Flying start for Edenderry boxers

Boxers from Edenderry Boxing Club made a great start to the season at the Michael Andrews Memorial Tournament.

Boxers from Edenderry Boxing Club got the new season off to a great start with two gold medals and one silver in the Michael Andrews Memorial Tournament held in the National Stadium over recent weekends.

This is the only tournament where all clubs from Leinster including Dublin take part. The tournament is for boys and girls aged from eleven years to sixteen years and is run in two parts.

The first part includes the Boy/Girl 1-2-3 and the second part includes the boy 4 and youth 1-2.

Over the first two weekends it was the boy/girl 1- 2- 3 that were in action with over 200 entries. It turned out to be a great success with some top class boxing from both the boys and girls.

Edenderry boxing club had five boys taking part in the Michael Andrews itself and one boxer taking part in a special tournament. This boxer was young Ciaran Lawlor who was up against Tyrone Berry of the Athlone club. Ciaran lost out in this his very first contest but he knows there is always the next time.

First up in the Michael Andrews on Saturday, October 2 was Darragh Daly and his opponent was John Ryan of the St Aidens club in Wexford.

Darragh started well and worked very hard throughout the contest however Ryan got the points decision at the end.

On the same day Jack Farrell boxed against Eric Campbell of the Glin Club in Dublin. This was Jack's very first contest and he gave a very good account of himself and using his long lead to good effect he landed well with the jab. In good and close contest, his more experienced opponent just won out on a points decision at the end.

On Saturday, October 9 Edenderry had two boxers in action. First up was Craig Mangan and his opponent was Willie Joyce of Athy club. This contest was very close between two very evenly matched boxers with Craig giving the best performance of his young career to date. He never gave up but after a very good contest it was Joyce who got the decision on points.

Attila Peto was boxing in the semi final against James Butler of the Mount Tallant club in Dublin and after a close contest Attila was awarded the decision on points.

This win now gave the club two boxers in the finals with both of them having won Michael Andrews titles before and club officials were confident they could do it again.

The first boxer to box in the finals on Sunday, October 10 was Jordan Roche who was up against the current and three times All Ireland champion and junior cadet champion Daryl Byrne of the Grangecon club. This was a contest where tactics would play a major part if Jordan was to win.

Byrne had stopped his opponent the day before with five or six combination punches at a time from his left hand to both head and body so it was important that Jordan would not mix it with him and he would have to jab and throw a right cross and move out of Byrne's reach.

Jordan did this very well and after a very good, skilful contest where both boxers worked hard for a win, it could have gone either way.

At the end it was level on points and after a count back it was level so it was up to the judges to press for a winner and it was Jordan who got the decision on points 3-2 to take a superb gold medal.

Attila Peto, who won a Michael Andrews title last year, was against Brian Stanley of the Curragh boxing club. Attila started well and landed some good left jabs to his opponents head. He was in control throughout the contest and won out on points decision to take the gold medal.

The Boy/Girl 4 and Youths 1 and 2 will start on Saturday, October 31 with the weigh-in taking place in the Ringside club between 9am and 10.30am. Boxing starts at 1pm on the day.

Congratulations from Edenderry Boxing Club to Rhode Senior And Minor Footballers on winning the county final and best of luck in Leinster club championship and also to Edenderry Senior women on reaching their first Leinster final