ROYSTON Amateur Boxing Club has certainly been rejuvenated over the past 12 months. Indeed, it is virtually a new club which came into being when it set up training and coaching sessions at the Coombes Community Centre just over 12 months ago. And to prov

ROYSTON Amateur Boxing Club has certainly been rejuvenated over the past 12 months.

Indeed, it is virtually a new club which came into being when it set up training and coaching sessions at the Coombes Community Centre just over 12 months ago.

And to prove the point it put on a dinner show at The Meridian School, Royston, on Saturday evening which the packed audience saw as a success.

Club president Andy Geraghty said afterwards: "There's always headaches with these kind of events, but we didn't have any problems and it was a great success for the club."

The evening showed the club has boxers of potential and a "backroom" staff dedicated to seeing that that potential can reap rewards.

One example was Connor Barnard, who out-moved and out-boxed his opponent, Eddie Howes, of Sudbury Boxing Club, in the three-round bout.

Barnard in the opening round came out looking in the mood to end the bout quickly and threw a bombardment of punches at his opponent. Howes survived, but in the second-round was obviously dropping behind on points.

In the last round Barnard had his opponent in his sights and was beginning to pick his punches in an intelligent display.

One of the quickest bouts came near the end of the evening when Royston's Jamie Boness's aggression was just too much for Lee Barrett, of North Herts ABC.

The referee halted the bout after about two minutes when it was seen that Barrett was simply taking too much punishment.

Earlier in the evening in junior bouts Royston's Ryan Hutchings had lost to Michael Reading, of Sudbury ABC, although Mitchell Kilroy overcame Lee Field, of Hunstanton ABC.

And in spite of losing on points there were moments in Wesley Washington's bout against Gaurav Saroye, of North Herts, when the Royston boxer looked the more determined.

Throughout the bout, however, he had to overcome the fact that Saroye had the longer reach and was able to control the contest from a reasonable distance.

And after each bout the contestants had the even more daunting task of facing Steve McFadden, hard-man Phil Mitchell from EastEnders, who presented the prizes.

An award created by club vice-chairman Bill Davidson for the Royston boxer who had shown dedication and enthusism over the past 12 months was presented to Lee Geraghty.

He was unable to take part in one of the evening's contests because he had just had a wisdom tooth removed.