Thrilling battle for Ennis boxers

Much of the action in last week’s encounter between Ennis Boxing Club and arch-rivals Olympic BC from Galway centred on the two final contests of the evening, with the home side savouring a satisfactory 8-6 lead at this crucial juncture.

However, in two thrilling battles, both Noel Daly and Patrick Sherlock suffered two single-point reversals at the hands of Irish Champion Chris Sherlock and Peter Flaherty respectively, thus keeping the Galway side’s unbeaten record intact.
The evening’s boxing began a little tentatively for the visiting boxers when both 30kg Jamie Mongan and 36kg battler Mike Delaney were comprehensively beaten by Cathal Darcy and Shane Lomax respectively. Darcy overcame height and reach deficiencies to beat Mongan 5-2 and Lomax came from behind to beat Delaney on a 12-5 scoreline.
However, successive defeats for Davy Keenan and Jamie Keane brought the sides back on par. Debutant Ross McCarthy punched with accuracy and frequency to lead through the first two rounds but his stamina was his undoing in the final two minutes and he lost by a single point to Olympic’s Frankie Cleary.
Championship prospect Lee Brady kept up his winning format with a satisfactory display of aggression to overwhelm Galway’s Jonathan Delaney on an 11-4 scoreline and while Brady battles with weight deadlines for the upcoming championship, he maintains a good winning sequence with his hallmark blistering attacks.
The McDonagh brothers, John and Simon, came up trumps in the 48kg and 46kg categories with Simon, in particular, upsetting Connacht champ, Justin Barrett on a surprising 16-6 scoreline and twin-brother John coming through against John Donovan by 7-4.
Galway’s Dara Flaherty made a brave battle to haul his side back into contention with three contests remaining but Kieran McDonagh proved too strong and resilient in the final two rounds of their 46kg bout and things were looking ominous for the Galway side until Chris Sherlock and Peter Flaherty came up trumps in the final two contests of a thoroughly entertaining evening of boxing.
There will be a flurry of activity in the coming weeks with county and provincial championships imminent. The Munster youths (14, 15 and 17 year olds) will be held in Dungarvan on February 28 and the boys (11, 12, 13 and 14 year olds) will be a fortnight later in Cork. Only county champions will be eligible for the provincial tests.
There is only one reigning national champion in the county and 13-year-old Keelan Sexton from West Clare will be defending his title come April in the National Stadium in Dublin.

Results
(Ennis names first)
Boys 10 years
27kg: Davy Keenan lost to Martin Delaney 11-9
29kg: Pat McDonagh lost to Chris O’Brien 9-4
30kg: Cathal Darcy beat Jamie Mongan 13-3.
Boys 11 years
36kg: Shane Lomax beat Mike Delaney 12-3
39kg: Jamie Keane lost to James Cleary 8-5.
Boys 12 years
42kg: Mike McDonagh beat Frankie Donovan 11-5
36kg: Ross McCarthy lost to Frank Cleary 11-10
48kg: Brian McDonagh beat B M Cleary 12-6.
Boys 13 years
45kg: Lee Brady beat Jonathan Delaney 13-5
48kg: John McDonagh beat John Donovan 7-4
54kg: James Galbraith lost to Shane Ward 16-14.
Boy 14 years
46kg: Simon McDonagh beat Justin Barrett 13-7
50kg: Barry Coote lost to Dara Flaherty 6-5
46kg: Kieran McDonagh beat Ryan Flaherty 7-3.
Youth 16 years
64kg: Noel Daly lost to Chris Sherlock 5-4
57kg: Patrick Sherlock lost to Peter Flaherty 12-11.