Amateur Boxing Scotland

ABS has finalised its 2010 Commonwealth Games preparation calendar which starts this weekend. This will allow our boxers to concentrate on preparation for Delhi.

The programme will cranked up massively upon the return of the boxers representing Scotland in the European Championships which are being held in Moscow.

ABS have recommending seven boxers for selection to Commonwealth Games Scotland for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. All recommendations will be based on the boxers performances against events identified in the selection criteria.

These will be Iain Butcher 49kg, Joe Ham 56kg, Josh Taylor 60kg, Aston Brown 69kg, Callum Johnston 81kg, Stephen Simmons 91kg and Ross Henderson 91+kg.

The programme will be intensive with a number of weekend residential camps, sparring & training camps to France, Germany, England and Ireland planned. Residential camps will also allow ABS to utilise the services of the Scottish Institute to provide support and education to the boxers.

ABS is sure you will all give the selected boxers your support and wish them the very best as they represent their country.

On behalf of Forgewood ABC and The McKay Family, we would like to thank all in attendance of today’s fundraising event. We appreciate all those who participated, boxers, coaches, clubs, officials, doctors etc…. and of course those who donated items for auction and cash donations.

Today’s event could not have happened without your support.

We have already been able to donate £2500 to MacMillan Cancer Nurses and still await the final figures.

Thank you!!!

Forgewood ABC and The McKay Family

ABS Ltd is holding a series of Women’s assessment days on the following dates;

- Sunday 27th June 2010 1pm – 3pm Aberdeen Sports Village

- Sunday 25th July 2010 Venue to be confirmed Western district

- Sunday 29th August 2010 Venue to be confirmed Eastern district

These days are open to all age and class categories. Attendance at all three sessions is preferred. The objective of the assessment days are to select a Women’s team and organise a calender for season 2010-2011

Should anyone have any questions please contact Mark Geraghty directly on 07886656950.

The Motherwell Times has kindly granted ABS Ltd permission to publish its article on Archie McKay entitled;

Farewell to Forgewood’s King of the Ring

MORE than 1,000 mourners packed Motherwell Cathedral on Saturday for the funeral of one of Scotland’s top boxing coaches, Archie McKay.

Co-founder and head coach at Forgewood Amateur Boxing Club, Archie died aged 52 last week after a short illness.

Mourners were told that the father of five had made a “huge difference” to the lives of many young people over the years.

He was described by Fr Kenny Campbell as “the best unpaid social worker Motherwell ever had” for his work in taking youngsters off the streets and “keeping them on the straight and narrow”.

Prior to the funeral Archie’s body was taken to the boxing club’s centre in Mabel Street, Motherwell, where hundreds of people went to pay their respects on Thursday and Friday.

Family members held an overnight vigil at the club on Thursday before Archie’s body was taken to the Cathedral.

Archie and his dad, Tommy, were instrumental in setting up the club at Braidhurst Sports Barn in 1985. A few years later it moved to Mabel Street, but Archie insisted it keep the Forgewood name.

The club has produced a string of champions over the years, from schoolboy level through to British light-welterweight champion Barry Morrison.

Many of them were among the mourners who crammed into the Cathedral for the funeral service. Around 100 people had to stand outside.

ABS Ltd

R&J Consultation Meeting 21.02.2010

Feedback and Recommendation Report

1 – Overview

After the Consultation meeting the general feedback from all attendees on the day that the current ABS Ltd R&J structure was not sustainable or scalable and that there is no documented development plan in place.

Other notable findings were;

- There is a lack of numbers of R&J in Scotland

- There is a general lack of quality and a poor perception of ABS R&J    by boxer  and coaches alike.

- The R&J is not inclusive in terms of ethnicity, sex and age.

- There is a limited recruitment process for new R&J.

- There is no clear career or development path.

- No defined operational model exists.

- The present communication model is ineffective.

