Shropshire's sole hopeful in England Youth
Shropshire's sole hopeful left in the England Youth Boxing Championships has been warned he will face a formidable foe in the national quarter-finals.
Shrewsbury & Severnside's Lewis Milner goes up against the experienced James Richardson, from Scunthorpe Boxing Club, on Sunday afternoon.
The 16-year-old, who was just started work as a scaffolder, hopes to build on his competition exploits at the Territorial Army Centre in Stoke-on-Trent.
But the teenager - who benefitted from a bye past last weekend's first national stage, the pre-quarter finals - may have to pull out all of the stops to go any further.
Trainer Colin Hough said: "On a club show, I wouldn't even think about this contest. He's a very experienced lad and has a good record, 30 wins out of 40-odd I believe.
"He obviously started boxing at a very early age but this is the championships, where you are going to meet talented lads in the quarter-final. You have to expect that.
"Lewis has trained hard and done his running, which is so important. I have always said that, in boxing, that they will never find another substitute for road-work.
"He's been doing different things in the gym, too, especially his foot-work. He's a tall rangy southpaw but he starts off slow, which we need to improve on."
The West Midlands merged with Merseyside and Cheshire in the last round and will now box the North-West and East Midlands to produce the semi-finalists.
Milner started out having to box one of his club-mates, Lewis Edge, who he defeated by unanimous points decision at 75kg in Class A, for boxers born in 1995.
He then gained sweet revenge over Shaun Eggington, from Meir Boxing club in Stoke-on-Trent, when he met his then-nemesis in the West Midlands final last month.
His tricky southpaw stance let him load up with accurate shots to record another unanimous victory, against an adversary who beat him on a club show last year.
Hough has directed his charge from the corner after starting his 67th year in the sport, the 80-year-old a staple at the Shrewsbury & Severnside club since 1947.
He said: "I must be off my head, every year I say it's my last and I always seem to change my mind! To me, boxing is a simple sport, but people make it complicated."
