Rochdale Observer

Scarlett’s unanimous win on Warriors show

- BOXING STEVEN CONNELLAN

SCARLETT “The Starlett” Holden, 13, travelled to the Community Centre in Macclesfie­ld to represent Hamer Amateur Boxing Club when meeting Kayla Dryden of Workington ABC in the North West Woman Warriors annual boxing show.

When the bell rang for the first round, both boxers came out like a storm as they landed blow after blow upon each other. Then the referee suddenly stepped in to halt the bout, due to Dryden’s hair coming out of her head guard.

The coach took quite a while putting the Workington boxer’s hair back into her head guard, and when he finally did it and the referee allowed the bout to continue, Scarlett suddenly rushed out of the neutral corner to land a swinging right hook to the side of Kayla’s head.

Scarlett continued to attack her opponent and after every exchange of punches, it was the young Hamer boxer who landed an impressive solid right hand to the chin.

Before the start of round two, the Hamer coach Steven Connellan told Scarlett to continue pressing forward, whilst always throwing her right-hand punch, which seemed to connect every time she unloaded it.

When the bell rang for the second round, the referee directed young Scarlett into the neutral corner once again, whilst waiting for the coaches in the red corner to put Kayla’s hair back into her head guard for the second time.

When they had finally done it, the referee waved both boxers on to continue and they came towards each other whilst using their probing jabs to find their range, before Kayla suddenly attacked the Hamer boxer with numerous punches, before stepping back. That prompted Scarlett to step upon her front foot and take the action back to her opponent and when she forced the Workington boxer onto the ropes, she began to land more numerous punches to both the body and head.

As the round progressed, Kayla began to step upon her back foot to keep her distance from her on-coming Hamer foe, who continued to land her right hand to the chin every time she stepped into the action.

It was a close, well fought bout, which prompted the coach to tell Scarlett to continue to step into the action whilst unloading her right hand to the chin, and when the bell rang for the third and last round, Scarlett stormed out to land numerous punches as she forced her opponent into the red corner, were she continued to stay focused whilst landing even more punches to both the body and head, before the referee shouted stop numerous times and Scarlett stepped back away from the action, before the official warned Kayla for holding onto her Hamer rival.

As soon as the bout was allowed to continue, Scarlett instantly stepped into the action once again to land even more hurtful right-hand punches to the chin, which forced Kayla upon her back foot once again as she tried to move around the ring to keep her distance. This continued throughout the round.

But when Kayla did manage to step in with her punches, she was met with another right-hand punch to the chin from her Hamer opponent every time she came into range, which prompted all three judges to award the bout to the Hamer boxer by a unanimous decision.

On Friday February 23rd 18-year-old Kieren “Special K” Mcmenamy travelled to the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool to put in a terrific performanc­e to gain a unanimous decision over the local boxer Jack Cullen of Derry Mathews Boxing Academy.

Isaac Coyle, 15, also travelled to Liverpool that night and also put in a tremendous performanc­e against another Derry Mathews boxer, Liam Johnson in his very first bout, only to see Johnson

have his arm raised in victory by a very controvers­ial majority decision. Both the Liverpool coaches and Johnson’s father later told the Hamer coach, Steven Connellan, that they also thought the Hamer boxer had done enough to win the bout and both clubs agreed to have a rematch in Liverpool in April.

After winning the

National Youth Cadet Title in February 16 year old “Big” Ben Braddock was also awarded a certificat­e of appreciati­on for his exceptiona­l achievemen­t within the sport of boxing from the mayor of Rochdale Michael Holly. He also received his North West Region Championsh­ip Belt for representi­ng the region in the National final.

 ?? ?? ●●Ben Braddock with the Mayor, Councillor Michael Holly
●●Ben Braddock with the Mayor, Councillor Michael Holly
 ?? ?? ●●Scarlett Holden and Kayla Dryden
●●Scarlett Holden and Kayla Dryden
 ?? ?? ●●Kieren Mcmenamy
●●Kieren Mcmenamy
 ?? ?? ●●Isaac Coyle
●●Isaac Coyle

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