RYAN Jones earned a new admirer when he returned to the ring for Barrow ABC on a show in Poulton last week.

The 10-year-old was taking part in a non-scoring skills bout on the show, but caught the eye of a top England Boxing official who was there helping conduct an annual assessment of the referees and judges.

He in turn passed his comments along to Barrow head coach Jeff Moses, who was delighted to learn one of his young charges made a good impression.

"All the judge and referees were going through an annual assessment, making sure they were judging right, the decisions were right and the refereeing was right," said Moses.

"One of the main men there commented on how skilful and what a future prospect Ryan Jones is. It's nice because he doesn't know any background on Ryan, watched him perform, how he moved around and scored his shots.

"That's a big plus because people forget these little kids are only 10; one minute they're sat in junior school and next they're having a road trip to box in front of 200 or 300 people.

"Some kids would be daunted by it, but he loves it."

Andy Miles was in action in Poulton too in only his second contest, facing a slightly heavier opponent from Blackrod ABC, and lost on points after taking the bout at short notice.

Nevertheless, Moses was pleased to see Miles was eager to get another fight under his belt and that he was able to step in when asked.

"He gave away a little bit of weight, but Andy was that keen to get back out we took the bout," said Moses.

"He got beaten on points, which I think was a fair reflection on the work we've done in between the bout.

"It was at short notice, but all of the boxers are in good condition. It's the same with our show, you get a lot of pull-outs and people who drop out, so you have to ring around asking if clubs can help out.

"That's where working together at all clubs, not just in Cumbria but around the country, helps."

Meanwhile, boxers from the Brook Street gym helped present representatives from the four charities which benefitted from Barrow's annual show last month with the money raised.

A total of £4,400 was brought in from ticket sales, sponsorship and the raffle at the show, with Jo's Appeal, the Emily Mather appeal, St Mary's Hospice and Barrow Autism Group being given £1,100 each.

Cameron McBain, Annika Saltiga, Jones and Ethan Doyle helped hand over the cheques.