IRVINE Vineburgh Boxing Club served up a night of thrills and spills at their annual home show last Friday.

It was standing room only in the Volunteer Rooms as a raucous crowd cheered on some of Irvine’s boxing stars of the future.

Home welterweight Daniel Gilmour (pictured) kicked off proceedings against Chad Connor of Newarthill Boxing Club.

There was a clear clash of styles between the two but Gilmour made a solid start to the fight, landing cleanly with single shots.

Slickster Connor moved well around the ring to try and keep Gilmour at bay but the Vineburgh fighter continued to pile on the pressure.

The referee decided Gilmour did enough over the designated three rounds to get the nod.

Stevie Murray oozed class in his junior bout with David Gibbons (Garnock Valley BC) to make it 2-0 for Vineburgh.

The 16-year-old put in a scintillating shift and peppered Gibbons with blistering combinations to the head and body.

Murray’s spiteful punching and nimble footwork caused Gibbons problems throughout and the away fighter had to take a standing eight count in the second.

Gibbons tried to compete in the third but Murray was simply a class above and produced one of the best performances of the night. Remember the name, Stevie Murray could go all the way..

Welterweight Ryan Lawson must have had a taxi waiting on him outside because it took him less than two minutes to blitz past Miguel Watt (Dunfermline BC).

Backed by his boisterous supporters, Lawson made a rapid start to the fight and landed stiff shots in the opening exchanges. Watt was forced to take the obligatory standing count after soaking up too many unanswered blows.

Lawson incredibly gestured to his fans for more noise but trainer Alec Mullen ordered his man to calm down.

Despite surviving the ref’s count it wasn’t long before Watt was eventually stopped in the first. Lawson’s jab repeatedly jolted Watt’s head backwards and simply couldn’t miss with any shots he threw.

Irvine Vineburgh’s Craig Ross and David Aikman (Larkhall BC) produced the fight of the night with a thrilling three-round slugfest.

Both set a frenetic pace from the first bell and gave as good as they got. But middleweight novice Ross was dropped during a wild exchange which saw Aikman land a couple of shots while his opponent was on the deck.

Ross recovered well though and landed well with the right hand. Towards the end of the fight, however, Ross suffered a cut on his left eye before being badly rocked and stung by four unanswered shots.

The home fighter was deemed the winner by the scoring officials but Ross’ face told a different story.

In the main event, Damien Murray’s ebullient fans nearly blew the roof of the Volunteer Rooms as he entered the ring to fight Martin Haskins (Greenock BC).

Murray boxed well in the opener and remained calm under any pressure from Haskins.

But in the second Murray was deemed to have been knocked down and took the referee’s count.

And things went from bad to worse for the popular welterweight as Haskins landed a flush left hook followed by a three punch combination to send Murray crumpling to the canvas.

Murray bravely rose to his feet but he was clearly in no position to the continue and the referee brought the bout to a halt.

But his army of fans were still in full voice despite the stoppage as chants of “There’s only one Damien Murray” reverberated throughout the hall.

Elsewhere on the bill, babyfaced Irvine battler Joe Kelly (Garnock Valley BC) won a close points decision to continue his amateur ascension.

Jamie Glover (Irvine Vineburgh) drew with Lewis Hay (Keir Hardie BC) after suffering a cut in the second round and Calvin McCord (Doon Valley BC) beat Josh Sanford (Springhill BC) on a controversial decision.