The Great Britain Schoolboy Finals took place at Ravenscraig, Motherwell in Scotland over two days 26th and 27th April.

Demographically speaking England is 10 times the size of Scotland; there are around 3 Million more people live in London than the entire of Scotland with the deficit being the size of Wales. There are more boxing clubs in London than the whole of Scotland.

Regarding the Scottish boxers, they produced a monumental endeavour in their quest for glory; from all that is within, these young boys unleashed a spirit and desire to seize the day.

Scotland Gold medal winners

Boxers born in the year born 2000

38kg Title was between two Scottish boys seeing off Welsh and English opponents between Craig Penrice and Billy McPhee who utilized good accurate counter punching but with the score tied at 5-5 it had to go to count back and the announcer read out the verdict 30-27 in favour of Craig Penrice.

46kg Title was also contested by two Scottish boxers who were victorious against Welsh and English opposition between Ethan Cowie and Jay Dickie who caught my eye in the semi-finals against an English opponent; he fought with his hands down landing effective shots from the hips. He duplicated his awkward style in the final and the verdict was 8-5 in favour of Jay Dickie.

48kg Title was between Gregory Lunt, England and Stephen McKenna, Scotland - With Lunt getting a bye into the final McKenna won on count back against a tough Welsh opponent in the semi-final. McKenna excelled himself in the final, the solid southpaw deployed a good shape displaying some cracking rear hand straight lefts and the verdict was 13-6 in favour of Stephen McKenna.

57kg Title was between Tye Davies, England and Lewis John Johnstone, Scotland - who received a bye into the final. Southpaw Johnstone impressed with a long range display in which he upped his game in the last round and the verdict was 16-12 in favour of Lewis Johnstone.  

Boxers born in the year 1999

34kg Title was between Ibrahim Nadeem, England and Anthony Morton, Scotland who was by far the smaller man who operated smooth lovely boxing and a higher work rate especially in the last round, the verdict was 13-7 in favour of Anthony Morton.

44kg Title was between Mark Dickenson, England and Jack Stevenson, Scotland - who narrowly beat a welsh opponent in the semi-finals. Stevenson was giving away reach and height advantage but applied a bighearted, rhythmic counterpunching display and the verdict was 9-7 in favour of Jack Stevenson.

50kg Title was between Nathan Shaw, Scotland and Dean Morgan Scotland who dispatched boxers from Wales and England in the semi-finals. Shaw looked a strong kid who was up on his toes with good posture and showed fast hands, the verdict on the fight was 15-13 in favour of Nathan Shaw.

54kg Title was between Jimmy Roe, England and Craig Morgan, Scotland who outpointed a good Welsh opponent in the semi-finals. With an effective fluent style Morgan looked sharp as a razor, lovely lower body, he looked classy and confident and the verdict was 12-4 in favour of Craig Morgan.  

60kg Title was between Roman Haidari, England and Tyler Jolly, Scotland – who overwhelmed his Welsh opponent in the semi-finals with trim footwork, mobility and strength. Hard work and precise punching was the key to success in the final and the verdict was 14-13 in favour of Tyler Jolly.

66kg Title was between Reece Amir, England and Jonlee Joyce, Scotland – who received a bye into the final. Hard punching Joyce was resilient and relentless in coming forward and the verdict was 13-5 in favour of Jonlee Joyce.

The aforementioned boxers were the 10 Gold medal winners for Scotland and although some other Scottish boxers came close I’d have to give a mention to Scotland’s Ryan ball that drew with his English opponent but got beat on the count back. Ryan is an effective switch hitter who took the decision like a true sportsman.

It’s only fair to give a special mention to a young English boxer Rakin Tatou who caught my eye straight away on the first day with a style of boxing I could only compare to that of Olympic Cuban Flyweight Champion Robeisy Carrazana Ramirez, the kid had everything.

Below is a list of the other final day results.

Born in the year 2000

30kg John Lee, England beat Logan McKay, Scotland 16-2

32kg Adam Hussein, England beat M Fisher, Wales 14-4

34kg Rakin Tatou, England beat Jamie McLean, Scotland RSC 2nd

36kg Ibrahim Sulaiman, England beat Robbie White, Scotland RSC 2nd

40kg Jamal Khan, England beat Tony Orr, Scotland RSC 3rd

42kg I Farrer, Wales beat Clyton Orchard, England 9-7

44kg James McMeekin, England beat R Edwards, Wales 22-8

50kg John Johnstone, England beat Connor Jones, wales RSC 1st  

60kg Jake callingham, England beat Ryan Owen, Wales 25-11

Born in the year 1999

36kg Charles Frankham, England beat Taylor McGregor, Scotland 14-9

38kg Sonny Ali, England beat Bradley Moultree, Scotland 17-11

40kg Ben Marksby beat Peter McPhee, Scotland 9-7

42kg Peter Smith, England drew on points with Ryan Ball, Scotland but won on count back 43-40

46kg Sam Pemberton, England beat Aiden Dougan, Scotland 9-7

48kg Jason Foster, England beat Adam Burke, Scotland 12-6

52kg Kieran Sutton, England beat D Williams, Wales 22-9

57kg Levi Lee, England beat Frankie Strinati, Wales 13-3

Total Gold medal haul, England 16 Scotland 10 Wales 1

The GB Schoolboy Championships were a huge success and an epitome of how well organized Amateur Boxing Scotland are.

