being staged inside the Lawrence ABC boxing gym, Lymington, Hampshire. We greatly appreciate the efforts of Lawrence ABC who made everyone welcome - A great effort on their part, but was this a prestigious enough venue for later rounds of national competition?

Furthermore at this stage of the competition computer scoring is compulsory and yet, was not available on the day, which was a huge disappointment as there is no way of knowing how judges are scoring the bout round by round and therefore gauge what needs to be adapted to ensure victory. Again we greatly appreciate the efforts of the officials who give their time freely, as without them the sport would simply die, but again questions remain!

The bout itself was very close, Dan adopted a very pro style, working on the inside trying to assert his age and strength against a slightly out of salts Jake, who was fighting a bug he had picked up in the gym, that developed into flu the very next day, keeping him out of training for the next 3 weeks.

For his part Jake pushed himself to his absolute limit and displayed superb boxing skill to land clean shots, and defy fatigue to come on even stronger in the later rounds.

At the end of the bout we believed our boxer was progressing to the semi final but 2 of the 3 judges didn't agree and Dan was awarded victory by a majority points decision - Simply put "We were all gutted!".

Our hope for Dan was that he went on to win the competition, and after beating Karl Barnes in his semi final 14 - 4 he was looking good, but unfortunately he fell at the last hurdle, losing to Paul Pearce of Brambles Farm ABC in the final.

Well done Jake you did yourself and your club proud - It's not a matter of "if" but "when" your dedication takes you to the very top!

Earlsfield ABC Show - 18th Dec 2008

Steve Hill and Ben White were matched on the Earlsfield ABC show held Saturday 18th Dec 2008.

Steve was first to box against Chris Vian of South Norwood and Victory ABC - Pictured below.

After a bright start, where at times Steve looked superb, a lack of consistent training since his Junior ABA Final appearance started to catch up with Steve and he started to fade.

Vian the fitter of the two boys worked doggedly to force his way back into the bout and soon pulled back Steve's early advantage and went onto win a tightly contested bout on points.

Ben White had a long wait before his bout with home favourite Jack Brayer of home club Earls field ABC, Ben is pictured below getting some last minute adjustments to his gloves.

Jack started much the better of the two lads with fast combinations to both head and body that were scoring well, however it was soon obvious that all was not well with Ben, who looked sluggish and weak, compared to his normal bullish self.

Ben rallied in the 2nd round forcing himself forward stopping Brayer in his tracks with a great body shot but was unable to capitalise as Jack used good footwork to give himself time to catch his breath before finishing the round with a strong rally.

By the 3rd Ben was struggling for breath and although he caught Jack with a solid uppercut in the 4th, it was Brayer who was controlling the action. Jack won the bout on points.

As for Ben, a visit to the doctor the very next morning confirmed that Ben had a chest infection having caught the dreaded bug circling our gym at that time, that had seen over 50% of our boxers knocking at the chemist's door.

Take a well deserved break Ben and get back to full health before the championships in January.

All at Hastings Westhill ABC we wish you a:

"Happy Xmas and a successful New Year"