Scotland’s Commonwealth Games boxing squad flew to Bulgaria today where they will begin preparing for Melbourne in earnest. It’s the start of a training programme that will continue through to March in a bid to make the seven strong team one of the best prepared boxing squads to represent their country at the Games.

The squad will spend eight days training and sparring in Bulgaria followed by a week’s rest before competing in their final competition before the Commonwealth Games, the Norway Cup. There will also be a couple of four day intensive training camps in Fife in February and then it’s off to Australia on the 28th to begin acclimatizing and making final preparations.

The boxers representing Scotland at the 2006 Commonwealth Games are as follows:

91kg Steve Simmons (Leith Victoria)
81kg Kenny Anderson (Craigmillar)
75kg Craig McEwan (Clovenstone)
69kg Kris Carslaw (Paisley)
64kg Mark Hastie (Forgewood)
60kg Mitch Prince (Broadwood)
57kg Jason Hastie (Gilmerton)

Scotland won a gold medal at the first ever Commonwealth Games held in Hamilton with James Rolland winning at Lightweight. At the time the Games were called the British Empire Games. And in 1950, Flyweight Hugh Riley and Featherweight Henry Gilliland both came home from New Zealand with gold medals - a feat repeated in 1954 by gold medalists Dick Currie and John Smillie in Vancouver and again in 1958 by Jackie Brown and Dick McTaggart in Cardiff.

Amazingly, Scotland kept up the double gold haul in Perth in 1962 too, with Jackie Brown winning at Flyweight and John McDermott winning at Featherweight. Dick McTaggart won silver at those games.

Scotland had to wait until 1970 for its next Commonwealth boxing gold with Tom Imrie winning at Light Middleweight in Edinburgh and since then only three boxers in Scotland vests have won gold at the Commonwealth Games.

The last time the Commonwealth Games were held in Australia, in Brisbane in 1982, Flyweight Joseph Kelly, brought back Scotland’s only medal, a silver. Four years earlier, James Douglas won silver and John McAllister won bronze in Edmonton.

1986 saw the Commonwealth Games come to Edinburgh with John McAllister, Harry Lawson and Douggie Young all winning silver medals, while Wilson Docherty, Glen Brooks, Alex McMullen and Gordon Ferry took home bronze medals.

In 1990, Light Welterweight Charlie Kane won gold for Scotland and David Anderson brought home a bronze from the Games in Auckland.

In 1994, Paul Shepherd won gold at Flyweight for Scotland in Victoria, Canada, with John Wilson getting silver and Joseph Townsley bronze.

In 1998, Alex Arthur won gold at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, with Colin McNeil and Jackie Townsley coming home with bronze medals.

In 2002, Scotland brought back two bronze boxing medals from Manchester courtesy of Andrew Young and Craig McEwan who was fighting at 71kg at the time, and who will fight at 75kg in Melbourne this year. Incidentally, Jamie Arthur , who was born in Aberdeen, won gold in Manchester representing Wales.