By Raymond Fraser Buchanan

  

There lays a wee sleepy hillside village called Chirnside in the borders of Scotland that’s situated roughly about eight miles from the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed just off the A1 that connects the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh with the capital of England, London and at 410 miles long it’s the longest road in the United Kingdom. There are a lot of people in Scotland that have never heard of the place, if you are travelling down the A1 you only have to blink to miss the sign. I was in my late teens before I knew the place existed; coincidently it was only through boxing in the 1980’s and back then it was more or less just a street with a small shop. The village has not changed that much since then and neither has their love for boxing.

Ian Duff drummed up an interest in forming a club in the village way back in 1979 because the nearest club was Dunbar almost 20 miles away and this was not a viable option. Ian and his friend Jimmy Blakie spoke with a local man Eric Hunter who had previously boxed for Edinburgh’s Sparta in his youth, a club that was made World Famous by Legendary boxer Ken Buchanan. They approached the local minister seeking permission to use the old church for the birth of Chirnside ABC, their request was granted on the condition the premises would be used as a community centre that would include and provide the community in its entirety. The pulpit and rows of seats had to be removed and a fair bit of work had to be done to achieve such a notion. They only had three punch bags and a cracking boxing ring. The atmosphere was tremendous at a Chirnside ABC show back in the day but it was greatly overshadowed by the home bakery and snacks that were provided by the club coach Eric Hunter’s wife Jean who was that talented with her home bakery if she were still in the business today she would put Krispy Kreme out the box.

The original club folded at the start of the Millennium in the year 2000. It was eight long years before talk began of re-starting the club but only one man’s actions spoke louder than words. Michael Black had boxed for the old club and won four Eastern District Junior titles and four Scottish Junior Titles back to back, and he boxed for Scotland 5 times as a junior and twice as a senior. He held a few coffee mornings that raised over £300 a time, this provided the basic essentials for a new club to start but they needed a boxing ring and not just any ring, it had to be a dismountable one so with the help of former boxer Martin Wood who worked for local firm John Thorburn & sons, Duns, he provided the club with four steel sleeves that could be fixed into the wooden floor and four steel removable poles all courtesy of the company, then it was just a matter of tensioning the ropes. However, Martin’s welding skill’s enabled him to weld brackets onto two of the poles that provided the use of four extra punch bags to go along with another five that hung from beams underneath the balcony. The club were affiliated in 2010 and sadly the old club coach Eric Hunter had passed away so along with becoming Chairman and coach Michael made a comeback to help get the name Chirnside ABC get back on the map. The last three years has been a steep learning curve and for a tiny village in the borders of Scotland to compete at District level against Places like Edinburgh, the Lothian’s, Fife and at National level against the whole of Scotland. Ben Grant has won Scottish Title’s at Novice and Intermediate level, Robbie White won the Scottish Junior Title in 2012 and is the current Eastern District 36kg Junior Champion, both Robbie White and Lewis Noon recently picked up silver medals in the Scottish Schoolboy Championships that took place last month and are currently training with the Scotland Squad hoping to make the British Finals. It’s an immense achievement that this village can contend with the whole of Scotland and even more astonishing the amount of miles they travel to compete.  They have travelled past Aberdeen as far north as Macduff in the north east of Scotland; they have crossed the breadth of Scotland to Dumfries and been all over the Central belt of Scotland including Edinburgh and Glasgow. It took the club 5 hours to travel to Macduff, they would have took less time going to London.  

The club initially were given £1000 by Robin Lees who owns the local Robins Nest Hotel and Robin continues to sponsor the club. The club now has people coming from Berwick, Duns, Eyemouth and Coldstream, they can expect up to 30 boys a night. Michael could not do this on his own; he has the help of Vaughan Duff (Ian Duff’s Nephew) Martin Wood, Malcolm Renton and Michael Blakie who are also trainers at the club. In the near future he plans to invade England but on Sunday 21st April Chirnside ABC will be holding their first home show in 20 years at the neighbouring Town of Duns.

There is a burning boxing eternal flame that burns away in Michael’s belly; he really is a man on fire.

If you are interested in joining the club or attending the show you can contact Michael Black on Facebook or e-mail james00sky.com