Only one title came the North-East’s way at England’s National Amateur Championships, but what a win.
Mark Dickinson served more notice of what a special talent he is by clinching the middleweight title in Manchester at the weekend.
The Birtley talent defeated the dangerous Ramtin Musah to add domestic U75 kilo glory to the international gold he won at the prestigious Gee Bee tournament in Finland in March.
But, sadly there is always a but isn’t there, Mark’s title was the lone success as the Tyne, Tees & Wear suffered four final defeats at Manchester Central, where Joe Tyers, Hannah Shield, Georgia O’Connor and Ben Jarvis all lost out on points.
Dickinson has always looked a class act, two golds in 2017 at the European Youth Championships and Commonwealth Youth Games were ample proof of that but he has transferred that to senior boxing.
While Birtley and GB team-mate, Luke McCormack, took the star boxer of the competition award in Finland, there is no doubt the teen sensation was not that far away after beating Russian opponent, Vadim Tukov.
Dickinson had a difficult final foe in Manchester in the strong Musah, from Stoke.
But Birtley coach, Graeme Rutherford, devised the perfect game-plan and Mark executed it perfectly. Boxing aggressively, he got inside early on and while Ramtin landed a couple of good counters, Dickinson simply could not miss with his right hand.
It was even more stunning in the second as the right landed time after time but with a stronger defence.
Musah had some joy in the last round but the 19-year-old remained on top and the only surprise was the judges saw it as a split decision. Dickinson looked a nailed on winner and here he did win the boxer of the finals award.
Fellow teenage talent Joe Tyers looked somewhat unlucky to lose out in the lightweight final to Masood Abdullah.
The Londoner was the man on the front foot and displayed plenty of intent, but there was some exquisite skill and movement from the Darlington boxer, who also landed plenty of shots.
It proved an entertaining nine minutes of action with both boxers giving it their all. For your punch-lines writer, Tyers had produced the better stuff, but the judges deemed otherwise and the 25-year-old, from Islington, took a unanimous verdict at U60 kilos.
If Tyers was a bit unfortunate to lose out in his absorbing fight, Hannah Shield was desperately unlucky not to take the U64 kilo crown in another TTW-London showdown.
Like Dickinson, Shield came forward confidently and strongly against Haringey’s Oriance Lungu, who landed a couple of powerful rights in the first.
But Shield upped her game in the second when Lungu was unable to land much clean stuff and really took the bout to her in the last, with a series of head combinations.
Lungu took it on a split decision, Shield shrieking her disappointment as the MC read out the result and it was hard to blame her.
Georgia O’Connor never truly got into her stride in the U75 kilo final against difficult southpaw Jodie Wilkinson.
The Birtley boxer never stopped coming forward and got in some decent scoring shots, but the telling punches came from the Leeds girl who won via a split verdict.
Ben Jarvis too missed out by a split decision against another of London’s England champs, Kheron Gilpin.
The Redcar star, the third teenage TTW male finalist in Manchester, produced some clean punches but the greater fire came from Gilpin whose power led to two standing counts in the second session. Jarvis performed well in the last, connecting with a couple of nice rights but the Miguel’s boxer won the day.
Words: Roy Kelly
