Horn blasts Repton on way to win

Harvey Horn made his first appearance in Repton colours since claiming the ABA Elite title and sparked the 5-3 team triumph over the visiting Gabala team from Azerbaijan on a bright Friday night at York Hall, writes Len Whaley.

The charity show in aid of the Mo Farah Foundation brought top class amateur boxing back to York Hall, watched by TV and sporting celebrities including former world champions Frank Bruno, John Conteh and Maurice Hope.

Another former world champion, Darren Barker, managed the home team with ex-England and Arsenal skipper Tony Adams leading the visitors – and the boxers responded with high-class contests making it a night to remember.

Harvey Horn’s flyweight meeting against tough visitor Rustam Musayev gave the team match a super start, as the Repton boxer showed the skills that had earlier brought him national honours.

Moving smartly in and out of range, Horn fired home the sharp punches and his accurate attacks built up a points advantage in the opening round.

The long-armed Musayev came back in the second round, landing his own solid shots, but it was still the superior speed of the home boxer that kept him ahead.

They maintained the fierce pace in some even exchanges in the final round, but Horn landed the blows to complete the victory and get Team Repton off to a winning start.

However, any doubts about the strength of the opposition were soon dispelled as they came back, scoring two wins in the next two bouts.

Lorenzo Callazo Sotomayor and Alfie Price produced a lively light-welterweight duel, but it was the punching bursts of the visitor that took the points verdict.

Norris Thompson’s clash with Gabala welterweight rival Tamerian Abdullayev produced a closely-fought clash as the visitors moved into a 2-1 lead.

However, the scores were level after the middleweight bout when home boxer Danny Woledge outscored Ruhin Shabanov to set up an exiting second half of the show.

Three straight wins after the break, launched by Matthew Tinker’s points success over Elvin Ganbarov, moved Repton into a lead they never surrendered.

This run continued as Tom Barry outpointed Huseyn Gasinov and Gary Daley defeated Rahil Mammadi to cheer the home supporters.

An all-action finale saw visiting super-heavyweight Asef Aslanli get a split verdict over Harry Armstrong to complete the excellent team event, with full credit going to Repton matchmaker Kelvin Wing.

Supporting bout action saw points wins for Repton juniors over Hoddesdon rivals, as Jorge Anderson beat Kurt Lee and Roberto LaCourt defeated Johnny Doherty.