A NORTH-EAST college thought it had boxed clever when it nominated two of its students as the warm-up entertainment for a national conference.

But yesterday East Durham and Houghall Community College was dealt a body blow when it was told it was out of the running for being "too controversial".

The Peterlee-based college, which incorporates a prestigious international boxing academy, was proud to put forward a talented duo to perform a unique skipping routine at the annual Colleges' Conference, in Harrogate, North Yorkshire.

Identical twins, teenagers Steffan and Rhydian Hughes, were going to display their deft rope and foot work - until the Association of Colleges ruled that any links with boxing would be unacceptable.

The knock-out shocked community college principal, Ian Prescott, who has labelled the decision "an example of academic snobbery".

He has reminded the association, which represents college principals from throughout the UK, that if the boxing academy was good enough for Sports Minister Kate Hoey to officially open it should be good enough for them.

Accusing the top educationalists of making a serious error of judgement, Mr Prescott said: "The routine is a highly entertaining performance involving synchronised skipping techniques set to music."

Claiming his school of boxing was proving exactly what further education should be about, he added: "When we launched the boxing academy last year, the intention was to bring individuals into education who were traditionally opting out.

"To date our record has been fantastic. Most of our boxers would never have gone near a classroom it if wasn't for the Academy."

After being told his young athletes were "not required", Mr Prescott described the snub as "a disgraceful betrayal of all that we (colleges) should stand for."

But at the association's headquarters in London, a spokeswoman said that while her organisation "genuinely sympathised with the college's disappointment", there was an element of controversy over boxing and it had been decided not to allow the routine to be staged.

There were, she said, further health and safety concerns arising from the size of the performance area in the International Conference Centre , which was considered "too cramped" for the skipping display.

Not impressed with their excuses, Mr Prescott hit back: "I have no doubt that if we had nominated a couple of students to stand and read Shakespeare we would have been welcomed with open arms.