JOHN Dugdale is the “choirboy” who is hitting all the right notes after becoming a national schoolboy champion.

The 12-year-old, who boxes for the Sedbergh club in Bradford, reigned supreme in the 41kg division at finals day in Lincolnshire.

Dugdale beat Newham’s Stanley Wiskin to win gold, ending his London opponent’s perfect seven-bout record with a victory by split decision.

His win in Grantham came as no surprise for jubilant coach Peter Cannon, who has tipped his young prodigy to go far.

Cannon said: “I’ve known him ever since he was five and from the moment he first walked into the gym, I knew he was going to be a schoolboy champion one day.

“Now he’s the only one from the Bradford clubs to win it this year. I’m still smiling about it.

“John is like a choirboy; a nice, quiet, polite kid. He is totally opposite to what you would expect.

“He’s quiet as anything outside the ring but then the bell goes and he is a different person altogether.

“He has got a boxer’s brain. He can work out an opponent.

“In the semi-final, I thought he just needed to do a few things different. But I didn’t have to tell him because he had already changed it himself.

“Some kids have two or three bouts to get to the schoolboys final. He had five and three of his opponents were unbeaten.

“He’s got that potential to be very good but he is still very young. It’s just how he goes on.”

The biggest problem facing Dugdale going into the schoolboys’ showdown was peer pressure from around the gym. It wasn’t just Cannon who was confident in the youngster’s ability.

“Everybody was letting him know that he would do it,” added Cannon.

“He boxed two fights to win the Yorkshire finals and when he got to the quarter-finals everyone was saying ‘you’re going to walk this’. That didn’t help him.

“John beat a kid from Liverpool who had won four out of four but he was trying too hard. So we had to take the pressure off him a bit.

“He then boxed a Lincoln lad in the semis and that was his best performance of the tournament. He did everything I hoped for.”

Dugdale is taking a well-earned breather over the summer after an action-packed year. The challenge for Cannon is to keep finding opponents willing to share a ring with him.

He said: “John won ten out of ten, went to Denmark for a tournament and got the ‘best boxer’ award over there and capped it off by winning the schoolboys final. That’s not a bad season.

“It’s just a shame there’s no England opportunity for his age. He’s got to wait a couple more years for that.

“My job is to keep him busy and motivated. He’s had 14 bouts and 13 wins and it’s going to be hard to get him fixed up.

“But we’ve also had some support from Trilocal who donate to local good causes. They’ve put us on their beneficiaries’ list which will be a big help.”