THROUGH THE ARCHIVES: Amateur boxing tournament held in seaside town

The Railway Pavilion in Donaghadee was the setting this week in 1929 for an amateur boxing tournament, reported the News Letter.

The paper’s correspondent noted that “a feature of the tournament was the clean and sporting nature of the fights”.

There were 18 contests were held and included fights of all description, from the ‘paper-weight’ of the schoolboys to the meeting of the RUC amateur heavyweight champion with the man he had defeated to take the title.

During the evening Davy Magill, the Irish heavyweight champion, gave an exhibition bout with Jack Stratton, the well-known welter-weight. In one of the contests held that night Constable McVicker, the well-known Donaghadee swimmer, had a points decision over Constable McCormick of Belfast.

The paper reported: “McVicker timed his punches badly, but piled up the points for attack. McCormick was content to defend rather than carry the fight to his opponent.”

The points decision in favour of McVicker, added the paper, proved not to be a popular one with some sections of the crowd.

Meanwhile, a middle-weight contest between Constable Jimmy Magill, who held the RUC title, and Lance Corporal Adams of the Gordon Highlanders proved to be a very interesting meeting.

The paper remarked: “In the third round the police champion did what he liked with his man and collected points galore, winning with a big margin.”