Night of emotion and celebration as Morecambe boxing club rounds off successful year

It was a night of emotion and also celebration as Coastal Amateur Boxing Club hosted its final show of 2024.

Boxers, coaches and supporters united to pay their respects to Frank Harrington, founder of the club, two years on from his death.

A traditional 10-bell salute was observed in memory of Frank before Saturday night's show at the Red Rose Community Centre.

Frank's initials have also been included on the club's new ring canvas, as a permanent tribute to the former fighter who was a mentor to many young boxers at the gym. 

Frank is pictured below. 

Guests at the show, held at Coastal's West End Road gym, included Morecambe's new Central Area Super Lightweight Champion Reece MacMillan, and fellow local professionals Troy Gallagher and Owen Kirk.

Reece, carrying his newly-won championship belt, Owen and Troy were introduced to the crowd before the fights began and presented trophies to the winners on the night.

MacMillan will next fight Jack Rafferty for the British, Commonwealth and WBC International Title in February, while Kirk and Gallagher also have their next fights lined up for the new year. 

It was a good night for Coastal in the ring, beginning with impressive performances from Sonny Higham, James Allison and Manny 'Pacman' Mason in 'skills' contests where the judges did not score.

Bob Howard from Coastal then faced Mark McCracken from Border City boxing club in a bout full of technical skill.

McCracken's more accurate counterpunching took the first round, with young Bob often out of range with his shots as he bounced on his toes looking to create an opening. But Howard seemed to have scored enough with accurate single punches to win the second round.

Bob came out firing in the third and both boxers landed plenty of punches as they went for broke over the final 90 seconds.

In the end, McCracken got his hand raised via unanimous decision.

There were wins for Coastal, though, later in the show, as Billy Thompson used his reach effectively to outbox the game Vince Ramsay of H Hour ABC, earning a deserved split decision victory.

And in the final bout of the evening, Declan Wakeman boxed beautifully, landing eye-catching punches to body and head, in scoring a unanimous decision over Evan Hill from Leigh.

In other results on the show, Oakley Roberts of Blackrod won a split decision over Frank Varey of Accrington Lions, Nathan McDonald of Border City won unanimously over Cole Camozzi of 4 Corner ABC, Oscar Pietrzak of Blackrod defeated Henry Abram of Fleetwood via unanimous verdict, and Thomas Gibbons of Border City outpointed Charlie Doran of Jennings Gym.