DING DING ...HOUND ONE!

The sight of the former Commonwealth Games gold medallist walking up the street in Ballymena sporting a black eye led to light-hearted suggestions that Gerry had donned the gloves again.

The reality, however, is that the ‘shiner’ wasn’t inflicted by a bout of fisticuffs, but rather by a DOG!

And before you ask, no, it wasn’t a Boxer!

“If I had a pound for every time I was asked last week if I’d started boxing again!” laughed Gerry.

“I was telling people, they shouldn’t have been asking me who did it, they should have been asking how many of them there were!

“It was done by Dexter, my two-year-old Great Dane.

“I have an old basketball with a bit of air out of it that I kick down the field and he goes and gets it.

“But the thing is, he brings it back but then won’t let go of it so it’s a wrestling match to get it back off him.

“I was standing over him when he must have lifted his head up and ‘bang’.

“The first thing I did was check my glasses were alright and then I felt that my eye was cut so it was out with the ice for the swelling and some cream that I have for treating cuts.

“Funnily enough, I was never bothered too much with cuts or black eyes during my boxing career - but then again, you don’t come up against too many Great Danes’ heads!

“Dexter weighs about 140lbs and I would weigh maybe a wee bit more so you would have thought it would have been an even contest!

“But he had the advantage in years - I must just be getting slow in my old age!” laughed Gerry.