A SPIRITED performance from Droitwich 15-year-old Michael Pardoe saw him through to the Midlands Finals of the National Association of Clubs for Young People Boxing Championships at Birmingham on Saturday.

Diminutive Pardoe gave a demonstration of how a good little one can sometimes beat a good big one!

From the opening bell he put Newark's Barry Osborn under pressure, getting inside and landing clusters of blows to head and body and never allowing Osborn to settle.

In the second and third rounds the referee had to intervene to give Osborn standing counts and the final bell must have come as some relief to him.

Pardoe's reward is a final against Matthew Jones of Atherstone, a previous national youth champion and international, at Peterborough on October 27. He is joined there by Droitwich Amateur Boxing Club mate Anthony Bonehill (15) who had a straight bye through.

This was Pardoe's second bout of the season. He had boxed for West Mercia against a Welsh team at Pontyclun a week earlier where a questionable split decision went against him.

On the same show Anthony Bonehill boxed a skilful exhibition against Welsh champion Mo Nasiz, who is recently back from representing Wales in the European Cadet Champion-ships.

Anthony's brother Marc Bonehill (14) helped West Mercia to a narrow 5-4 win. Marc boxed beautifully in outpointing Merthyr's Ryan Evans, despite conceding weight. John Bray (14) was less fortunate.

For the second time in a week he heard a split decision announced against him. At Pontyclun he never really got into his stride against Russell Blaney (Newtown) but still seemed to have done enough to win.

Earlier in the week, at Wolverhampton, he and the crowd had been stunned when a majority decision went in favour of Lee Glover (William Perry, Tipton).

After a close opening round Bray seemed to take charge with long, accurate punches finding their mark, but the judges saw it differently. On the same show Glen Hodgkins (13) made no mistake as he bulled his way to a unanimous points win over Nigel Lee (William Perry).

At Walsall Danny Cotton (15), having his first contest, found himself against a powerful southpaw puncher in Stuart Stone (Pleck).

Stone started aggressively, but Cotton came back well with his own powerful shots, especially in the second round when he threatened to take over.

Cotton could not keep it up, however, and was rescued by the referee after being put down by a sharp one-two.