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DURIE’S ABC Durie’s abc of Rutherglen had eight boxers entered in the recent Scottish Novice Championships.
Yaseen Nawaz, Alex Barnett, Darren Bradley, Albert Antony, Kyle McNiel, James McGuiness, Jamie Durie and Kim Peat were all in action.
All eight boxers passed medicals and scales for weight, but Boxing Scotland management then pulled Kim Peat to the side and told her she had too much kick boxing experience, having disclosed she had nine kickboxing fights in the past.
They deemed she was too experienced for the novice champs.
And Darren Bradley was left frustrated after nobody weighed-in to face him, meaning he could not compete.
All were given byes into the semi-finals except James McGuiness, who boxed on the Saturday against David Leary (Livingston abc) .
James boxed lively in this bout giving the game but less experienced fighter two standing counts in the first and third round to come back a unanimous winner
Next day, Jamie Durie was in against Connor Crawford (Doonhamers abc) but Jamie never got going in this bout.
He seemed to switch off and was waiting that split second too long when fighting, letting the lad from Dumfries take this by unanimous decision.
Next up was James McGuiness and after his great win against an East coast boxer, he came up against another East coast lad, this time Connor Spowart (Craigmiller abc) who was a very strong, shorter opponent.
He caught James on a couple of occasions, forcing the ref to hand out two separate standing eight counts on the Rutherglen boxer, before the ref called it to a halt with 15 seconds left in the fight.
James was still well in the bout and delivering the better boxing, but in the end there was no complaints from the Durie’s corner as it’s the safety of the boxer which must come first.
Castlemilk’s Kyle McNiel was to box Evan Friel (Easterhouse Phoenix ) but they withdrew their fighter, moving Kyle into the semi finals in Ravenscraig again.
Head coach Archie Durie said: “It was mixed emotions, with a great win for James McGuiness on the Saturday then both our boys losing the next day.
“It was a sore one to take for myself personally, especially watching my grandson look so down after defeat.
“He had to lose a bit of weight the last few days to make the championships and this looked to be a factor.
“Both he and James were down, but I was proud of them both on the Sunday, just like every other time they box – it’s the novice championships, where they continue to learn their trade, then move onto the intermediate level with more experience.”
That left Durie’s with five boxers still competing in the competition last weekend.
First winner of the day was Albert Antony with a unanimous decision over Linwood abc lad Josh Husbands, sending him into Sunday’s final.
He was followed by a terrific Kyle McNeil performance, that saw the Castlemilk lad win 4-1 on the judges cards, then in other ring at same time Yaseen Nawaz used long range punches against his smaller opponent to win by unanimous decision.
However there was disappointment for Alex Barnett, with the young fighter doing well against a lad from Kilsyth abc, but after taking a big shot in the second it unsettled him big time and the referee stopped the fight in the third after he was caught with another clean shot.
The finals day saw disappointment for Kyle, who lost after the referee stopped the fight in the second round.
Yaseen Nawaz also had to settle for silver after losing a judges decision to Kenny McIver.
However there was gold for Albert Antony, who took the fight 4-1 against a good lad from Springhill abc, Connor McFarlane.
Archie added: “It’s been a good weekend with highs and lows, coming in the competition with eight boxers and two going out first weekend without throwing a blow then both James McGuiness and Jamie Durie out in the prelims.
“Then at the weekend big Albert Antony did the business, taking gold which he deserves for the hard work he puts in the gym and both Kyle McNiel and Yaseen Nawaz picked up silver in hard fought bouts.
“But over the championships itself, myself and all our hard working coaches, delegates and judges at the club thought our boxers did brilliantly.
“One gold and two silvers is great, but it was the experience our boxers picked up over the both weekends that is the important thing here.
“It’s getting busier and busier every year in these championships and it shows how things are growing in Scottish boxing.”
O’NEIL’S
There was success for Cambuslang club O’Neil’s at the Scottish Novice Championships. First up on was the ever improving Stuart Wylie, who boxed brilliantly and took every round against Connor Herd, a hard hitting, Tysonesque boxer from Lochee, and won by a points decision.
