NEIL GOUGH from the St Paul's Club in Waterford, who already has won four National senior boxing titles, was given a considerable fright at the National Championships in Dublin last night by the Ulster champion Bill Cowan, who made a determined effort to wrest the title from Gough in the last round of an intriguing contest.

Going into that last round, Gough was seven points in front with the computerised score indicating a lead of 17 points to 10; but by the end of the fifth and final round Cowan had narrowed the gap to three, even though he had been given a public warning for ducking his head, and it left a relieved Gough the winner by 19 points to 16.

It had not been a very exciting contest until then. Gough started slowly and the boxers were scored even, at one point each, after the first round.

Gough increased the pressure in the second to take a lead of six points to three, and then got into his stride fully in the third, after which he was leading 12 points to five.

This pattern continued in the fourth, but although Gough was scoring frequently, Cowan made his intentions clear and the high scoring of 17-10 at the end of the fourth round indicated that the capacity crowd in the National Stadium were getting good value for their money.

The evening sited on a disappointing note fur the reigning lightflyweight champion, Jim Prior, from Darndale in Dublin, when he was beaten by James Rooney from Star in Belfast. Unfortunately, the computerised system broke down at the start of this fight and the judgement was left to the three-man jury; but they decided pretty clearly that Rooney was the winner on a score of four votes to one.

There was further disappointment for somebody who is familiar with this experience, when Donal Hosford from Greenmount in Cork, was beaten in his fourth Irish senior title attempt by Liam Cunningham from Saints in Belfast on a score of 23-20.

The bantamweight division was unusual in so far as two Irish reigning champions were in contention. The holder of the title at this weight, Damien McKenna, from Holy Family in Drogheda, was meeting last year's flyweight champion Damnen Kelly from Holy Trinity in Belfast and the two champions produced a splendid contest with the vastly experienced Kelly winning it at the end on a score of 11, points to seven.

Although McKenna was trailing by four points at the end of the fourth round, he did not surrender without typically stiff resistance.

In the featherweight division, Pat O'Donnell from The Dockers Club in Belfast won his first Irish title in a less than impressive bout against Aodh Carlyle from the Sacred Heart Club in Dublin on a score of four points to two, and at lightweight Eugene McEneaney from Dundalk bent Declan Barrett from Rylane in Cork by 14 points to four.

The first half of the bill was completed when Glenn McClarnon from the Holy Family Club in Belfast beat Patrick Walsh from Cork with a clear 26-10 decision in his favour.

The romantic notion that Ciprian Petren Surugiu from Romania might become an Irish champion disappeared when the reigning middleweight champion, Brian Magee from Belfast hammered out a convincing 19-9 victory.