30 and not out for Southgate!

16 year old Lewis Southgate marked his 30th boxing match in Mitcham on Saturday (Feb 22nd 2015) with a convincing victory in the 50-52kgs category. Chatham based Southgate started his Jnr ABA regional semi-final bout with clear intentions, as he started much faster than usual. Lewis heeded his coaches instructions of increased combination punching and soon was catching Richard Haffery (Hastings Westhill ABC) with clean combinations to both head and body, clearing hurting his Sussex based opponent and causing the referee to issue Haffery with a standing 8 count. This was surely a 10-8 round and it looked like the judges may not be needed as the Sussex champion walked wearily back to his corner at the end of the first round. However to his credit, Haffery gamely stuck to his task and had some success in the 2nd and 3rd rounds, but Southgate was always in control. Southgate now has a regional final to look forward to against the Hampshire and Isle of Wight champion, in Brighton this coming Saturday (Feb 28th). Also, through to the regionals final is 15 year old Joe Tindall. Up against recent national novice finalist T.Price (Gravesham), Tindalls plan was to beat his shorter opponent to the punch. Although the strong Price managed to rush Tindall to the ropes at times, Tindall was able to land enough counter punchers to gain victory. 14 year old Karol Ituma was left frustrated without an opponent on Sunday, but has a quarter final to look forward to in a couple of weeks time. In the Jnr cadet competition 70-75kgs category, the tall Ituma is in a position where not many boxers his age are the same size as him. Robert Caswell wasn’t so fortunate in his held over Kent final on the same bill. The Chatham based 14 year old was boxing in the Jnr cadet championships in the 34-36kgs category against J. Killup (Aylesham ABC) and started brightly enough, but his strong opponent made it difficult and for him and the judges voted in favour of Killip.