By Steve Bunce
BACK when there was not one girl from British beginner boxing adequate to be despatched to a World or European championship, a tiny group of renegades gathered one weekend.
It was Might 2003 and the inaugural Feminine Nationwide Boxing Championships came about on the Metropolitan Police Faculty, in Hendon, north London. It was like a secret occasion and to date it has escaped all data. You needed to be there.
A complete of 19 dreamers arrived that weekend and no one had a clue what to anticipate. They lined as much as weigh-in and checked out one another nervously. Some had by no means boxed, others had fought a few instances. One or two had fought maybe six or seven instances; they had been a real mixture of unknowns. They had been inheriting completely nothing.
The road-up included an armed response policewoman from Leicester referred to as Tiffany Lynch. There was a lady who gave out change at an amusement arcade on Paignton pier referred to as Kristine Shergold. There was a mum referred to as Tamasin Mallia who had fought and misplaced thrice earlier than arriving in Hendon. They had been all there dreaming of one thing.
Shergold was the veteran in Hendon. She had fought 9 instances, and he or she was one of many 20 girls who had been invited to Crystal Palace, the place GB boxing was primarily based, in 2001 to participate in a coaching session. Now, this session has develop into a factor of wonderful delusion in boxing. Some folks doubt it existed, but it surely did, Shergold was there, and he or she has testimony. She informed me about it at Hendon on the Saturday afternoon.
The day was formally an “evaluation” session to see if any of the invited girls had been adequate to compete on the first version of the Ladies’s World Beginner Championship in America later that 12 months. It was a brutal cattle market, a uncooked day with no camouflage for the uncovered and inexperienced boxers. It was actually dealt with incorrectly. The lady carried out in entrance of an unimpressed pack of males, led by Olympic coach, Ian Irwin. There was actually no want for the general public exercise; it was clear the ladies in 2001 weren’t prepared.
“We had been requested to coach to see if any of us had been adequate to go to the primary Ladies’s World Championships in America, however the suggestions wasn’t excellent, and it was apparent that no one there thought that any of us may field,” Shergold informed me. Ouch.
Shergold misplaced to Rhiannon Dixon on factors in her fifteenth professional combat in 2022; she was 41 on the night time in Leeds and has not fought since.
In 2002, when the ladies’s Worlds had been in Turkey, there was no “evaluation” day. As a direct comparability, England, Scotland and Wales determined to not ship any boxers to the primary version of the lads’s World Championships in Havana in 1974. They weren’t adequate, was the savage evaluation. It was in all probability proper.
Again within the Hendon ring, there was some controversy after Friday’s semi-finals. A number of the girls complained that the fights had been stopped too early.
“It is a full contact sport and I count on to get hit and harm in there and when it was stopped, I couldn’t consider it,” mentioned Rachael Prendergast. “I used to be not harm, not even a bit.”
Prendergast was having her first combat at 30 and was crushed in a single spherical by Nichola Owens. It was all new, particularly for many referees. Owens beat Heather Mackie within the featherweight last.
Within the very first bout, Jenny Dowell had crushed Mallia. I took down wonderful particulars again then – you needed to get all the things in your pad as a result of there have been far fewer methods to verify on info and figures and the ages of the boxers. Dowell was a hairdresser and would lose the bantamweight last on countback to Tina O’Dell, who boxed for Frank O’Sullivan’s membership, Birmingham Metropolis Police. O’Dell was a part of England Boxing for a time, one of many pathway coaches. She nonetheless runs a fitness center in Birmingham now.
It was one other robust loss for Mallia and that meant she nonetheless had yet another laborious job to complete. She informed me about it: “I’ve to name my five-year-old son, Tommy, and inform him that I’ve misplaced once more. I’d by no means let him see me combat and it’s laborious sufficient making the decision.” Mallia went on and have become a boxing choose and educated beginner fighters.
I’m starting to marvel if there’s a easy documentary to be made in regards to the nineteen dreamers who confirmed up in Hendon chasing one thing. We love pioneers in any sport and people girls had been actual pioneers. It’d simply work, they usually had backstories. That is additionally a few years earlier than Nicola Adams and Amanda Coulson had been despatched to occasions in Europe. This occasion at Hendon is sort of a misplaced piece of archive; the BBC filmed a few of it, so it’s on the market someplace.
Lynch, the armed policewoman, solely began boxing when the police automotive she was travelling in hit a tree throughout an armed and high-speed chase. I’m not inventing this, by the way in which. She was informed that she can be out of motion for 18 months with a broken leg; she turned to boxing and was within the ring inside a 12 months. She misplaced within the welterweight last however was planning on going to the World Police and Fireplace Officer Video games in Barcelona that summer season. She stays a robust participant within the police drive.
From March 4-11, 4 girls from the GB Boxing machine will journey to Italy for the second Olympic qualifier. Two girls, Charley Davison and Rosie Eccles have already certified for Paris. In the meantime, someplace in Britain, a gaggle of renegade girls and forgotten fighters might be maintaining a tally of their progress. They made that passage attainable, and I’m wondering the place all of them are actually?
