed and landed the cleaner scoring shots on Darcy who applied pressure for the whole bout.

Recent National Golden Belt champion George Chapman won a close decision over Michael Smith of Guildford City.

Bout of the night was between local debutante James Haughan (Keystone) and Enrik Rrukaj of Hastings West Hill. Haughan was wild in the first landing solid body shots and forcing the Hastings lad into a hasty retreat.

Enrik showed terrific composure to come back in the second round with to land good right uppercuts even though under heavy pressure. Haughan was hurt by a big uppercut in the last for a standing count. The fitness of Enrik paved the way to a close but unanimous decision.

Billy Cooper of Crawley was a unanimous winner over arch-rival Neville Smith of Epsom. Billy won the day with cleaner jabbing although Smith never took a backward step.

Crawley’s Peter Murphy had a steep learning curve against the promising Liam Allaway of Bracknell. Allaway was just too tall and very busy, but Peter gave his all and will only learn from this one. Rapidly improving Callum Condon was very unlucky losing out on a majority to A Cunningham of Guildford.

Charlie Chapman was stopped in the first after being out-punched by the very strong Louie Syred of Horsham.

The Crawley ABC committee were very happy with the local turn out for the show with 21 bouts and all local junior boxers competing except Connor Sturt, whose opponent weighed in almost a stone too heavy.

Andy Watson

The three other Westhill boys to box were brothers Jesse and Frank Smith (Jesse is pictured above, and again below with brother Frank) and James "Paddy" McMahon.

Jesse Smith won his debut bout via a unanimous points verdict against J. Hearn of Adur, it was a proud day for father Bill who had waited 5 years to see Jesse join brothers Frank and James "Sid" box in the amateur ranks.

Jesse has a lot to live up to with older brothers Frank boasting a near perfect record and James"Sid" the present Golden Gloves champion, but Dave Bishop, Jesse's trainer was delighted with how Jesse handled the obvious expectation he carries, saying "Jesse was very relaxed, and did everything I instructed him to do, what more could I ask"

Less than a week later and Jesse had his 2nd victory when taking a majority points decision over tough Kingsley Stembridge to reach the final of the Southern Counties minors under 34kg competition held at Aldershot. Read on to see how he faired in the final.

Frank "Stockings" Smith, was next up at Ifield and battled hard to earn a unanimous points victory over strong opponent P. McCarthy of Keystone ABC. It was a great bout said Frank's trainer Gary White who remains delighted with Frank's continued progress.

Frank will soon be boxing in the Golden Gloves pre 1/4 final after a walkover through the Southern County stages - Good luck Frank.

Fresh from his first win as detailed above James "Paddy" McMahon went one step better at Ifield and stopped his opponent A. Sapley of Foley ABC in style - It was a strong accomplished performance, well done Paddy!

Next Up - Golden Gloves

Saturday 10th February and two West Hill boys were contending area finals.

Jesse Smith as detailed previously had won through to the final of the under 34kg Southern Counties minors competition against Martin McDonagh of Sheerness.

While Ollie Bristow (pictured left) was in the final of the under 63kg (Class 3 / born 1992) regional Golden Gloves final against Shaun Cole of Guildford City ABC - it was a day of mixed fortunes!

Jesse continued his rich vein of form to secure the Southern Counties U34 Minors Championship after just 3 bouts with a near faultless display against a very accomplished and strong opponent winning 5 / 4 on the computer scoring system.

Ollie, one of the hardest working lads at the Westhill, was caught cold with a cracking shot - the very first of the fight.

Ollie true to form gave it his all like the Warrior he is, and tried to rally, but was unable on this occasion to recover in time and the bout was stopped - RSC1.

We at the Westhill would like to wish Shaun good luck in future rounds of the competition.