Next up was Michael O’Neil, who outworked and pushed back opponent Scott Connelly with his strength, to advance to the semi finals.
On day two, Stuart Wylie had his second fight in 48 hours.
He boxed well in a close contest but his opponent probably just nicked each round to earn the decision.
However, the club coaches were happy with the way Stuart is learning.
Next up was Giordano Bruno, who had the hardest draw in the tournament as he met another skilful southpaw in Sandy Stewart.
Giordano did enough in each round in a close contest and landed the cleaner and heavier shots to take a 4-1 decision.
Day three was another good day for the club, both at the novices and in the Western District Championships.
First up was Nicky Devlin in the districts coming up against another skilled boxer in Peter Paton, with Nicky clearly taking rounds 1 and 2, before Paton took the third round as Nicky, who was suffering from flu, started to tire.
The decision went to the Robroy boxer, much to the shock of the O’Neil’s coaches as well as most of the crowd and most of the other clubs coaches also.
Next up was Jordan Spence who went up in weight for his contest, and after a close first round against the game Pete Oswald Jordan landed a clean right hand which put Oswald down and gave the Glasgow City boxer an eight count.
In round three there was nothing much to separate the boxers but Jordan’s movement and punch picking gave hi the decision and will take him into the finals on November 23.
First up in the Novices in the semi finals was young Michael O’ Neill, having only his third fight.
Michael fired straight out of the traps from the first bell, not giving his opponent a chance to settle and also giving his opponent a standing count in the last round on route to a unanimous decision win.
Second up in the Novices was Callum Lees, who was unsure if he was going to be fit enough to box this week having also suffered from the flu.
Callum boxed brilliantly timing his game opponent moving in and also giving his opponent an eight count in the last round on route to a unanimous points win.
Then Giordano Bruno faced off with a Aidan Tarap of Nith Valley.
The first round was hard to split but in the second round the O’Neils boxer started putting his opponent more on the backfoot.
In the last round Giordano hurt the tiring Tarap, giving him a count on his way to a unanimous points win.
Last up was Matthew Taylor, and club coaches thought Matthew had done enough to take the first round with the Highland boxer, Adam Grant.
However in the second round he stepped off the gas, letting his opponent outwork him.
In the third round both boys were tired and the Highland boxer was maybe landing more scoring shots on route to a unanimous win.
Mathew will come good after going back to the drawing board.
On the finals day Michael O’Neill was in action.
Usually when boxers have a summer break from boxing they usually pig out and put weight on, but not dedicated Michael.
He spent his summer dropping from 54kg to 48kg which shows his dedication, and it paid off.
He came up against a strong fighter from Denbeath who stopped his opponent in the first round tearlier.
Michael listened to the instructions of his corner to put the strong come forward boxer on the back foot and it worked with him taking a 4/1 points decision to claim the gold medal.
Next up was Callum Lees, Callum has not even been at boxing a full year and he has tremendous ability and always continues to get better.
He came up against a strong boxer from Leith Victoria who had also stopped his opponent the day before after putting him down twice.
In the coaches eyes, Callum should have had gold in a close fight, which they thought he had won the first and third round by landing way more clean scoring shots on the counter, but instead the aggressive Edinburgh boxer got it by a four to one decision.
The coaches are proud of his effort regardless.
Last up was hard hitting Giordano Bruno. This boy travels down from East Kilbride every week and loves the sport, as even when he’s not at the club training he is spending hours in the gym or hitting the heavy bag at home.
This was Giordano’s third contest and he had a hard battle against a skilful boxer from Forgewood, .
In the first round Giordano got tore straight into the Forgewood boxer and it looked like his opponent’s legs were starting to wobble.
In the second round the Forgewood boxer landed some nice clean shots making it one round each.
But Giordano came out firing in the last round, and although he maybe missed with the odd punch he worked at a high volume and did not give his opponent a chance to settle, giving him the gold medal by a 4/1 judges decision.