UK Student Archery Association

Photo finish for NEUAL, pt 1/2 [17/Apr/08]

After many delays and not a little controversy, the results from NEUAL Indoor Champs and four League Matches have been published. The fixtures took place over three weekends in February and there were twists and turns in of one of the most tightly contested regional league championship races ever. Quick reminder about NEUAL scoring. You get 10 points for winning, 9 for second, 8 for third. Indoor Champs is the same, but also 7 points for fourth and so on down.

Leading into the Indoor Champs (9th Feb) the top of the table was Keele on 29, York on 28, Lancaster on 27, with both Durham and Sheffield on 19 with a game in hand. At the champs themselves Durham with 2166 beat Sheffield with 2162 - a margin of only four points, however poor handwriting from a scorer lead to confusion over whether one Durham arrow value was a 9 or a 4. Durham were eventually awarded the 9, and with it, the title and a maximum ten points. Lancaster's 2138 was just enough to beat Keele who scored 2135, the pair picking up 8 and 7 respectively. York broke 2100 but were fifth, the top five sides all within 50. League table now showed Keele on 36, Lancaster up into second on 35, York on 34, Durham and Sheffield on 29 and 28 having played a game less. In the novice team category, Leeds won the Indoors comfortably on 1476. York finished second only 2 ahead of Durham. After the Indoors the novice table read York and Leeds 46, Sheffield 37 with a game in hand.

The following weekend saw Lancaster v Durham v Keele. Defending NEUAL champions Keele were the winners with 2157, Lancaster not far behind on 2127, but Durham, crucially without Pete Clayton, stumbled to 2048 and third place. In the novice match, Durham ran away with a 100 point win on 1471. In the senior table, Keele and Lancaster had played all five of their fixtures and finished on 46 and 44 points respectively. Durham and York had played four each with Durham on 37, York on 34, with Sheffield played three on 28.

So the scene was set for three matches on the final weekend with defending champions Keele the target on 46 points and aggregate of 10,600. The concluding part of this thriller follows on Monday. If you don't want to know what happened next, don't look at the NEUAL website.