Daniel Breeze springs a shock in junior ABAs

East faced West Midlands champions at Great Barr Leisure Centre and Breeze, boxing for Walsall Wood ABC, pulled off a great win over Arrowsmith, representing Kings Heath ABC in Northampton.

Breeze was unanimously the winner in the pre-quarter finals on points, too, after taking charge of the ring early on and forcing his illustrious foe onto the back-foot.

They clashed at 66kg in Class Five – for boxers born in 1996 – yesterday and Breeze, as the winner of the contest return to the same venue this weekend for the quarter-finals and he was sharp as a tack.

Club-mate Joseph Stevenson joined him in Class Five, after harnessing the positives from his 63.5kg area decider against the experienced Jon Pickering, from Buxton ABC.

Stevenson hit and moved better than he ever has and kept his head moving against a 6ft plus opponent, negating his jab and slipping out of the rangy attacks coming his way.

By the end, Stevenson had thwarted his rival to a unanimous points victory, but club-mate Shaun Cooper was nudged out of the competition by majority decision.

Cooper boxed at 60kg in Class Five against another capable adversary Kings Heath's Kieran Conway and struggled against another six-footer, forcing him to duck low and work at middle range.

It was a plan that proved futile as Conway picked him off with the jab but a gutsy Cooper kept on coming, leaving the tournament valiantly by majority points decision.

The big other amateur club in Walsall, Pleck ABC, were left with Zohaib Hanif as their only remaining hope of a medal of the competition.

Hanif dug in and prevailed at 70kg – in Class Four, boxers born in 1997 – by majority decision over Benjamin Huntingdon, from Pheonix ABC in Nottinghamshire.

Club-mates James Beech and Rocky Lee, at 52kg and 57kg respectively, were both eliminated by virtue of wide points losses.

Beech faded after a bright start and Kings Heath's Ryan Conway took over to win the last two rounds, while Lee lost out to Benjamin Lee, from Kettering School of Boxing.

Meanwhile, Wednesbury ABC's Jack Wood looked the part at 57kg in Class Six – boxers born in 1995 - as he took command to see off Thomas Molloy, from One Nation ABC in Derby.

Wodensborough ABC's Benjamin Whittaker, at 63kg in Class Four against Carl Fail from Far Cotton ABC in Northampton, won through by virtue of a majority points decision.

Whittaker had showed grit the previous weekend to recover from a second round standing count to win his West Midlands final at below his best but boxed twice as well this time.

And the talented Connor Jones, from Lions ABC in Dudley, survived a shaky last round with the hard yards done in the first two sessions to advance past Phoenix's Keelan Jackson at 57kg in Class Five.

By Craig Birch