- There has been limited leadership and direction in the past. -

-There have been no established or contracted codes of conducts for R&J to sign and behavioural expectations never explained.

- There has been a lack of consistency and standardisation nationally.

- No training or standard exams have been delivered nationally.

- There is limited understanding and updating of AIBA plans.

2 – Establish Key Objectives

In order to develop its R&J, ABS Ltd needs to establish key objectives and actions.

Our key objective is to have more and better R&J – to increase the amount and quality of our officials.

In order to achieve our key objective above the following actions have been developed. These are, but not limited to;

- Establishment of a clear effective recruitment programme that is inclusive and appeals to all both in and out of boxing.

-Establish a clear development pathway for all R&J.

- Implement regular and standardised training for all R&J.

- Produce a defined operational model with clear communication protocols.

- Standardised engagement nationally.

3 – Operational Model

ABS will also establish a set of clearly defined teams that will have clearly defined roles, selection criteria and examination panels to ensure that skills and knowledge are kept up to date.

These will be;

- R&J Co-ordinators.

- OICs.

- Draw Commissions.

- Recorders.

- Glove Stewards.

- R&J.

- A Training and Development Manager.

- Computer Operators and Technicians.

- Information Officers (these will be responsible for the distribution of information to boxers, coaches and officials before, during and after competitions.

4 – Building of a R&J Database

So that ABS Ltd can keep an accurate record of all its R&J it will record all data such as contact details, email addresses and an overview of experience.

To progress all of the above ABS Ltd Technical Director, Andy Caulfield with meet with District R&J (George Brown, Abby Hills and Dougie Fraser) to discuss the implementation of the Consultation findings.

Latest update from the ABS Development Coach, Peter Harrison, on planned dates and times for the  G.B. Junior and Youth teams at the Glasgow Phoenix are as follows;

Training times for G.B. Youths at Glasgow Phoenix as follows;

For any further details please contact Peter on 07983 715883

ABS is currently advertising for a new Office Manager post that will be based in its Livingston office.

The successful candidate will be responsible for ;

The general daily management of the ABS Ltd office including, (though not exclusively): information technology, communication systems and general machinery;

The day to day management of the ABS Ltd administration, to include (though not exclusively):  Finance; Membership Services; Performance Support; Communications

The administrative support to the ABS Ltd Chair, Chief Operating Officer and Board Directors.

The Office Manager will work closely with the Chief Operating Officer and take a pro-active, leading role in the planning, development, design, organisation and monitoring of all ABS Ltd support services.

The closing date for applications is Thursday 03 June 2010 at 03 June 2010. Interviews will take place on either 28 or 29 June 2010.

An application form and a job description can be downloaded from the documents section of the website.

The 2010 GB Schoolboys was held by ABS Ltd in the Templehall Community Centre in Kirkcaldy on 14 and 15 May 2010.

Our boxers took part in the opening ceremony which started at 11am on Friday 14 May and the event was opened by the Deputy Mayor of Kirkcaldy. A moving tribute to Archie McKay was also made by MC Craig Stephens.

Once the tournament began, a very patriotic home crown was treated to several exciting bouts of boxing over the course of the weekend.

Scotland finished second in the medal table with 5 Gold, 12 Silver and 14 Bronze medals in total. The Scottish boxers who won a GB title are as follows;

Lewis Hay, Ben Kynoch, David Burrell, Aiden Gough and Aiden McGlynn.

Jonathan Clatworthy of Wales was voted best Boxer of the tournament and David Burrell was voted best Scottish Boxer. David is the first recipient of the Archie McKay memorial trophy and this will be awarded annually.

