23 June 2012 at Woolston Club in Christchurch.

 

For a change this tournament was held during the afternoon to avoid clashing with the All Blacks v Ireland rugby test, remembering it is not easy getting a suitable venue (earthquake damage) in Christchurch especially on rugby night.

 

Two Christchurch eastern suburbs based clubs affiliated to the Canterbury Boxing Association, namely Woolston Boxing Club and Smiling Tigers Boxing Club (based in Aranui), combined to challenge other clubs in a tournament to help raise funds for their battered clubs.

 

Matchmaker Mark Fuller carded 12 amateur bouts in what turned out to be an entertaining afternoon.

 

Mitchell O’Donnell (Waikuku) won the ‘Jack Grant Club Challenge Belt’ for his club when he beat the defending club’s Lupe Siaifa (Smiling Tigers) by a narrow 12-11 margin.

 

Bryce Hearn of Temuka, great grandson of the late Ernie Woods, had two bouts and won both by countback decisions but thoroughly deserved his wins.

 

The bigger men entertained the crowd in the second half.

Middleweight William Marriot (Bell’s) got the nod on countback over Chris Haxell (Burnham) after an entertaining 4x2 rounds ended in a 14-14 draw.

Heavyweight Kevin Enosa (Smiling Tigers) proved too strong in all departments for Nick Harding (Temuka) winning by RSCO.3

Middleweights Andrew Dacombe (Redwood) and James Patterson (Woolston) fought a very hard contest, both boxers suffering bleeding noses, Dacombe coming out the winner by 19-12.

Super Heavyweight Sunny Clark (Bell’s) stopped Burnham soldier Sione Mataele by landing two telling body shots midway into round three.

Another Burnham based soldier, heavyweight Visori Vanavana scored a second round stoppage win over the more experienced Daniel Devlin (Waikuku).

In the main bout of the day heavyweight Sam Watt (Papanui) took his 2012 record to 4-0 with a skillful 6-3 win over Southlander Thomas Heads.

 

Over Queen’s Birthday weekend the Canterbury Boxing Association conducted a Canterbury development training camp at Burnham Military Camp on the outskirts of Christchurch.

All costs were paid for from profits made at the Olympic Trials tournament held at Lincoln earlier this year.

Eight of the twelve boxers who attended the camp competed at this tournament with five of them recording wins and two of them boxing each other.

 

John Mitchell

Secretary

Canterbury Boxing Association Inc