BOXING - Return of trophy adds interest

AT A GLANCE:
" What: The United Boxing Club's tournament
" Where: Genesis Energy Kensington Stadium
" When: Saturday, September 29, bouts start at 6pm
" Cost: Tickets $15 and $5 children for under-15
" Cash bar and food available
The resurrection of a boxing trophy that disappeared years ago will add an extra level of interest to the United Boxing Club's first major tournament for 20 years, this weekend.
The selection of promising Whangarei boxer Josh Bowman to challenge for the Peter Gilbert Trophy on Saturday could close a long-running saga for the club - one that ironically started more than 20 years ago when Bowman's father, Tim, lost the trophy.
Gilbert was a Whangarei welterweight, who was very successful at the national level but died tragically in the Pacific Islands during a boxing trip in 1976. The club remembered him by dedicating a challenge trophy that became quite prestigious at the club, club trainer Ricci Malcolm said.
"The shield was later won by an Auckland boxer Marty Sutherland, who beat Tim Bowman, Josh's father, and so the shield went south, was later misplaced and declared lost," he said.
Sutherland heard about the United Club organising a tournament and decided to put up a replacement trophy, or in this case a belt, and the club will nominate the winner of Bowman's bout as the holder.
Amateur boxers will head to Whangarei from as far away as Gisborne and Rotorua to fight at the tournament, with at least four boxers from the United club due to enter the ring.
For the United Boxing Club, its first major tournament in 20 years is a big deal.
It used to hold a tournament every year but a lack of fighters in the club during the 1980s and 1990s meant the annual tournament was dropped.
"We were still training a lot of people but only a few of them were fighters, so it was just easier to go away for tournaments - now we've got a few more boxers and the members of the club decided that now was a good time to get things going again."
The club has never been short of helpers with families, many of them associated with the club since its start in 1976, coming out of the woodwork to help out.
"It's been a lot of hard work to organise but the boys' parents have helped to lighten the load and we're hoping that if it's successful then we'll try and hold the tournament every year."
The two big hopes of the gym at the tournament and the upcoming nationals are Josh Bowman and Kyran Smith, the son of another former boxer Allen Smith.
The pair met in the final of the Golden Gloves welterweight division in Taupo with Bowman, outpointing his clubmate in a very close decision. He also won the welterweight 69kg Auckland Championships, while Smith was runner-up in the light middleweight division.
It will be most of the boxers last bout before attending the national championships in Auckland from October 19-22 at the North Shore Events Centre.