Four through to semi of ABA juniors

Four Black Country teenagers have booked their place in the semi-finals of the junior ABA championships.

Walsall's James Beech, Joshua Stokes from Wodensborough ABC and Samuel Eggington of Warley are through in Class 5 following wins at Great Barr Leisure Centre and, from Class 3, Jack Wood from Wednesbury ABC also progressed.

The semi-finals will be held at Havercroft Leisure Centre in Ryhill, Yorkshire over the weekend of May 7 and 8.

Beech, Stokes and Eggington had to wait eight hours to box yesterday.

They weighed in at 10am and didn't duck between the ropes until past 6pm on a marathon day of 26 bouts.

Boxing in the under 57kgs division, Beech, from Wildstar ABC, was a 16-10 points winner over southpaw Niall Hopkins of Hillsborough ABC.

From the second round, Beech had Hopkins' measure. He was able to back him up with jolting right-hand counters and the four-round fight was decided in the third.

The Black Country boxer kept picking solid right hands and twice the referee was forced to step in to hand a standing eight count.

Stokes was in a hurry to beat Ryan Stevenson from Armthorpe at under-67kgs. From the opening bell, he was aiming sweeping right hands at Stevenson and the referee stepped in to hand the Yorkshire champion a count after Stokes connected flush.

Stevenson was allowed to box on, but Stokes needed only three more precise power punches to force the stoppage after 79 seconds.

Eggington also impressed in winning the final bout of the day.

He faced stocky James Mitchison from Doncaster Plant ABC and outpointed him 13-10 after four exciting rounds.

Eggington looked to have won more clearly. Mitchison kept wading into him and the Warley boxer out punches him in good exchanges on the inside with thumping body punches and uppercuts.

In Class 3 at under 57kgs, Wood was a 16-10 points winner over Jake Francis from Hunslet ABC.

Boxing behind a high guard, Wood pumped out straight punches to build a points lead. Francis went on the attack in the third and last round as he looked to overturn the deficit, but Wood drove him back with pinpoint punches.

In Class 4 at 52kgs, Liam Etheridge of Pleck ABC just missed out, after being handed two public warnings in the second round of his clash with Jack Daniel of Kelly's ABC that decided the fight.

The four-point penalty Etheridge picked up meant Daniel was a 7-4 points winner.

There was also defeat for Aston ABC's Faisal Anjum in his quarter-final with Karl Sampson of Hillsborough in Class 5 at 57kgs.

Sampson's back-foot boxing clinched a narrow 8-5 points win.

By Matt Bozeat