Neil Gough from the St Paul's club in Waterford, aiming for his eighth National title at the National Stadium last night, out-pointed Robert Murray from the Dublin club St Matthew's in a lively semi-final.

Gough did not have matters all his own way in this welterweight bout and although he won the decision by 14 points to nine, he was fully stretched by Murray.

The two men were level on points at the end of the first round as Gough struggled to find his rhythm. His experience began to tell, however, and he led 8-5 at the end of the second round. He managed to stretch that to 11-7 at the end of the third round and in a grandstand finish, Murray went all out for victory but Gough's strength and ringcraft saw him through.

With 10 bouts on the bill, it was left to Damian McKenna in the bantomweight division to score the first victory of the night for a reigning champion. McKenna won his bout 16-5 against Michael O'Kane. This was not before McKenna had to take a standing count in the third round.

Also in the bantomweight division, Michael Burke from the St Ibar's club in Wexford beat Charles Nash from The Ring club in Derry, 16-10. In the lightweight division the vastly experienced Eugene McEneaney from Dundalk had a convincing 17-6 win over Stephen Twohig from Sunnyside, Cork, withTwohig given a standing count in the third round.

The fight of the night turned out to be in the heavyweight division with the reigning champion Stephen Reynolds from Sligo coming back to win convincingly in the end over Stephen Dawson from the Crumlin Club in Dublin.