The Erne Boxing Club’s remarkable season continued with another great performance but once again were thwarted on the judges scorecards.

Harris Crowley fought in the National Junior Cadets final against three-time National champion Patrick Sweeney (Olympic Boxing Club Galway), but although his coaches felt he had done enough, Harris was edged out in a tight affair by a unanimous decision.

Crowley followed up on his impressive semi-final display with another high energy box-fighter performance. He pressed the action and set a high tempo in the opener but fleet footed Sweeney used good movement and evasive tactics and scored with some good counter punches to take the first session.

In round two, Crowley closed the range better and had more success and trapped Sweeney on several occasions. The volume of clean shots was low but the higher work rate and tenacity saw Crowley take the round on the majority of the scorecards.

In the final session Sweeney had some success early and boxed very well on the backfoot but Crowley continued to force the action throughout and slowly began to wear his opponent down and forced him to hold down the stretch.

It was another close round and the Erne Boxing Club were optimistic that they had done enough but the judges returned a unanimous decision in favour of Sweeney and Crowley had to settle for a hard-earned silver medal.

“Harris did himself, the coaching team and club extremely proud tonight. He was up against an excellent boxer and although we thought we did enough to edge the last two rounds we have no complaints with the decision.

“Sweeney is now four-time National Champion and for Harris to run him so close is a mark of how well he’s progressing and he’s developing to a very competent box-fighter and can be very proud of his National silver medal,” commented his father, and coach Sean Crowley.

The Erne Boxing Club’s season will continue into next month with a team of four entering the Monkstown International Box Cup in Dublin next weekend and will then finish with Mark Kells seeking to win a National Senior Cadet title and qualification for the European Junior championships at the National stadium.