Barrett digs deep to shake off O’Shea in thriller

BRIAN BARRETT, a cousin of former Irish Olympian Francis Barrett, brought the curtain down on a marathon session of National Intermediate Championships quarter-finals with a thrilling win over Patrick O’Shea at the National Stadium in Dublin on Saturday night.

But the Galway man had to do it the hard way against O’Shea, who pulled out all the stops in the final two rounds, levelling three times in the fourth before Barrett took a top class contest in the final 30 seconds.

Bantamweights Michael Kelly and Terence Gibbs were involved in one of the contests of the Championships, which resume next weekend with semi finals in all weight categories.

Both boxers produced an edge-of-the-seat last-eight clash which was in the balance right up until the final bell, after which Kelly’s hand was raised in victory.

Daniel Coughlin, Austin Sinclair, Paul Nolan, Gavin Keating and Anthony McConnell — who obliged Michael Waldron to take a count in the first round of a very tight bout — also recorded victories to march into the last four.

Denis Hogan got the middleweight quarter-finals off to a high tempo start, racking up 13 points and conceding just one in the first two rounds of his meeting with Emmett Walsh, before claiming a 20-point rule win in the third.

Elsewhere, in the middleweight category, the impressive Brian Brosnan stopped ex-Irish U-21 champion Tom McGrath in the third, and former European gold medallist Stephen O’Reilly halted Gerard Griffin’s ambitions, also in third.

Tony Bates took the first of the light welterweight quarter-finals, and Niall McGinley stopped Charles O’Donnell in the third round of their all-Ulster showdown. Jamie Kavanagh and Niall Murray emerged victorious from the other 64Kg bouts.

Thomas Finnegan and Mark McNamara produced an end-to-end clash which the Limerick man won following a skilful display, particularly in the final 20 seconds. Finnegan didn’t do himself any favours by receiving a public warning for holding in the fourth.

Shane McKeown was always ahead against Andy O’Neill, and there was never any doubt about the outcome of the Christy Boyle/Ronan Brennan meeting, which Boyle won by a wide margin.

Light heavyweight Ross Skelton came from behind to register a win over Robert Burke and Danny Tourish knocked out the brave Brian Fitzpatrick in the fourth round of the second-last quarter-final on Saturday.

The Championships resume with semi-finals on Friday and Saturday.