Last weekend the club took a busload of lads to the Titans Boxing Club in Galway to take on their finest in a tournament, but unfortunately had to settle for a good sparring session as the chief official couldn’t make it so there could be no competition. However, everyone still boxed as if it was up for scores and they all gained some great experience from it.
Then it was on to Kilmallock on Sunday for their tournament where we had Frankie O’Brien, Dean McCoy, Steven Casey, Tim Nix and brothers Jamie and Jack Healy all competing. First in was Frankie O’Brien against the tall Jim Goggin from Kerry, and from the off O’Brien was trying to work on the inside with the Kerryman, but he was getting caught with too many counters so as soon as he got behind his jab that was it. The fight was his as his man just couldn’t get out of the way and it was a win for Frankie. Next in were the Healy brothers, taking on cousins Mike McDonagh and Jim O’Reilly in their exhibition bouts, and well done to all the young lads. Next in was Steven Casey against another tall lad, Mike Falvey from Kerry. From the opening bell Casey went to work on the Kerryman’s body as he was open to right hooks to the body and sure enough the Kerryman took a standing count but got his act together after that and kept his elbows tight, but Casey was just a step ahead all the time and took the win back to Croagh. Next in was Dean McCoy against Noel O’Sullivan from Ballyduff and with the Kerryman being a bit smaller he had to work on the inside and Dean just couldn’t keep him off with his long jab and found himself on the ropes for most of the fight, so it was a win for the Kerryman in the end. Next in, making his debut, was Tim Nix against Kilmallock’s Pat Farby in what was a cracker as the stronger and fitter Nix kept the pressure on his man all through the fight, landing some lovely left hooks and body shots and after the second round the Kilmallock corner had seen enough and threw in the towel to give Nix his first win. So it was a good warm-up for this week-end’s intermediate cham-pionships which will be held in the Corpus Christi club in Moyross over the weekend. Best of luck to our 9 reps in this compe-tition; no doubt they will all do themselves and the club proud. The club were also delighted to receive a cheque from the Rathkeale Youth Club bank last Tuesday night, so a big thank you from all the committee.