Sunday 16 September 2007

Novice entry forms

To download novice entry forms click on the link on the right of this page, which will take you to the relevant page of the website, then click on the appropriate download.

Friday 29 June 2007

The Boxing Revolution Begins

Boxing in the Western Counties has recently undergone a long awaited revolution, thanks to the hard work of the new regional coach Kevin Hay and his willing and able team.
A strategy meeting was held with all the leading coaches from the region invited to attend. A Plan of Action was produced aimed at producing more national champions and international boxers.

The first male squad was held at Broad Plain in Bristol with 43 Junior and 18 Senior boxers, all targeted because of their abilities. Advanced coaches Kevin Hay and Alan Brightman, assisted by Senior coaches Les Brooking and Gary Cave put the lads through a highly technical but very enjoyable day.
The following week the region's female boxers had their very first squad gathering. A dozen talented girls were coached by Kevin, Les and Andy O'Kane and they finished off the day with a competitive spar. The ladies enjoyed the opportunity to train with their peers and took to the training with great determination.

Following on from the squad, Hay took a mixed team to Cardiff where they were matched with a Welsh team made up entirely of internationals.

The Bout of the night was Adam Griggs hard fought win, over four rounds, against Paul Chapple. The strong and aggressive Chapple led 8-3 after round one but a sensational round saw the talented Griggs level the scores. The appreciative Welsh crowd were on their feet in a real toe to toe battle. Strong and compact, Chapple hunted down his West Country rival, but couldn't match his firepower; Griggs ramrod back hand landing regularly to earn a unanimous decision.

Wales Becky Price was voted "best boxer" following her points win over Christine Shergold. Clever countering combinations and fast hard jabs saw experienced Becky home to a points decision.

Bristols Jason Gardener sent his fans back across the Severn Bridge happy after a well fought four round show. Gardner's relentless pressure gave him a big lead after round one, and the increased pace in round two bought an unassailable lead. Wales Ian Jenkins battled back well but Gardner used his strength and power to great effect and ran out a well deserved winner.

Other Western Counties boxers on the night were Dominic Ash, Hariet Quick, Danny Webb, Aaron Seldon, Dan Stewart and Sam Wilcox.

Coach, Kevin Hay, was delighted with the effort his boxers displayed. In turn, the boxers were visibly proud during the pre-fight ring parade.

Monthly squads are planned, with further home and away team matches already arranged.
Western Counties as a Region are back as a competitive force.

Meanwhile, the Regional Secretary, Steve Brooks is busily sorting out funding to take the squad forward to ensure that this excellent progress can continue.


Les Brooking

Tuesday 19 June 2007

Western Counties Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting of the Western Counties ABA will be held on Wednesday 8th August 2007, 7.30pm at the Taunton Football Club. TA1 2HG.

All members of the Association are invited to attend, but only two members from each club will have voting rights.

Steve Brooks
Honorary Western Counties Secretary

Wednesday 18 April 2007

Contact the ABAE

Please note that there is a direct link to the ABAE Website where the most up-to-date information is always available.

Just click on Boxing Links and then ABAE Website.

ABAE Advanced Coaches Course

May 30th - June 3rd 2007
Crystal Palace
£280.00 (Residential)
£250.00 (Non-Residential)

Assessment: December 7th - 9th (Crystal Palace)

Open to Senior Coaches who qualified on or before 2005 subject to the endorsement of Kevin Haye, the Regional Coach.

Senior Coaches Course

ABAE Senior Coaches Course
July 11th - 15th 2007
Crystal Palace
£280.00 (Residential)
£250.00 (Non-Residential)

Assessment: December 14th - 16th (Crystal Palace)

If you qualified as an ABA Coach on or before 2005 then you are eligible.

If you are interested please contact Kevin Hay, Western Counties Regional Coach, who can supply an Application Form and will also need to endorse your application.

Tuesday 3 April 2007

Coach Education 2007

The following two courses (each over two weekends) are open to individuals who wish to qualify as either an Assistant Coach or an ABA Coach.

The fee for those embarking upon the Assistant Coach Award is £90 which includes the fee for the ABA Coach Award if taken within the next three years.
All prospective candidates should be CRB checked and have successfully completed a First Aid course before applying.

Course 1
  • Weekend of 9th-10th June
  • Weekend of 23rd-24th June

Course 2
  • Weekend of 13th-14th October
  • Weekend of 27th-28th October

Contact Steve Brooks, Regional Secretary for details and an Application Form:

brooksgrove.forest@tesco.net

Women's Boxing

Kevin Hay, our Regional Coach, has already received requests from twenty women who wish to participate in in a women's championship at the end of May.

If you have yet to register your interest the don't delay, contact Kevin by e-mail:

devenportabc@aol.com

Monday 2 April 2007

First Aid Courses

Two First Aid Courses to be held in Bristol at Broad Plain. These are Combined Basic First Aid & Resuscitation.

Saturday 28th April 2007 - closing date 14th April

Saturday 12th May 2007 - closing date 28th April

Course Tutor: Dennis Stinchcombe

Times: 09.30 - 14.30 hrs

Course Fee: £50 (payable to Dennis Stinchcombe)

A First Aid Certificate forms an essential part of the ABA Coach qualification and is an essential prerequisite to any person applying for a ABA Coaching Course.

