Islington Boxing Club enjoyed a successful weekend at the second England Boxing Women’s Winter Box Cup at Guildford Spectrum.

Islington Gazette: Islington's Jem Campbell celebrates (pic Andy Chubb/England Boxing)Islington's Jem Campbell celebrates (pic Andy Chubb/England Boxing) (Image: Archant)

The Hazellville Road club entered boxers for the first time and saw Jem Campbell and Alexandra Petcu come away with gold medals.

Petcu, boxing for the third week in a row, was drawn to face Gemma Edwards (Brighton & Hove ABC) in the semi-finals of the Youth Class C 75kg category and the first round proved entertaining as both had success.

However, Petcu turned it on in the second round, pressing her rival onto the back foot and catching her with hooks to the head, forcing a standing eight count.

After landing a few clean shots to the head of Edwards to forcee a second standing count, Petcu was declared the winner as the referee stopped the contest.

That set up a final meeting with Brighton & Hove's Beth Dalgleish, who had a walkover in the semi-finals, and Petcu was a clear winner of the first round.

And after upping her gears in the second, she forced a pair of standing eight counts to earn another stoppage and the title.

It was a tale of two rematches for Campbell in the Elite Class A 69kg group, as she faced Irena Ingram (Aston ABC) in the semi-finals, having met her in the last four of the Elite Championships in Aprill.

Campbell comfortably won the first round, after throwing and landing clean jabs, but the second was a lot closer as Ingram applied more pressure.

The Islington boxer got back to her rhythm in the last round, though, and used her reach to her advantage to earn a unanimous points win.

That led to a final showdown with north London rival Deayndra Allen (Haringey ABC), who Campbell had lost to while with previous club Academy Luton.

Both fighers had their successes in this latest contest but reigning National English Elite and Three Nations champion Campbell was on the right end of a 4-1 split decision and was voted best elite boxer of the tournament.

Club spokesman Reggie Hagland said: "It was a good end of year for Jem and Alexandra who are both reigning national champions. They are both due to box in February at the Golden Girls Box Cup in Sweden. We will have a much larger female boxing team for that as a lot of the girls were out for various reasons including injuries and studying."