Bethnal Green club chasing titles again

Repton’s title-winning squad are on the march again - and looking to land their first national awards of 2015.

‘The Home of the Champions’ enjoyed record-breaking success at schoolboy level last year and now they are hungry for more with a dozen strong squad chasing England junior title honours.

The championships start at the Waltham Forest club tonight (Thursday) and the Bethnal Green squad will be out in force looking for North East London titles.

There will clearly be some tough tests on the night, including a clash of two national champions when Repton’s Henry Turner faces Newham rival Alfie Mehegan.

The pair went all the way as they celebrated England schools success last year, but one will make an early exit tonight.

The Repton v Newham rivalry continues as the Bethnal Green club’s Gary Hassendene faces Ishmael Islam.

Another national champion in Repton colours is Jamal Khan, who faces Gulshan Nota (Fairbairn), while Jake Henty (Repton) and Tony O’Driscoll (West Ham) should provide a lively encounter.

Repton’s John Lee will be tested by Lion’s Arlo Singh and Tommy Roberts meets rival Derek Arnold in another clash between the east London outfits.

Already the club have a quartet of prospects who walk over into the London finals, including multi-titled Johnny Johnson who lifted a European schoolboys gold medallast year.

Twin brother Isaac Johnson, John Hanrahan and Jesse Dean Harris also get walkovers into the London schools final scheduled for March 1.

There has already been action in the championships when Repton and West Ham rivals met in a preliminary contest on Friday’s Fairbairn BC show.

Repton recruit Leonard Chambers went through with a keenly-fought points win over Hammer Christy McCarthy at the East Ham WMC.

n Big-hitting Frank Buglioni clearly fancies a fight with Chris Eubank Jr and will get a chance of a close look at his rival when both appear on the 02 show on Saturday February 28.

Former Repton amateur Buglioni looks for his 16th win in 17 bouts when he defends the WBO European super-middleweight title against Ivan Jukic on the big Frank Warren show.

And Eubank Jr will look to bounce back from his close defeat by Billy Joe Saunders as he bids for the Interim WBA world middleweight title against Dmitry Chudinov.

The thought of a Eubank battle brings a smile to Buglioni’s face – ”Bring it on,” he said – but first he looks for a good win at the 02 next week.

The show features world title-chasing Tyson Fury’s European and WBO International heavyweight title defence against Christian Hammer.

Cromer ace Liam Walsh defends his British and Commonwealth super-featherweight titles against Joe Murray, while Bradley Skeete challenges for the vacant WBO European welterweight title against Anzor Gamgbeli.

Lewis Pettitt’s WBA International super-bantamweight defence, undefeated Manchester light-heavyweight Dempsey Fury plus the pro debut of Boy Jones jr are also featured.