Send your Name; Club; Contact Phone Number to:

Derek Stinchcombe, Riverside Youth Project, Clements Street, Bristol, BS2 9EQ

Friday 16 March 2007

Smelters Boxers Shine On Cuba Tour












The NSC 'Smelters' amateur boxing club took a team of eight of it's
boxers to Cuba and trained at Havana's oldest boxing gym The Rafael Trejo
Gymnasio.

Said coach Garry Cave "We wanted to reward the NSC boxers for all the
hard work and dedication they'd put in so we decided to take them on a trip
of a lifetime. The Cubans are without doubt No 1 when it comes to amateur
boxing, winning bags of medals in the Olympics, so the destination was obvious.
The club paid half the cost of the trip by raising money from their Manor
Farm FC and Avonmouth Rugby Club boxing shows plus we had many generous
sponsorship donations. A real big thanks you to everybody that made
this happen, as without your very generous support we couldn't have done it.

In the party was Garry Cave Team Manager, John Mathews Vice Club
Chairman, Jeff 'The Frogman' Sharp Coach, Tom Cave Boxer, Tom Edwards Boxer,
Smokin Joe Burns Boxer, Sam Mogg boxer/coach, Andy 'The Bambino' Mogg boxer,
Billy 'The Gollum' Davis boxer? Reece 'The Ratboy' Godfrey boxer and Dalton
'The Pineapple Kid' Saunders boxer. We stayed at Havana's oldest hotel The
Inglaterra Hotel famed for Ernest Hemmingway and it's old world charm.
The trip was organised through specialist boxing travel agents Cityboxer
Web: www.cityboxertravel.com .

Flying from Gatwick after an early pick up from Avonmouth Rugby Club on
Wednesday the 29th of November at 4:30am and after 24 hours of travel
we arrived safely, if not a little jaded. Training began brightly and
early the next day at 8am in the gym under guidance from Head Cuban Coach
Pedro Massiano. The Smelters where warmly welcomed by all the Cuban coaching
staff and boxers. The language barrier was the first issue but thankfully one
of the Smelters junior boxers Tommy Edwards spoke some Spanish so this
made things a lot easier for the Bristolian boxers and the Cuban coaches.
We trained everyday in the gym at 8am till 10am for 6 days. The
training centred on the footwork techniques that the Cuban boxers are renowned
for.

After a few of days of practice, some friendly gym bouts where arranged
between the NSC and The Trejo Boxing Club. Said coach Cave "We really
thought that the Smelters lads would get a boxing lesson from their
Cuban counterparts, but to be fair to the Cubans, they matched our boxers up
fairly and surprisingly to us and mostly the Cubans, the NSC boxers
more than held their own and in some of the 'bouts' had the upper hand.
The Cuban coaches praised our boxers for their skillfulness and
toughness. The day was topped off with a team trip to the Santa Marie beach. The
whole party where stunned by the beauty of the beach, it was like being in a
paradise picture postcard. Sunday we watched a junior championship of
some 42 bouts where many national champions competed.

The poverty in Cuba was very evident and our boxers eyes where opened
to just how lucky they really are, as many of the Cuban boxers didn't even
have training shoes, some where boxing in slip on shoes! We took lots of gum
shields and hand wraps to give out in the gym and they where very greatly
received. They showed us the tyre and sledgehammer strength training
they're famed for, which is basically hitting an old truck tyre with a large
sledgehammer and in return we showed them a few tricks with the
skipping rope. The Cuban people where lovely, very welcoming and always willing
to chat.
It wasn't all boxing we also went on some site seeing tours and took in
the Capitalio building, which houses the Cuban National Arts Museum. This
is an exact full size replica of the White House building in Washington. We
used it's many steps in the evening for some extra training much to the
amusement of the locals as well as taking on them on at football in the nearby
park. Across the road is the Kid Chocolate Sports Arena named after Cuba's
first world champion .The Kid Chocolate hosts many sports and on our visit we
where lucky to get a game of football against a local school class that
we're using it for their PE lesson. Fidel Castro also obliged by having
his 80th birthday celebrations, so Havana was buzzing all weekend, there
was the obligatory military parade in Revolution Square on Sunday, and we'd
never seen so many people in uniform!

I was very proud of how they boxed and conducted themselves during the
whole of the trip. It was so successful and rewarding that we're planning to
go again this year in November again with Cityboxer, taking even more NSC
boxers and boxing the Trejo club in a real tournament.
To raise money towards this trip we will be hosting the following
boxing shows, Saturday 17th of March joint open show with Empire ABC at
Bradley Stoke Leisure Centre & Thursday 26th of April at Manor Farm FC. Since
returning from the trip two NSC boxers that went have boxed with both
winning, they are Junior Middleweight Joe Burns winning by 1st round
RSC at the Cinderford show on Saturday 13th Jan and senior welterweight Sam
Mogg boxing at Weymouth 20th Jan where he won a unanimous decision with his
educated pressure boxing over the more experienced Chris Siddons of Weymouth
ABC.

If you would like to train for boxing the NSC ABC train five nights a
week, 7 till 9pm at their gym at the end of Barracks Lane, next to Avonmouth
Rugby Club for further details please contact head coach Garry Cave Mob 07876
233621.

Yours in sport.

Garry Cave
NSC ABC COACH
mailto: garry.cave@airbus.com