Fine return for boxing at racecourse

The return of big-time amateur boxing to Ludlow has been hailed as a major success.

A bumper crowd of around 400 flocked to Ludlow Racecourse for the dinner show, which featured five championship bouts in the senior novice ABAs.

And Ludlow ABC secretary Duncan Morris was thrilled to have pulled off their first big night of boxing since reforming in 2007.

"It was a phenomenal success," he said. "Everything went better than we could ever have imagined and we had a lot of praise from the local boxing fraternity.

"They were saying it was one of the best shows they've been to, even though it was our first."

There were 15 fights on Friday's bill, including the five championship fights.

And top of the billing for Shropshire fans was the contest between Shrewsbury ABC's James Mullarkey and Nathan Burke of Wednesbury in class B of the 75-81kgs division.

The pair had met twice before with each winning once, but it was the Black Country fighter who came out on top this time.

Burke had the better of the first two rounds and, though Mullarkey came back at him, his opponent continued to give as good as he got and took a close majority decision.

"We had no complaints about the result," said Mullarkey's coach Brian Robb. "Nathan boxed well for two rounds before James came back into it.

"James had problems before the championships which only gave us three weeks to train.

"To his credit, James put in the hours in the gym and sprinting, which is why he did manage to do four rounds for the first time.

"We know how to beat Burke," he added.

"But without being 100 per cent you have to change your tactics and when James took his distance away and stopped him boxing at long range the contest became close."

The other four championship bouts were all class A contests, which opened with Elliott Sharp (Guiseley), who had previously beaten Telford's Alex Ragonesi, defeating Alex Davies (Worcester) in the 60-64kgs bracket.

Daniel Yates (Cradley) beat Armar Hussein (Worcester) in the 64-69kgs section while Martin Grainger (Lions, Dudley) beat Samuel Taff (Pleck ABC) in the 75-81kgs.

Ashley James (Worcester) beat Josh Mitchell (Wye) in the 91kgs+ to claim the final championship title up for grabs.

By CHRIS HUDSON