RESULTS

Session One Friday 14 May 2010 1.00pm

34 Kg   Red Corner      T Connors (Wales) 1

Blue Corner    J Temple (England) 3

36 Kg   Red Corner     I Millburn (England) 8

Blue Corner     B Sharman (Wales) 2

38 Kg   Red Corner      L Griffith (Wales) 3

Blue Corner    D Robson (England) 7

40 Kg   Red Corner      L Jones (Wales) 2

Blue Corner    D Smith (England) 7

42 Kg   Red Corner      E O’Donnell (Scotland) 4

Blue Corner    S Thomas (Wales) 11

42 Kg   Red Corner      P Greenhorn (Scotland) 1

Blue Corner    C Kenny (England) 5 RSC 1^st Round

44 Kg   Red Corner     J White (Scotland) 7

Blue Corner     B James (Wales) 2

48 Kg   Red Corner     J McCorry (Scotland) 8

Blue Corner     B Lee (England) 6

48 Kg   Red Corner     D Smith (Wales) First score 1, Countback 3, Judges 4

Blue Corner     L Nightingale (Scotland) First score 1, Countback 3, Judges 1

Session Two Friday 14 May 2010 7.30pm

36 Kg   Red Corner     D Burrell (Scotland) 5

Blue Corner     J Temple (England) 2

36 Kg   Red Corner     D Stewart (Scotland) First score 2, Countback 5, Judges 3

Blue Corner     G Jones (Wales) First score 2, Countback 5, Judges 2

38 Kg   Red Corner      J Brunton (Scotland) 4

Blue Corner    L Davis (England)  5

38 Kg   Red Corner     C McCord (Scotland) 5

Blue Corner     R Warren (Wales)

42 Kg   Red Corner     S Boyle (Scotland) 4

Blue Corner     B Joyce (Wales) 3

42 Kg   Red Corner      W McPhee (Scotland) 2

Blue Corner    J Ruddock (England) 3 RSC 1^st Round

44 Kg   Red Corner     A Gough (Scotland) 4

Blue Corner     B Beer (England)

