TAVISTOCK Amateur Boxing Club held its second event in Tavistock Town Hall on Saturday, featuring boxers both local and from further afield.

Tavistock boxers – Will Trebilcock, Darren Lynch, Aiden Whiting and Nathan Sellers — featured heavily and contested half the bouts on the card. Some bouts were withdrawn mainly because of the flu, which unfortunately meant some Tavistock boxers did not get the opportunity to show their talent.

In the second bout of the evening ten-year-old Will Trebilcock represented Tavistock against Mayflower Amateur Boxing Club boxer Ronnie Hensman in a skills bout.

This was an extremely encouraging bout for Will and although it got a little scrappy at times, it showed that Will has the ability to pressure his man and his footwork showed much improvement. Will’s boxing future looks good.

Darren Lynch was the next Tavistock boxer in the ring in a skills bout; his opponent was the Exmouth Amateur Boxing Club fighter Liam Rand. Stockier and heavier, Darren was always going to find this fight a challenge at this stage of his development, the rangier build of his opponent giving him reach and height advantages which Darren could only counter by being more aggressive and moving in to his man.

Darren was on the front foot for much of the bout and showed good body and head movement, landing his own blows mainly to the body of his opponent. This was a good improvement over his last contest.

TABC’s popular Aiden Whiting had a repeat bout of last week’s match in Billericay, in Essex where Aiden had lost on a split decision. His opponent was Max Schultz, a southpaw from Billericay and Wickford ABC. Aiden gave away a little in height and nearly two kilograms in weight to the Essex man.

Aiden set about his task with great determination, using the classic right hand attack against a left handed boxer to good effect; his movement and balance were good and he landed good shots on the target of his adversary. Through all three rounds he maintained the pressure, but Shultz used his reach and weight advantage to gain the decision, once again by a majority verdict.

The next Tavistock boxer to take to the ring was Nathan Sellars, weighing in at 69kg to face his opponent Ben Coltman from Rough Diamonds ABC.

Although similar weights, Coltman had the height and reach advantage. This was Nathan’s first proper outing and he performed well against an opponent who had good body movement and threw punches from a loose style.

Under pressure in the early stages Nathan fought back well. The advantage was always with the taller man and in the second round Nathan suffered a blow to the face which left him with a bloody nose.

Nathan’s superior fitness began to play a greater part in the contest and in the third round, with his opponent growing weary, Nathan pushed home his advantage to force a standing eight count against Coltman just before the final bell. Coltman won the verdict of the judges, but Nathan Sellars must be congratulated on a spirited performance, hugely appreciated by the capacity crowd.

The final bout of the evening was the senior bout between Ricky Steer of Tavistock and Ben Waters of Salisbury City ABC. This was Ricky’s first outing but Waters had been in the ring three times before.

The first round started at a frantic pace and 30 seconds in, Ricky took several blows and had a standing eight count against him. Fighting back he landed some powerful blows on his opponent before the end of the round. In round two there was little to choose initially between the combatants but toward the end of the round Ricky’s strength began to present itself and he forced two standing eight counts on his man with powerful right hands.

In the last round Waters received a standing eight count, 40 seconds in, and the referee stopped the contest. Ricky Steer was declared winner, the referee having stopped the contest.

Tavistock ABC thank all who supported the event, including their sponsors.