Show goes on despite heartbreak
Duries Amateur Boxing Club held an emotional show at the King’s Park Hotel recently.
Just hours before it was due to start head coach Archie Durie received news that his niece Amanda Durie’s 14 year old daughter Ellie had passed away peacefully after a long illness.
An upset Archie was then going to cancel the show, but his niece Amanda asked him to carry on as her daughter Ellie was a fighter till the end and would have wanted the show to go on.
It was a packed audience with a full card of 15 Duries boxers all in action starting with 11-year-old Gorbals lad Saif Akram, who lost out narrowly on a split decision to Reece Muir (Cambusnethan ABC)
Then it was 11-year-old Cambuslang girl Ruby Samson in against England’s Roseanna Byecroft. Ruby started well, catching the all-action fighter from York, who then caught Ruby with a good right hand forcing a eight count.
At the start of the second the same thing happened again, resulting in the referee stopping the bout in favour of Byecroft for safety reasons.
Next was Cambuslang lad Yaseen Nawaz who was up against a fighter from Phoenix ABC in Dalmarnock.
The 13-year-old boxed really well, controlling the pace and was voted the winner by a 5-0 unanimous decision.
At the end of the show he was voted as the best home boxer by the judges.
Next up was the most experienced boxer of the night, Castlemilk woman Stephanie Kernachan, who was doing an exhibition with Dundee boxer Carla Rodrigues.
Cambuslang lad Jamie Hamilton, 15, was another really close loser, this time against Barn ABC lad Sandy Reid, coming out on the wrong end of a split decision.
Head coach Archie’s grandson Jamie Durie, 18, was also really unfortunate, coming out on the wrong side of a 3/2 split decision against Doonhamers lad Connor Crawford.
Next was Duries’ second winner of the night, as Castlemilk teenager Kyle McNiel defeated Ryan Taylor from Jackton abc in East Kilbride in a great little bout, with the aggressive style of Kyle catching the judges eyes for a 4-1 decision.
Next in after the break was Kimberly Peat against her Edinburgh opponent Gemma McDonald, who came in underweight, meaning the fight had to be fought as a no scoring exhibition.
Kim did really well in the bout and if had been a contest would have suited her style.
Lewis Connolly was next in making his first appearance for Duries and he was edged out when it came back 3/2 against him to Broadwood abc boxer Jawad Ghaffar.
Next in for Duries was powerhouse Cambuslang lad Albert Antony, who faced the more experienced boxer Michael Cordoner. Straight from the start it was clear Albert was too strong, catching Cordoner with strong right hands time and time again before a left hook sent the visiting fighter to the canvas and the ref counted him out.
Darren Bradley then made his Duries debut, with the 15 year old taking on Perth boxer Matthew Hunter in a thrilling tie with both young lads giving it their all. Both showed great courage and strength to dig deep but on this occasion it went by 3/2 decision to the Duries boxer.
Cambuslang fighter Shahzman Parnez then squared off against Barn ABC (Coatbridge) boxer Joshua McCaulley and again this went to a tight 3/2 split decision, this time in favour of the away boxer.
Cambuslang senior lad James McGuiness was harshly treated, after he looked to have won clearly against Edinburgh boxer Fabrizio Di Batista – only for a split decision to go against him.
Last in for Duries was ex-white collar boxer Eryk Majda, who was in against Cleland ABC lad Reece Patterson Hogg.
The amateur experience showed for the away boxer, who was that bit more controlled and caught Eryk as he rushed in to take this by unanimous decision.
Head coach Archie Durie said: “I got the phone call just 10 hours before the show about my great niece passing away and I was going to cancel the show but after speaking to my niece Amanda we went ahead with it,
“It was a full card for us with 15 bouts, two of them being no-scoring exhibitions and the home club winning only four of the other 13 bouts, but a few of these contests could and should have gone the other way.
“That’s boxing. On another day we would have had more wins. I would like to thank all our sponsors who helped make our show and our main sponsor ABH contracts, which is in the same yard as our boxing gym.