44 Kg   Red Corner     D Shannon (Scotland) 9

Blue Corner     R Griffins (Wales) 1

46 Kg   Red Corner     C Connor (Scotland) 6

Blue Corner     J Harris (Wales) 2

46 Kg   Red Corner      D Shaw (Scotland) 3

Blue Corner    S Iqbal (England) 13

48 Kg   Red Corner      L Tervet (Scotland) 2

Blue Corner    C Nolan (England) 4

48 Kg   Red Corner      A Tham (Scotland) First Score 4, Countback 8, Judges 2,

Blue Corner     O Evans (Wales) First Score 4, Countback 8, Judges 3

50 Kg   Red Corner      Scott Brown (Scotland) 4

Blue Corner    J Jones (Wales) 6

50 Kg   Red Corner     A McGlynn (Scotland) 6

Blue Corner     R Arrowsmith (England) 4

52 Kg   Red Corner      J Beveridge (Scotland) 3

Blue Corner    E Delaney (England) 8

54 Kg   Red Corner      A Dingwall (Scotland) 4

Blue Corner     J Clatworthy (Wales) 9

60kg    Red Corner      D McAllister (Scotland) 4

Blue Corner    W Gilheaney (Wales) 8

60kg    Red Corner      Liam Sandford (Scotland) 4

Blue Corner    P McCann (England) 5

Session Three Saturday 15 May 2010 1.00 pm

34 Kg   Red Corner      L Kerr (Scotland) 0

Blue Corner    J Temple (England) 3 RSC 2^nd round

36 Kg   Red Corner      D Dalziel (Scotland) 1

Blue Corner    I Millburn (England) 9

38 Kg   Red Corner      G Nailen (Scotland) 0

Blue Corner    D Robson (England) 5

40 Kg   Red Corner      J Murray (Scotland) 0

Blue Corner    D Smith (England) 10

42 Kg   Red Corner      S Thomas (Wales) 4

Blue Corner    C Kenny (England) 6

44 Kg   Red Corner      J White (Scotland) 4

Blue Corner    J Smith (England) 7

46 Kg   Red Corner      S Tucker (England) 3

Blue Corner L Hay (Scotland) 4

50 Kg   Red Corner     V Riley (England) 2

Blue Corner     D Kenny (Wales) 0

52 Kg Red Corner    B Kynoch (Scotland) 2 (countback)

Blue Corner      D Wilson (England) 1

Session Four Saturday 15 May 2010 7.30pm

36 Kg   Red Corner     D Burrell (Scotland) 4

Blue Corner     D Stewart (Scotland) 0

38 Kg   Red Corner     L Davis (England) 2

Blue Corner     C McCord (Scotland) 0

40 Kg   Red Corner     P Ellis (England) RSC 3^rd round

Blue Corner     B Edwards (Wales)

42 Kg   Red Corner      S Boyle (Scotland) 4

Blue Corner    J Roddick (England) 6

44 Kg   Red Corner A Gough (Scotland) 8

Blue Corner     D Shannon (England) 2

46 Kg   Red Corner      C Connor (Scotland) 0

Blue Corner    S Iqbal (England) 6

48 Kg   Red Corner      C Nolan (England) 0

Blue Corner    O Evans (Wales) 1

50 Kg   Red Corner      J Jones (Wales) 1

Blue Corner A McGlynn (Scotland) 5

52 Kg   Red Corner      R Geidheimer (Wales) 1

Blue Corner    Ellis Delaney (England) 2

54 Kg   Red Corner J Baker (England) 4

Blue Corner     J Clatworthy (Wales) 12

57 Kg   Red Corner     D Breeze (England) 6

Blue Corner     Jamie Evans (Wales) 5

60 Kg   Red Corner      W Gilheaney (Wales) 5

Blue Corner    P McCann (England) 9

63 Kg   Red Corner     W Lee (England) 6

Blue Corner     J Greir (Scotland) 1

66 Kg   Red Corner     S Walker (England) 7

Blue Corner     N Miles (Wales) 6

There was also a 1995 57Kg Scottish Schoolboy bout contested during the GB Schoolboy event. This was between Craig Cox from Greenock ABC and Alan Laing from Aberdeen ABC.  Alan Laing won the bout with a score of 14 – 8.

ABS Ltd is delighted to announce that it has appointed Mark Geraghty, Head Coach of Queensferry ABC, as its new Women’s Boxing Coach.

Mark will be in charge of developing Women’s boxing and responsible for establishing a structure that increases participation and improves the performances of our Women Boxers. Mark will initially be holding assessment days for Women Boxers so that ABS can identify the strength and depth of talent there is in Scotland. Close monitoring via a database will be used to measure growth in Women’s boxing in Scotland.

A Scottish squad will be established and frequent training provided – a competitive structure will also be created to allow a national team to compete in Home internationals and Box cups. ABS will also look to create a domestic competitive structure to allow our Women Boxers to gain more experience through more bouts. The ultimate aim is to produce Women Boxer’s who will compete for Great Britain in the 2012 Olympic Games and beyond.

We would like wish Mark all the best in this new exciting role.

Amateur Boxing Scotland is delighted to be hosting the G.B. Schoolboy Championships for the very first time on 13-16^th May 2010.

Willie Burns is the event organiser and explained that each of the Home Countries must host one of the following categories  – Schoolboys, Youth, Junior, or Senior. This year Scotland will host the Schoolboys which is for boxers born in 1996 and 1997.

Willie, a director with Amateur Boxing Scotland, was asked if he would organise the tournament and decided Kirkcaldy would be an ideal venue to host the event.

The boxing is being held over two days – Friday 14^th May and Saturday 15^th May. The competing nations are England, Wales, and Scotland – who as the host nation will be allowed two boxers – the Scottish champion and runner up.

England and Wales will be represented by their national champions. The tournament will be held in the Templehall Community Centre and is a must for boxing fans in the area.

Local interest will come in the shape of Jack Brunton, Denbeath who started the season by winning the Scottish Novice Championship and then progressed on to win the Scottish Championship. The other Fife club is Kelty who will field two boxers, Donald Stewart and Paul Greenhorn.

