Mallow boxers take honours in county schoolboy championships
Churchfield in Cork City, widely regarded as the home of Cork boxing, was the venue for last weekend’s annual Cork County Schoolboy Championships.
The Duhallow Boxing Club were well represented at the popular event in various grades in the sport in which up to 28 clubs took part. The north Cork club had six entries with three taking county championship honours and two runners-up.
Three Mallow boxers, brothers Luke and Kenneth Buckley and Michael Walsh representing the Duhallow club, were in action on the day.
The Buckley brothers hail from a renowned Mallow boxing family. They are sons of Pa and Olive Buckley while their grandfather was the renowned Mallow boxer Dave Buckley, who sadly passed away just 12 months ago.
In the Boy 3-41.5 Kg section Michael Walsh was beaten by S. O’Reilly of Spartan BC in a hard fought bout.
In the Boy 2..59Kg, Joe McAuliffe got a walk-over and was crowned county champion.
In the Boy 1..59Kg Luke Buckley was beaten in the final by Joe O’Donnell from Charleville Boxing Club.
When it came to the Boy 3..52Kg final there was a short split in the Duhallow camp as club mates Kenneth Buckley and Liam O’Leary faced each other in the ring. Duhallow head coach Dave Cotter and his wife Sheila were in the Buckley corner while Duhallow chairman Declan Barrett and Tony Sheehan supported O’Leary.
The outcome was a county title for the Mallow man.
Tim O’Sullivan, president of the Cork Ex-Boxers Association, said that old boxing families are increasingly coming back to the sport in the form of grandsons and grandnephews of many of the greats of the sport.