CALL it what you like – the Brawl in the Hall, the Beau Sejour War or the Jab in the John Loveridge Hall – it all amounts to the same thing.

A rollicking good night of sport.

For 800 tickets to go in just 15 minutes is adequate evidence that islanders have a huge appetite for watching boxing. So much so, it is a mystery to me why the sport nosedived so alarmingly between the heady days of the 40s and 50s and the recent revival.

The answer may well be two-fold.

One: the inter-island club squabbles which seem to affect sports from time to time, and two: the loss of an adequate venue.

All the big shows of boxing’s glorious past were staged at St George’s Hall.

But when that closed its doors for the last time in 1966, there was no Beau Sejour Centre to come to the rescue. That was still 11 years away.

If that was not enough of a low blow, the seemingly inevitable inter-club politics put boxing on the ropes.

Thirty years ago the Sarnia Amateur Boxing Club led by Gerry Walsh was a thriving entity producing boxers, I fancy, of greater quality than today’s bunch.

But if the now defunct Sarnia ABC, which staged terrific Sunday night shows at the Carlton, could not get on with the established Amalgamated BC, what chance then of Guernsey boxing as a whole working fully with Jersey and its two clubs?

The answer to that is as much chance of me going one round with Matt Jennings, which a few football people might jump at the chance to witness.

It’s always a nonsense when sports politics interferes with what is best for the sport and the most important people in any sport – those who play it.

We should all hope tonight’s show is the start of a new era for Channel Islands boxing and good inter-island relationships in and out of the ring.

The boxers will benefit from it and that’s the most important thing.

That there will only be six CI belts up for grabs and all at junior level is a shade disappointing, but it is a start.

Let’s hope that soon all three islands – yes, Alderney must not be forgotten given its heritage for producing top fighters – buy into the CI area title idea. For all the problems associated with it – correct matching and unbiased judging being the two fundamental hurdles – it is worth pursuing for the boxers involved and those who follow the sport.

Remember, when it comes to sport, Jersey is vital to us and vice-versa.

Sure, some take inter-island rivalry too far, but because they are our nearest – and dare we say dearest  – traditional rival, the competitive link with them is all-important, if not the be-all and end-all of matters.

The CI’s top performers should always be looking beyond shores divided by just 20 miles of water.

One man who got the Guernsey-Jersey thing dead right was Sidney England Guy.

The long-departed Jersey sports official and multi-faceted sports correspondent for the Jersey Evening Post enjoyed a little bit of love, and a whole lot of hate, relationship with Sarnian sport.

And one beautiful summer’s Sunday morning at La Moye he told me about what he saw as the golden values of Guernsey-Jersey sport.

Primarily it should be played by those born in either island.

And as we followed the action down the sixth fairway towards the west coast cliffs, old Sid looked north-west across the misty deep-blue sea and said, I quote: ‘What a wonderful day. The sun’s shining and you can’t see bloody Guernsey.’

Let’s hope for some cracking boxing tonight and for CI clubs seeing the bigger picture for the good of an obviously very popular sport.