Boxing: Jones praises Mitchell for battling display

"Boxing is my daily job. While Louise isn't full time like me, I found her to be incredibly strong and fast in the early part of the bout and her jabs commanded my respect," said Jones. "But I was always confident that my experience would tell in the later stages, but she was certainly one of the toughest opponents I've ever fought." In the opening round, Mitchell confidently speared Jones with fast left jabs and stinging hooks while sticking and moving to avoid her Welsh rival's dangerous looping right crosses.

However, in the second and third stanzas, as Mitchell visibly tired, Jones hit her stride and forced the Edinburgh boxer to be sucked into furious toe-to-toe exchanges on the ropes.

Mitchell said afterwards: "I gave it my best shot but I didn't realise that Charlene Jones was a full-time boxer. That encourages me to feel that overall I didn't do badly in there, but her experience definitely told too."

Mitchell's Holyrood coach, 1993 British lightweight champion Bradley Welsh, added: "Considering that Louise hadn't boxed competitively for months, that was a great showing against a really good opponent."

Colin Jones, Welsh team coach and former British and European welterweight champion, said: "Louise Mitchell put up a very good performance but my boxer made her experience pay fully overall and won well."

In the top of the bill clash, Lochend's 2010 Commonwealth Games lightweight silver medallist Josh Taylor defeated Wales's Mitch Buckland 11-5 to give the Scottish hosts an overall 11-5 win in the tournament.

But Ken Buchanan, Edinburgh ring legend and former world lightweight champion, and Taylor's club coach, Terry McCormack, gave the capital southpaw ace mixed reviews for his efforts.

Buchanan, who trains alongside Taylor at the Lochend gym, said: "Josh is a hugely talented lightweight but he could have won by a bigger score had he used the excellent left jab that I know he possesses more."

McCormack said: "Mitch Buckland being a southpaw like Josh made things awkward but my complaint is that Taylor went to sleep after going 9-2 ahead on points at the end of the second round."

Again, McCormack was critical of aspects of his Lochend flyweight Liam Tarvert's losing performance by a narrow 5-4 points margin to Welsh substitute Jarod Jones.

He said: "I felt Tervert waited too long, too often, to let his own punches go."Another outstanding eastern winner was Fife-based light-flyweight Brandon Singh, who beat Robbie Vernon 11-3, while Welsh bantamweight Sam Baker came from behind to outscore Grangemouth and Scotland's Bryce Stewart.

The joint top of the bill was shared with two Scots from the west. Bantamweight Joe Ham and welterweight Aston Brown clashed with top English internationalists Qais Ashfaq and Tom Langford. Both Scots boxers posted impressive wins by 11-3 and 16-8 respectively.