Banner boxers fight into Munster finals

MANY of the Clare Youths who won county boxing titles in Ennis a fortnight ago were given little time to savour their laurels as the provincial championships kicked into action last weekend in Dungarvan.

There were minor hiccups for some of the aspirants at the Sunday morning weigh-in and ironically, one of the pre-championship favourites in the 57kg junior class, Kayleigh McCormack from Kilfenora, failed to make her weight category and had to stand aside. Her heavyweight clubmate Pat O’Connor had no such problems however, and he weighed-in at the maximum 90 Kilo limit and is in the final this Sunday
Ennis boxers, brothers Lee and Pat Sherlock, came through their preliminaries but Pat in the 63kg division came up against Cork puncher Pat Fitzgerald from the Rylane Club and lost out comprehensively in the end after some promising first round encounters.
His brother Lee, in the boy 14-year-old class, fared much better as he survived an early onslaught from Kilfenora’s Robbie Cassidy to grab a satisfactory 7-4 victory to advance to the final against Joe Dage from Tramore. Southpaw Sherlock was happy with his semi-final win over the gritty Cassidy and feels confident that he will take the title in Sunday’s finals.
West Clare’s Michael Flynn and Wayne Danagher are also both through to the finals and looking good for victories.
In the 60kg class, Flynn will meet Patrick McDarragh from the Leeside Lough Club in Cork City while Danagher who has made good progress this year, is pitted against Nenagh’s Lee Mitchell in what could be one of the highlights of Sunday’s action.
In the 50kg boy 4 division, Barry Coote from the Ennis Club will have his first taste of Munster championship action when he tackles Patrick O’Reilly from Waterford and clubmate Kieran McDonagh goes in with two-time Irish Champion Patrick McDonagh from the St Francis Club in Limerick in what should be a cracker.
Kilfenora’s Daniel Egan meets Darragh Fitzgerald from Waterford in the 57kg final, while clubmate Joey Rouine meets Bernard McDonagh from St Paul’s in Waterford in the 70kg final and is fancied to come through for the title.
It is anticipated that with the huge entry for the championships that some of the finals may well have to be boxed on Monday because with the new rule of one fight per boxer per day, all of the semi-finalists will have to do it all again on the Monday night.