Kingdom Boxing Club have St Andrew’s bash with the Auld Enemy

With less than two weeks to go before their St Andrews Day boxing event at Pettycur Bay Holiday Park, Kingdom Boxing Club announced it would no longer be fighting against boxers from Wales.
James McLaren in the ringJames McLaren in the ring
James McLaren in the ring

Boxing Scotland and Kingdom BC were not happy with the calibre and number of boxers that Wales could provide on the day so reluctantly had to make the decision to seek opponents from elsewhere in the country.

The ‘Auld Enemy’, England Boxing, were up the challenge and came to the rescue with just five days to go.

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Being St. Andrews Day, the show was opened with a rendition of Scotland the Brave by a lone Scotia piper in the centre of the boxing ring who was then joined by both teams for the national anthems.

The Scotia Piper at the start of the night.The Scotia Piper at the start of the night.
The Scotia Piper at the start of the night.

There were eight international bouts, four involving Boxing Scotland development squad boxers, and four with local Kingdom boxers.

There was also one domestic bout involving Kingdom’s newly crowned Scottish female featherweight champion Chloe Wright who boxed a rematch of her Scottish final beating Carla Rodrigues from Lochee BC for a second time.

Going into the interval, Scotland were up 3-2 with wins from schoolgirl Madison Clarkson of Forgewood BC (Motherwell), Patrick Paton Rob Roy ABC (Glasgow) and Owen Paton of Meadowbank ABC (Edinburgh). Losing to two really good boxers from England were James Sweeney, also from Rob Roy ABC, and Kingdom schoolboy Kieran Horne.

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After the interval there were three elite bouts involving Kingdom boxers representing Scotland against top class opponents from England, all of which had the capacity crowd on their feet applauding.

Owen Paton faces up to England's CoverdaleOwen Paton faces up to England's Coverdale
Owen Paton faces up to England's Coverdale

First up was welterweight James McLaren who lost on a split decision to an all-round accomplished boxer in B. Jackson of Bo’s Boxing in Tyne Tees Wear which took the overall score to a 3-3 draw.

The penultimate bout was also a welterweight contest and representing Scotland was Kingdom’s Joe Lafferty against N. Forrest of Barnard Castle BC.

The referee brought the two together at the end of the bout with the English boxer having his hand raised as the winner.

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With England now 4-3 up going into the last contest, and with the weight of the country on his shoulders, Kingdom’s lightweight Chris Fleming made his way into the ring to a rapturous welcome from the crowd and in the opposite corner was the experienced R. Coleman of Bilton Hall BC.

It was a closely matched bout and it didn’t take long for the two to be engaged with both boxers having success in the exchanges.

After three rounds this was the closest bout of the evening and, as the two boxers were brought together in the centre of the ring, there was a deadly silence waiting on the MC to announce the winner, with an eruption of noise when the Kirkcaldy boxer’s name was called out.

The final result at the end of a great evening was a draw with the two countries sharing four wins each.

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