Brace yourselves for a North-East derby duel at England’s National Amateur Championships.
Birtley’s Mark Dickinson will cross swords with Jim Tyers, from East Durham in the semi-finals of the U75 kilo division on Sunday.
Their middleweight shoot-out guarantees the Tyne, Tees & Wear division at least once male finalist in Manchester next weekend.
Split decision successes for Dickinson and Tyers put a silver lining on a gloomy day for TTW boxers at the Harvey Hadden Sports Complex.
Seven of the region’s representatives were eliminated at the quarter-final stage, including three of Birtley’s four seeded boxers, Tom Hodgson, Isaac Milburn and defending champion Ben Rees.
Dickinson and Tyers will be joined on semi-final day by Muzzy Fuyana, Joe Tyers, Ben Jarvis and Steve Robinson.
The Dickinson-Tyers confrontation has the makings of a cracker, given the way they performed on Saturday in what was the day of the split decision.
Unanimous verdicts were filed in the rare section, though how the judges were not united for the victories enjoyed by the Birtley and East Durham men was hard to fathom.
Dickinson picked his shots superbly fro the start of his last eight bout with Bradley Goldsmith.
While he kept his hands low, it barely mattered because of the clinical way he punched and moved.
The Triumph ABC southpaw did have some success in the second, particularly to the body, though Dickinson’s right continued to score.
Last month’s gold medallist at the GeeBee tournament in Finland showed his quality again in the last though hats off to the Midlands champ, it takes two to make a fight and he made a full contribution.
Dickinson (pictured) won via a split but at least the right arm was lifted.
The same could be said about the bout which followed as Tyers defeated London champ Andrei Dascalu.
Last year’s Novice title winner Dascalu was highly touted having come through the capital’s division and won his pre-quarter via a stoppage.
And when the tall Stonebridge ABC middleweight flicked out an eye-catching jab, he looked the part, but Tyers was never going to follow the script.
The East Durham star soon got inside and applied both fists effectively.
While Dascalu landed the occasional shots in the second, Tyers was at his best with inside volleys consistently forcing his opponent back.
It was the same in the third as Jim piled on the punches and pressure. While it was punch for punch late in the third, Tyers deserved his win, even if his heart may have been pounding a little when the word ‘split’ was mentioned.
Saturday got off to a bad start when Birtley’s U52 kilo TTW champ Korey O’Neill faced to make to the ring.
Middlesbrough’s Muzzy Fuyana gained one of the rare unanimous verdicts when he beat Mohammed Ali (Burslem GG) by a unanimous decision.
Darlington’s Joe Tyers was a split winner at U60 against the RAF’s Keiran Bailey.
But there was a shock in that section as London’s Masood Abdulah defeated number one seed Tom Hodgson by a split decision.
And there was disappointment for Birtley at U64 where another of their top seeds, Isaac Milburn, was the victim of a upset, against Amaar Akbar (Warrior Breed), again via a split.
Bishop Auckland’s James McMeekin also went out by the same method at U64 to Bradley Bethell (Leicester Unity).
And there was a unanimous defeat at U69 for Sunderland’s Travis Waters who, after an impressive pre-quarter win on Friday, lost to number one seed, Harvey Lambert (St Paul’s).
There was an upset at U81 where Ben Rees was ousted on a unanimous by St Mary’s Karol Itauma.
After a run of exits, Redcar’s Ben Jarvis reversed the trend at U86, being Southampton’s Luke McWhinnie by a split.
Up at U91 kilos there was dismay as Lambton Street’s Ian Askew was stopped by Miguel’s Ben Vickers in round one after taking a standing count.
Swalwell’s Steve Robinson ensured a sixth TTW semi-finalist at the end of the evening by beating the Army’s Josh Woods at Over 91 kilos by a unanimous decision.
Words: Roy Kelly
