It was a double delight for Joe Rider at the Colchester Amateur Boxing Club presentation evening.

He picked up a pair of prestigious awards in recognition of his season’s efforts.

The evening got under way with the presentation of recognition medals to all the Jubilee Beginners Class members to commemorate their endeavours in the club’s National Skills Awards programme.

Club secretary Carl Barton said: “This is the first time in our long history that we have had such a project to celebrate, and we thought we would mark the occasion by having unique medals made to award to our young members.

“Getting younger seniors qualified to lead the programme and running the beginners’ sessions in such an organised and incentivised way has been one of our biggest successes of the year.”

There were also special awards presented to Joe Mazerole, Alfie Smith, Tommy Reid and Ellie Janes for their attainments throughout the year.

Joseph Davis was awarded the Fred Hawkins Award for June Member of the Month, and Fred was on hand himself to present the award.

Amongst the competitive boxers, Rider began his success by picking up the Club Champion trophy, presented by Chairman Kev Perry.

He later closed the evenings business by receiving the Best Boxer of the Season Award.

In between, Fraser Wood won the Most Improved Senior, Charlie Reid collected the accolade for Best Junior Prospect, while John Beswick picked the matching Senior Award.

Louis Curtis won the Best Performance of the Season by a Junior, and received a bonus when he also collected an award from Norwich City ABC for Best Bout of the Evening from their show this month.

Toby Watson won the Best Senior Performance Trophy, and there were also Representative Awards for all boxers that represented the club during the season.

There was also a commemorative tankard presented to retiring member Mickey Pye as a thank you for his long service to the club.

Mick has served the club as Coach, Secretary and Treasurer and has made a sizeable contribution to the club for many years.

His tankard was presented on the night by another long-serving member, Dave Edwards.