England edge to narrow duel victory over Scotland
June 15, 2019 | by Matt Halfpenny
The Edge, Wigan proved to be a superb setting to stage this cross border challenge between England and Scotland.
The night started well for England, with local boxer Patrick Hewitt beating Ryan Carling on a split decision. Patrick boxed at long range, maintaining his composure throughout to his advantage.
In the next contest, Olivia Holmes made her England debut and and dominated from the start with long range punches that landed accurately on the target of Scotland’s Dionne Pollard.
England’s Junaid Bostan lost on a split to Marc Johnstone, who proved to be the busier of this close-fought contest.
Another debutant was Stephen Clarke, losing on a split decision to Scotland’s Harry McGrenra. Stephen struggled to adapt to his opponent in the opening round, however, in the last round he impressed with his movement and punch accuracy winning well, but leaving it too late to win the contest.
Vicky Glover, Scotland’s very experienced international beat Jade Pearce unanimously, who despite her minimal experience showed grit and determination in abundance and went toe to toe with Vicky for three competitive rounds.
Ammar Akbar fought Sean Spence of Scotland in a highly-competitive bout that resulted in a split decision win to Spence. When boxing at long range, Akbar had the better of the exchanges, but Spence managed to get close and smother this good work for large periods of the bout.
The team captain on the night, Elliot Whale, boxed in a close-run split decision against Scotland’s Sam Hickey with both boxers having success.
Elliot eventually prevailed with his great determination and accuracy in the last round gaining the result and giving the team a renewed vigour to get back into the competition with two bouts left.
Ramtin Musah took the hopes of England in to the penultimate bout against Darren Johnstone. Ramtin displayed a dominant performance boxing behind a composed lead hand and gained a split decision that brought the duel international to 4-4 with the final bout to go.
On a night of fantastic boxing England managed to beat Scotland 5-4, with a thrilling decider in the last contest, between England’s Delicious Orie and Scotland’s Nick Campbell at super-heavyweight. Both boxers exerted tremendous effort from start to finish with Delicious edging the split decision via a sharper lead jab.
