‘PEOPLE NEED SOMEWHERE TO BELONG’
South Wye has had a good year, writes Matt Bozeat
SOUTH WYE POLICE ABC had a good year in 2019. Othman Said and Rhiannon Roberts both reached Development finals and next season should see the return of the club’s first national champion. Yusuf Abdallah has rarely boxed since wining Development Class B honours in 2018, coach Vince Mcnally explaining: “Yusuf is a junior doctor and has been working so many hours he hasn’t been able to get to the gym. “From September, he will be working regular hours and then we can look at getting him out again. We’re looking at the Elites in 2021 for him.”
Abdallah has Egyptian parents, while Othman is from Libya and Mcnally reports an Iranian refugee has recently started at the gym. “We have people from all over the world here,” said Mcnally, “and there’s such a good feel to the gym.
“So many young people need something to belong to.”
The club capped their 2019 with their annual Christmas show on December 21 and Cameron Heggie took home the Boxer of the Night trophy after starring in front of a sell-out crowd. 22-year-old
Heggie outpointed Anton Nelson ( Jewellery Quarter). Nelson was a couple of inches taller but couldn’t stay with Heggie after a backand-forth opening round. Nelson struggled to keep Heggie off him in the second to leave the bout in the balance going into the last. Nelson let his hands go – and Heggie punched with him. It was the more compact and heavy-handed Heggie who got the better of the exchanges, forcing Nelson onto the retreat. Heggie did a good job of hunting Nelson down, forcing him to engage and then outpunching him with to win unanimously.
Cruisers George Masters (South Wye) and Rhys Watkins (Pontypool) served up another give-and-take battle. They swapped counts in the opening two rounds and Masters finished stronger to win a split.
Vladimir Nikulin took less than a minute to win his debut, the South Wye cruiser dropping Arran Kelter (Phoenix) twice with right hands. The taller Kelter stuck out a jab and Nikulin whipped over an right hand that smacked into his chin. Nikulin didn’t let him off the hook. The referee waved it off after Nikulin dumped Kelter on the seat of his trunks with a right hand down the pipe.