Walsall duo out of the junior ABAs

Walsall-based duo Daniel Breeze and Liam Etheridge both missed out on a spot in the national finals of the junior ABA championship.

The two amateurs ended up on the wrong side of close points decisions at the Newbiggin Sports & Community Centre in Northumberland on Saturday.

Breeze lost 6-4 to Louis Claridge, from St Paul's ABC in Hull, after their semi-final at 66kg in Class Four, for boxers born in 1996.

But Claridge was given a helping hand in being awarded two points of his score, as Breeze was penalised by the referee for the third time he had pushed his opponent off.

Had the Walsall Wood ABC prospect not been set back, he would have forced a draw and a countback with the judges to decide a winner.

In round one, Breeze opened the fight going for straight shots with the right hand as Claridge, a relentless pressure fighter, hurried in.

With computer scoring in operation, the five judges had to press the button simultaneously to register a point for each competitor.

By the end of the first round, they had awarded just a point to either fighter, but a much more open second session left Breeze with work to do.

Claridge had been handed the round 5-2 for a 6-3 lead going into the third round and opted to run for cover, with Breeze forced to hunt him down.

The England international did manage to connect with a right hand that rocked Claridge's head back and that definitely registered a score, but was not enough to prevent defeat.

By the time Pleck ABC's Etheridge was in the ring for his 54kg semi-final with Karl Sampson, from Hillsborough ABC in Sheffield, the computers had been ruled out of action by a technical fault.

That meant their Class Six – for boxers born in 1994 – decider would go to the judges after the four rounds if it went the allotted distance.

Low and behold, they were called into play and went for Sampson in a majority decision, by three judges to two.

Etheridge and his corner felt hard done to at the final bell, having used the jab to great effect to limit Sampson's attacks during the fight.

But they also conceded it wasn't Etheridge's best performance in the competition this year, which had come in the pre-quarter finals when he eliminated five-time national champion Marc Leach.