THAME teenager James Nevin turned on the style to stop Chelmsford's Ben Cowie in the National Junior ABA Championship quarter-finals at the Cowley Conservative Club.

The 17-year-old was always in control against his Chelmsford opponent on the bill promoted by Berinsfield ABC.

Nevin unleashed a powerful right hand to send his opponent crashing to the canvass in the first round, forcing him to take a standing count.

The Thame fighter kept up the pressure in the second and, after catching Cowie with a combination of punches in the third, the referee gave the Chelmsford lad another standing count before stopping the contest.

Now Nevin goes on to the semi-finals in Manchester on April 25 when he will bid to try and take a further step towards emulating his brother, Danny, who won the National Schoolboys Championship last month. Danny Nevin, meanwhile, has a big date on the same night when he is due to fight for England against Wales in Aberavon.

On the undercard at Cowley, Thame middleweight Ben Underwood, who stepped in at late notice, put up a game perfromance before going down on points to Stevenage's Steve French.

Berinsfield's Simon Welsh, a Home Counties Schoolboys champion and NABC semi-finalist, was involved in a cracking contest against Jones, who took a narrow points verdict.

RESULTS

National Junior quarter-finals: B Broomfield (New Astley) bt M Puncheon (Bushy) pts, M Mitchell (New Astley) bt P Kenwright (Bushy) pts, N Hayes (Stevenage) bt R Pizey (Norwich), B Smith (King's Lynn) bt L Scott (Slough) pts, J Nevin (Thame) bt V S Cowie (Chelmsford) rsf 3rd.

Supporting contests: N Byrns (Thames Valley) bt D Fisher (Berinsfield) pts, J Eley (Milton Keynes Royals) bt G Lissendon (Berinsfield) pts, J Jones (Wales) bt S Welsh (Berinsfield) pts, M Coombes (Portsmouth Stacey) bt B Stewart (Berinsfield) pts, M Pardoe (Droitwich) bt M Lobb (Berinsfield) pts, C Prat (Bracknell) bt J Grant (Berinsfield) rsf 3rd, S French (Stevenage) bt B Underwood (Thame) pts.