Princess Mary's Royal Air Force
Nursing Service
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The
Knock Out Nurse What could jabs,
straight rights, and left hooks possibly have in common with nursing? Plenty, it
seems. Cpl Tham Shezi a PMRAFNS staff nurse is the current 1st choice
RAF middleweight boxer and just a few weeks ago battled it out to the finals
tri-services championships, wining himself silver. He is truly a breath of fresh
air in RAF boxing from the usual suspects, the hard hitting boys of the RAF
regiment colloquially referred to as the ‘rock apes’. Finding a balance
with training and the all round shift orientated work had not been easy for the
young staff nurse. But a week
before the championships the RAF team had a week’s squad training at Odiham
(largely regarded as the home of RAF boxing). The Championships final took place at the Royal Star and
Garter Home in Richmond. The event
was remarkably organised and well attended. Bouts were across
six weight categories, from light weights to super-heavy weights. The RAF team
comprised of the best contenders from various bases and some traveling from as
far as Cyprus and Gibraltar for the championships.
The RAF boxers showed courage, skill and determination in most of their
fights, but unfortunately only two of their boxers managed to win their bouts.
One could only say, ‘it just wasn’t their night! The majority of the fights
were won by the army boxers (who are all full-time boxers). Fight
night
After having won 13
fights in 14 outings and holding the 2005 British and Irish universities title
at welterweight- Cpl Shezi was a smooth operator using his long reach and
ability to switch-hit, moving from the orthodox to southpaw with good results. Shezi worked well
in the first round and bombarded his opponent with straight shorts and slipping
the jab well to allow a counter attack. The second was even with both boxers
trying to outwit each other. The
third saw a more hesitant Davidson allow Shezi to move in and out of range and
tee off with a continuous flow of range of punches. Going into the
final round Davidson’s army fitness helped him to out run the constant forward
punching Shezi. On the final bell
the referee went to the judges’ score cards, it was close on points and both
boxers worked extremely hard. Both
deserved a win, and in the eyes of the judges it was Davidson’s with a score
of 6-5. Cpl Shezi was presented the silver medal. Why
not try RAF boxing? Throughout the
years, boxing has been consistently acknowledged as second to none in the field
of all round fitness, and is exactly this fitness that the RAF Boxing clubs aims
to bring to any interested airman or woman, whatever trade or rank.
Not only would boxing be a good idea to anyone wanting to burn a few
pounds and flatten the stomach it would be the perfect answer to beating the
mandatory annual bleep tests times without breaking much sweat, worse yet
getting posted a remedial PT sessions order.
As much as boxing
can be argued to be an individual participant sport, the clubs across all bases
practice and harness a more team approach to training and competition. The
coaches have a wealth of experience in the boxing world, in most respects they
are well-accomplished boxers. RAF Boxing Association (BA) clubs cater for all
airmen and women interested in boxing from beginner’s level right through to
Olympic class contenders. In addition to the
all round fitness attained in boxing, the RAFBA brings interesting and exciting
opportunities for local and periodically, foreign tours to its members.
Last year the RAF team competed against the US Air Force, winning 5 to 4
humiliating the well supported yanks on their own turf. Currently
negotiations are at advance stage for a Hong Kong tour aimed for mid next year,
to compete with their Police force. Finally,
I would passionately recommend anyone to join and I’m sure they won’t be
disappointed practicing the sweet science of boxing. Cpl Thamsanqa Shezi |
(c) Crown Copyright 2007
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