STREETS AHEAD

Roy Kelly sees Green and Corrie secure shutout victories

STUART HALL’S retirement may, on paper, have left a void in Darlington boxing, but the town looks fighting fit thanks to John Green and Ellis

Corrie. Both excelled on the North East’s 2019 curtain-raiser when Steve Wraith promoted what, sadly, turned out to be only a three-bout card.

Coach Peter Shepperson and manager Wraith have title aspirations for Green, who returned to the ring in 2018 after a three-year hiatus. His comeback took another step forward with a 60-54 shutout of Stockport’s Jamie Quinn from refereefor-the-night Ron Kearney. Green [right] seemed to have a sizeable proportion of his hometown of Middlesbrough behind him at the Dolphin Centre, and with them cheering every blow, he went off at a rapid pace, working to head and body. Quinn did get through with one right-left in the second but, otherwise, it was all Green. In his previous sporting life, Corrie had been able to use punches, kicks, elbows and knees in the Muay Thai arena, but now he looks an expert with just his fists as he produced four masterful rounds against Hyde’s

Dale Arrowsmith. The local 21-year-old set a high tempo throughout and never missed once, his lefts to the head and rights to the body proving particularly effective in a 40-36 success. While stablemate Corrie swapped one fighting discipline for another, boxing is a totally different ‘ball game’ for

Daryll Hall, a well-known North East semi-pro footballer with a Wembley cup final on his CV. Given the Spennymoor man had won his first fight by KO and only two of Taha Mirhosseini’s (Manchester via Iran) seven contests had reached the end, this four-rounder looked unlikely to require the final bell. But it did go all the way, with Daryll producing the more attractive stuff for a 39-37 verdict.

THE VERDICT Green and Corrie look set for an immediate step up in class on the basis of these dominant victories.