UK Student Archery Association

ELeague Season Review [04/May/09]

The 2008/09 ELeague season has finished with the final results all available on the ELeague website.

Edinburgh won senior recurve division 1 with 49 points ahead of Warwick's 46, or effectively winning 4 months to Warwick's 1. Nottingham recorded five third places to finish third on 40. Surrey were fourth on 31 ahead of Cambridge on 27, Imperial on 23 and Loughborough on 22. Oxford survived in eighth overall, scoring 7 of their 16 points in March - largely based on their bronze medal winning performance at BUCS Indoors. NEUAL duo York and Keele occupy the bottom two slots, but NEUAL will be represented next season as Liverpool and Lancaster were the top two A sides in division 2. Swansea A won division 3 with maximum points and getting promoted for the third season in a row - the Welsh side unbeaten in their last 14 ELeague rounds. Warwick C were also promoted from division 3. BUTTS duo Birmingham C and Derby A were the top two in division 4, whilst SEAL duo Kent A and London A were the top two in the Conference, Essex A missing out by a point in the last round.

In compound division 1 Edinburgh pipped Nottingham 44 to 42, winning the March round 10-9.

Edinburgh Nottingham were also 1-2 in novice recurve division 1, with Edinburgh on a maximum of 50, Nottingham on 43. Warwick finished ahead of Keele 35 to 32 with Cambridge fifth on 25. With Durham marooned at the foot of the table, there was an almight scramble to avoid finishing ninth, Napier, Lancaster and Sheffield (with 8 in the last round) just edging out York. Loughborough and Birmingham were the top two A sides in division 2. Division 3 was topped by Nottingham B and Liverpool A well in front whilst Derby A and Essex A were the top two in the conference.

In the individual categories George Harding (Nottingham) and Matt Sharpe (Surrey) were well in front, with final score 96 out of a possible 100 for Harding and 93 for Sharpe, despite Sharpe's maximum in March. Phil King and Chris Wells (both Warwick) both finished on 74 points, King's slightly higher average winning him third place. Erik Rowbotham (Edinburgh) was fifth gent on 64 whilst his club mates made ladies recurve look like an internal club competition. Jenny Jeppsson, Elizabeth Williams, Kyshiea George-Steele, Ani Zhang and Naomi Jones (all Edinburgh) were first, second, third, fourth and fifth on 100, 89, 86, 79 and 75 respectively - extraordinary domination by any standards.

Andrew Tappenden (Swansea) beat Joe Sawyer (Derby) 98-97 (or three two depending on how you look at these things) in gents barebow, whilst Helen Bundy (Derby) scored a perfect 100 in ladies barebow. Jimm Taylor (Birmingham) won gents compound on 87, whilst Maggie Ziriax (Edinburgh) scored 99 in ladies compound. Top longbows were James Cram (Birmingham) 95 and Emma Broxholme (Lancaster) on 78.

The novice individual categories was a tale of Edinburgh v Nottingham. Chris Fry (Nottingham) won gents on 78 points, ahead of Matthew Dalby (Edinburgh) on 76, with Edinburgh gents in three and four. Laura Bell (Nottingham) won ladies with 92 ahead of Anni Van Nieuwenhuizen (Edinburgh) on 89, the rest of the top five going Edinburgh, Nottingham, Nottingham.

Congratulations to all the many teams and individuals who took part. By its nature, the ELeague must be the biggest student competition, but the sheer volume of scores entered is remarkable. Many thanks to Matt Johnson and Ian Caulfield for keeping the whole thing running smoothly. Promotions and relegations will be confirmed on the ELeague website in due course. Scores for the new ELeague season can be shot from Tue 1st Sep.