Lochend’s Gear down but not out

Lochend light-welterweight Elias Gear and Holyrood rival Chris Givan provoked spontaneous ringside applause after staging a pulsating scrap on the Lochend club’s show at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange.

Forced to take an eight count from the very first punch of the bout, courtesy of his powerpunching opponent, Gear’s chances of survival seemed bleak when yet another eight count was inflicted on him in the opening round following a left hook. But Gear dug deep and, during a cracking toe-to-toe scrap, counterattacked so successfully that he took deserved winner Givan to a narrow majority points decision.

Blistering shots to Lanarkshire opponent Danny Morrell’s head and body gave impressive Lochend scrapper Kevin Skey a hard earned points win while Lochend’s Connor Gannuci notched his first ring victory using concussive counterpunches to stop his Dunfermline rival, Craig Henderson, in the second round.

Lochend bantamweight Craig Thomson displayed hard punching in abundance as he gave Aberdeen Kingswell’s Craig Leadetter two eight counts on the way to a good points victory and Lochend middleweight Tommy Philbin hit too hard and too often for Robert Forrest from Fauldhouse in a bout which was often one sided.

Other winners for Lochend were lightweight Steve Tiffney over Irvine’s Ryan Collins, light-welter Lewis Benson who beat Holyrood’s Kevin Ballantyne and light-flyweight Johnny McCallum who outscored Keir Hardie club southpaw, Steve McKenna.