Published: Thursday, 11th March, 2010 11:12am

Local lads edge classic contest

John Ward Ederney ABC (left) who defeated Tiernan Nevin Monaghan in the 60 kilos bout

Ederney ABC hosted an excellent tournament on Friday in Mahon's Hotel, Irvinestown when a Fermanagh/Tyrone Select took on Monaghan and it was the home lads that enjoyed a narrow win when Aidy O'Neill won the final bout of the night to securea 5-4 win.

Prior to that, there had been a plethora of top class contests with very ittle between the teams and the fighters in a series of well matched encounters. The Monaghan team was put together by boxers from Smithboro, Tyholland and Castleblayney while the night was started with an exhibition bout between Jimmy Ward (Ederney) and Ryan McKernan (Castleblayney).

It was Monaghan who drew first blood when Cahir McCann (Ederney) squared up against Joe Cadden with Cadden running out the winner as the visitors edged ahead. John Ward was next into and he was facing Tiernan Nevin from the Tyholland boxing club. After a cagey affair John edged out the winner with a computer score of 6-5. Both sides then traded wins with Sean Ferguson winning his bout for the Fermanagh/Tyrone and Barry Murphy doing the same for the Monaghan team as the contest remained deadklocked at two wins each.

Next into the ring for the host club was young prospect Jordan Liggett. His opponent was Dan McCarthy who boxed out of the Castleblayney boxing club. After an entertaining bout Jordan won the contest 8-4 to edge Fermanagh/Tyrone into the lead.

Image related to story 390982, see caption or article text Shane McCourt, Ederney ABC takes one on the nose from Connor Mallan, Monaghan with Mallan going onto win the bout.

Making his comeback to the ring was Shane McCourt who had a tough contest against Connor Mallan from the famous Smithboro club. Mallan proved too good for Shane and the referee was forced to stop the contest in round two as going into the interval the score was tied at 3-3 between the counties.

Home favourite Curtis Timlin was next in the ring in the inter-county bill to try and edge Fermanagh/Tyrone back into the lead but he was up against the Monaghan captain Stephen McKenna from Smithboro. These two boxers knew each other well and after three very close rounds it was Stephen who got the decision with a score of 9-8. Another boxer making his comeback was Sean Donnelly, he was doing an exhibition with Gerald Smith. Next into the ring for the Fermanagh/Tyrone Select was their captain Mark Kelly. His opponent was Conor McCrink from the Carrickmacross boxing club. After three good rounds Mark ran out comfortable winner on a score of 10-5 to make it 4-4 going into the last bout of the evening. As such then it was now up to Aidy O'Neill to win it for his county, who was also making his comeback. He was gloving off against Damien Ward. Aidy found some good combinations and made a perfect return winning the contest easily by 19-7 and handing the win to the Fermanagh/Tyrone Select who defeated their Monaghan counterparts by 5-4.

In another entertaining bout outside of the inter-county tournament, Duncan Liggett was up after the interval against Lukasz Chimel from Dungannon. Both these boxers served up a classic a month ago in the Tyrone Championships and this was to be the same. Duncan forced his opponent into a standing count and Chimel could not continue.

Ederney A.B.C would sincerely like to thank everyone who came out and supported their counties and for their kind generosity which was greatly appreciated.

Also last week, Ederney entered two boxers into the mid-Ulster Championships. They were Laura Kelly (Youth 2 50kg) and Mark Kelly (Boy 4 44kg). Laura received a walkover and Mark got two good victories under his belt. Both boxers will now represent Fermangh/Tyrone in the Ulster Final this Saturday in Strabane. Ederney will also be entering boxers into the Mid-Ulster Boy 1, 2 and 3 championships this Sunday.