The opening ceremony will be hosted by the Depute Mayor Liz Mogg and will feature some Scottish culture as many of the visitors may not have travelled to Scotland before.

Boxers

G.B. SCHOOLBOY SELECTION 2010

CLASS A 1997

34k- Liam Kerr Garnock Valley

36K-David Dalzell Peterhead

38K-Greg Nailen Forgewood

40K-Joe Murray Craigmiller

42K-Elliot O’Donnell Four Isles

44K-John White Glenboig

44K-Barry Hogg Midlothian

46K-Lewis Hay Keir Hardie

46 K-Connor Greenan Irvine Vine burghs

48K-Josh McCorry Forgewood

48K-Lee Nightingale Irvine Vine burgh

52K-Ben Kinnock Perth Railway

CLASS B 1996

36K-David Burrell Doonvalley & Donald Stewart Kelty

38K-Jack Brunton Denbeath & Calvin McCord Doonvalley

42K-William McPhee Glenboig & Steven Boyle Dennistoun

44K-Aiden Gough Greenoch & Darren Shannon Barn

46K-Dylan Shaw Four Isles & Chad Connor Newarthill

48K-Liam Tervitt Lochend & Andrew Tham Broadwood

50K-Scott Brown Midlothian & Aiden McGlynn Barn

52K-Jordon Beveridge Irvine Vineburgh

54K-Arron Dingwell Doonvalley

60K-Donald McAllister Springhill & Liam Sanford Forgewood

63K-John Grier Irvine Vine burgh

Programme

Friday 14 May 2010 11.00 am Opening Ceremony

1.00 pm 1997 Semi-Finals

7.30 pm 1996 Semi-Finals

Saturday 15 May 2010 1.00 pm 1997 finals

7.30 pm 1996 finals

Admission £10 concession £5 per day.

Venue – Templehall Community Centre, Beauly Place, Kirkcaldy, Fife, KY2 6EX

ABS Ltd is seeking to fill these two posts – Application forms and job descriptions can be downloaded from the documents section of the website.

These two posts are key in strengthening ABS in the areas of performance and development and are the first of their kind in ABS. Performance and Development are two key deliverables in ABS’s  2010 – 2016 strategic plan.

The Coach and Club Development Officer will be responsible for the delivery  of the United Kingdom Coaching Certificate (UKCC) and to implement programmes of education and continued professional development for coaches throughout Scotland.

Another key role of this post will be to work with clubs throughout the country to assist them in their development and to increase participation.

The Performance Co-ordinator will assist with the delivery of ABS’s performance programmes and will play a key role in further developing the performance plan.

Under the direction of the ABS  National Coach, the Performance Co-ordinator will also work with the sportscotland Institute to outline the level and type of support services are required by ABS’s elite boxers.

The closing date for both these posts is 25 May 2010 at 17.00hrs.

Update from ABS Coach Education Director Willie Burns. Willie has spoken to Q Shillingford regarding the costs of the course. Q has checked and  confirmed that because is not selling anything he will only charge £100 and not as per the initial post where the cost would have been £117.50.

ABS Ltd is launching a boxing tutor award course that will enable coaches, teachers and volunteers to deliver recreational boxing courses to schools, youth centres and colleges. This will allow for the delivery of non contact boxing programmes to a new range of young people that ABS would not normally reach.

ABS Ltd recently met with the director of this project, Quinton Shillingford, who has successfully held numerous courses in England. Quinton is prepared to assist Scotland and deliver courses for coaches, teachers and volunteers to allow the roll out of this programme.

The Aim

The aim of the one day boxing tutor course is to qualify participants to run boxing courses within schools, community sports projects, boxing clubs universities. The course is open to anyone over 18 years of age.

If you are interested please contact ABS Ltd via the Elgin Office by telephone on 01343 544718 by 14 May 2010.

