FIVE Billericay & Wickford Boxing Club members have won gold at the East Midland Box Cup Tournament.

The Wickford-based boxing club entered seven boxers for the competition, which was organised by the National Governing Body of Amateur Boxing.

And George Buckley, Lenny Neal, Billy Forbes, Jerry Buckland and Max Schultz all returned from the three day event, which was held at the Mere Leisure Centre, Grantham, with gold medals to show for their efforts.

Day one saw all seven of the Billericay & Wickford youngsters progress past the quarter-finals.

Finley James picked up a particularly impressive triumph as he defeated a highly-rated England schoolboy on a unanimous points verdict.

The semi-finals saw some of the country’s leading up-and-coming boxers go head-to-head with a place in the final up for grabs.

The Billericay & Wickford hopefuls impressed, with a quintet advancing.

Billy gained another unanimous points win to book his place in the finals day, while Finley missed out after a very close split decision went against him.

Finley lost to a current National Open Class champion and was unlucky to miss out after holding his own in the bout.

Tom Brown, who is new to the club, won the first round of his clash but his opponent fought back and secured his passage to the final thanks to the closest of split decisions.

The first Billericay & Wickford representative to compete in his final was the 12-year-old George.

George claimed gold after winning on a points decision.

Lenny, who Billericay & Wickford head coach Les Cooke says has ‘had an incredible season with the club’, boxed on the front foot in all three rounds and the 15-year-old registered his win thanks to a unanimous points decision.

Billy, 16, notched gold after a unanimous points triumph.

Jerry, 16, was faced with a particularly challenging task as he came up against a former National Champion who boasted 21 wins from 29 bouts leading up to the encounter.

Cooke said: “Jerry had his work cut out from the start as both lads went toe-to-toe.

“It lasted for three rounds with non-stop action and both lads received a standing ovation from the crowd afterwards for a true battle to the end.

“Jerry got the win and another well deserved gold.”

Max, 12, also got his hands on a gold medal to round off a successful competition for Billericay & Wickford.