Corks popped in the Magnum by Tom Walker Oct 14th 2006

The Magnum centre in Irvine was the venue for Tommy Gilmour's “Friday Fright Night” in which a showcase of Ayrshire boxing talent, was to have been the “champagne”. Unfortunately for Tommy, his headliner Ryan Brawley had to call off with an injured elbow sustained while sparring with Gary McArthur, which hopefully won't keep him out of action for too long. So it was less than the Bollinger which Tommy Gilmour would have wanted. Nonetheless it was still better than “Cava” which flowed on the night for the fight fans of Ayrshire. This venue is one in which the fans are close to the action and as such creates an atmosphere or fizz of its own. Opening the show was Irvine's own Gary Neville on his debut as a cruiserweight professional and he'd plenty of support from his home town. His erstwhile opponent was Lee Kellett of Barrow in Furness, who presumably wasn't there to make up the numbers on the home boys debut, as he promptly dumped Neville on his backside from a right cross within seconds of the bell for the off. Neville's cork was well and truly popped, and the fizz ran out of his debut with another count from the same punch a matter of seconds later, at which point Referee McCullagh of Belfast rescued him by stopping the bout at the 44 second mark. From my seat ringside, I'd have to say that young Neville was caught early with a hard but pretty wild shot which left him rattled and out of focus, so much so that the 2nd knock down was inevitable, since his defence had gone walk-about and he'd the look of a rabbit caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. I hope his confidence is not too damaged from what was an uninspiring debut and that he can recoup his confidence. The second bout saw another of Ayrshire's burgeoning stable of professional boxers Jamie McIlroy from Stevenston, in with Shaun Walton of Telford. McIlroy is, like his brother, exciting to watch as he has varied movement and an extensive armoury of shots which he uses well. His reception into the ring is matched with the vociferous cheering of the fans he's taken the 7 miles along the road to the venue. Opening the bout with hurtful hooks to the short rib of Walton, allying those to uppercuts and jabs to the head, and you're left wondering if this one too will go the distance. Walton looked somewhat distressed early on from the barrage of punishment he's taking, but fair play to him, he sticks with it, covering up as well as he can under the circumstances. This bout was very pleasing to the eye, McIlroy deploying his shots like a cobra (with venom) and Walton defying him almost like a mongoose. When in the fifth Walton showed some of his own good work, McIlroy promptly countered him with super rights to the head. The bout closed with McIlroy trying vainly to close it out early, but that would have been hard on Walton as he was worthy of seeing the final bell and the 60 – 55 decision to McIlroy was right for both. Andrew “The Deerhunter” Ferrans from New Cumnock in Ayrshire moved up to lightweight to match up with Frederic Gosset of France. Ferrans always has a large and vocal fan club travelling with him, and they were much in evidence in the Magnum. In a tentative opener he (Ferrans), was scoring more with single shots against an awkward opponent in the diminutive Gosset. However as the bout progressed he started to use combinations effectively. There isn't too much meat behind them though, that said, there's plenty of them and Gosset doesn't know what to do about it. Gosset seems at a loss as to how to stop the wasp that is Ferrans, who's buzzing in and out almost at will. The man from Provence is back-pedalling furiously to avoid the less than heavy shots, but to no avail as Ferrans merely “hounds” him throughout, and was improving from the tentative opening, during the bout. In the end it was a comfortable win for the Ayrshire man with a 60 – 54 shut-out on referee Victor Loughlan's score-card. Southpaw Gary McArthur of Clydebank took the top spot with his match against Steve Gethin of Walsall in his fifth bout as a professional, and also had a height advantage over the midlands man. His look was one of studious focus during the preliminaries, without any showmanship, apart that is from the wildest hairstyle I've ever seen in my life. It was something “tonsorial” which may well have been an entry for the “Turner” prize for modern art, but then I'm getting old. Initially, Gethin looked in awe or bemused, by either McArthur's southpaw stance or the voluble exclamations which came out of his mouth every time he threw a punch/combination. They are for the most part accurate, and those which are not, are probably due to the fact that they seem to be falling short of the target, so he (McArthur) needs to get that wee step closer to capitalise even more on his higher work rate. McArthur's right hand is a bit on the low side, which would leave him susceptible to a left hook from Gethin, which he duly delivers on cue. Gethin surprises McArthur with a sweet straight right in the 5th, but the Clydebank man still has the upper hand in terms of work. There is a clash of heads which Gethin's corner are convinced was with malice. The resulting cut though, is high on his forehead and the blood doesn't affect his vision. A repeat clash does though attract referee Loughlan's attention, to the extent that he lets McArthur know that he's noticed it. The bout closes out with a 60 – 54 points win for the unbeaten McArthur, and a wee bit harsh on Gethin, who for me was worth a share of one of the rounds. Craig Dickson and Jamie Coyle put on an exhibition over 6 x 3 minutes which was crisp if hardly painful work for both boys. Exhibitions are notoriously hard for the participants, but these two boxers entered into the spirit of the match and as it progressed it became more entertaining for the crowd. A pity the “Bollinger” had to stay on ice then, but the Magnum fizzed in the end! My own fizz was well scuppered with the drive back to the foggy north of the country, but I enjoyed the sparkle while in the Magnum.

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?? Oct 16th 2006, 00:02:08 by lee28 my name is lee kellett not les and once again think have not bin given fair crack in ur write up!! the punch was a counter shot that i think was well timed!!! ur wild statement is abit harsh!!