The first course will be held on Friday 21 May 2010 and a second course on Saturday 22 May 2010 depending on demand.

Willie Burns, Director of Coach Education.

Selection of athletes onto the Achieve 2014 Team will be through a nomination process in partnership with Scottish Governing Bodies of sport and sportscotland. It is anticipated that this opportunity will be offered to up to two athletes and/or one coach per sport.

Latest results from Baku, Azerbaijan;

Kieran Smith lost 7-3 to the Algerian Llyas Abbadi.

Bryce Stewart led Amine Jabir of Morocco after the first round of his bout but lost 9-6.

Connor Law had a very close bout against Duljano Westhiner of the Netherlands and was drawing 2-2 after the first round. However, Connor lost 6-4 in the end to the Dutchman.

Hugh Gray pulled off a remarkable result against Rilwan Oladosu of Nigeria and was 11-10 down with three seconds to go in his bout.  However, Hugh landed a scoring shot within the three seconds and went on to win the contest on a countback.

The latest news ABS ltd has received is that unfortunately Hugh Gray lost to Zura Mekerisvili of Georgia 12-4 on points. However the feedback from the coaches and Team Management is that the boxers have been a credit to their country and attending the World Youth Championships has been very beneficial.http://www.aiba.org/documents/site1/Events/Youth%20WCHs%202010/Sessions%203_5%20YWCh%202010%2026.4.10.pdf

This was held yesterday at the Glasgow Phoenix gym and was attended by 28 schoolboy boxers and 12 Junior boxers. There were a number of parents and coaches in attendance with the session being run by ABS Development Coach Peter Harrison.

Assisting Peter were Alex Docherty, Danny Lee, Rab Bannon and Sam Mullen. The next training session will be held at the Phenix Gym on Sunday 02 May 2010.

The latest news from Baku;

Tonight Kieran Smith will box Llyas Abbadi from Algeria, Bryce Stewart will box Amine Jabir of Morocco, Connor Law will box Duijan Westhiner of the Netherlands and Hugh Gray will box against Rilwan Oladosu of Nigeria.

Results – Kieran Smith lost 7-3 to the Algerian Llyas Abbadi.

Pictured above is Bryce Stewart (receiving his award from the sportscotland Chair Louise Martin) who was recently awarded the 2009 Falkirk Council Junior Sports Personality award for the following achievements;

Scottish Champion – March 2009 – 52KG

Gold medal – Pyynikki International tournament (Finland) – April 2009

Great Britain Champion – June 2009 – 50KG

Gold Medal – Limassol International tournament (Cyprus) – October 2009

Bryce is part of the ABS Ltd Team that successfully departed for the 2010 World Youth Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan. The latest reports are that the flight flight to Baku from took off slightly late but team is safely on its way.

This can be viewed by clicking on the link below. This is the latest boxing programme  released from the Commonwealth Games Federation/Delhi 2010 Organisers. The programme may be subject to slight changes in the run up to the final event in October 2010. These will be posted as soon as they are received.

boxsched1.6

Commonwealth Games Scotland (CGS) is looking to appoint two press officers and one press assistant to support the Head of Media and PR, working with Team Scotland at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India between 25 September and 16 October.

Further details can be found by following the link below;

http://www.cgcs.org.uk/Article.aspx?Mode=1&ID=2633

Following the resignation of the previous Chairman Colin Richards, sportscotland, who attend all ABS Ltd Board meetings, strongly recommended ABS Ltd appoint a new Chairman. After a brief discussion the Board appointed Richard Thomas, a position which Richard accepted in an interim capacity as minuted on 01.11.2009

On the 7^th March 2010, the Board unanimously elected to appoint Richard as the permanent Chairman of ABS Ltd after 14 months of tireless work as an ABS Ltd Board member. This deleted the voluntary CEO position completely leaving ABS Ltd with a clear management structure of Chairman, Board of Directors and professional staff.

Richard was not involved in any part of the process.