JOE Penfold, aged 14, of Weston Warriors ABC travelled to Guildford for the England Boxing finals weekend.

Joe, last year's national finalist, is co-trained by respected Somerset pro/am coaches Dean Lewis and David Entwistle in Weston-super-Mare and Taunton.

On the Saturday he was drawn in his national semi final against Sydney Welch, of Darlington ABC, who boasted an impressive 12 victories from 14 contests.

The first round saw both boys start slowly, but as the pace stepped up it was Penfold who got the better of the fiery exchanges out landing his game opponent.

Round two saw the talented Welch establish his jab which set up some clean solid right crosses.

So it all went to the third and final round. After some hectic exchanges it was Penfold who seemed to just about outscore his Darlington rival.

The judges saw it as a very close bout but announced Penfold as a 3-2 split decision winner.

On Sunday Penfold contested his second national final in as many years after coming up just short the first time.

This year he was again up against it as he faced a 2019 national champion in James ‘Champ’ Friend of the well respected Camberley ABC.

Penfold started the first round by confidently taking the centre of the ring and looking to move in and out of range, countering any mistakes from Champ.

Friend tended to rush his attacks, losing balance as Joe controlled the tempo and landed the better shots.

In round two Joe was instructed by his coaches to hold his distance more and not jump in when attacking.

This allowed him to seamlessly slip into a sinister rhythm making his opponent miss while landing with quality fast attacks himself.

Penfold managed to keep this rhythm going throughout the third and final stanza dominating the round.

The Somerset boxer was declared a unanimous winner and crowned the England Boxing Cadets National Champion at 48-50kg.