UK Student Archery Association

New Year NEUAL catch up [02/Jan/13]

This editorial is a catch up with the set of NEUAL results published in early December, that is six of the eight scheduled league matches, plus the Novice Championships. NEUAL has retained the individual match format, although the matches are being held in 5 batches across the year. Hull have replaced Northumbria.

The highlight of the first batch of fixtures was a closely fought encounter between Durham and Keele. Rob Storrar scored 565 for Durham, with a 560 in reply from Keele's Dan Ellingham. Colin Affleck notched 553 for Durham however to nudge them to 2142, eight points ahead of Keele, with Leeds a distant third. Elsewhere defending champions Sheffield saw off Lancaster 2147 to 2045 with Huddersfield third. Hull made their full NEUAL debut scoring 1837, losing to York who got 2029, but beating Sunderland who did not shoot.

In the second batch of fixtures there were double digit wins for Keele, Durham and Liverpool, Keele and Liverpool both scoring 2165. Keele beat Lancaster 2165 to 2098, with Sunderland recording a second DNS. Durham edged out York 2095 against 2068, with high 550s from Colin Affleck and Rob Storrar. MMU Cheshire trailed in third. Liverpool's 2165 was more than enough to see off Leeds' 2031 and Huddersfield's 1980.

In the first batch of novice fixtures there were wins for Keele and Sheffield, with Hull's novices picking up maximum points at the first attempt. In the second batch, Keele, MMU Cheshire and Huddersfield took maximum points - Lancaster posted the second highest total, but were up against Keele.

The NEUAL novice championships were held in Huddersfield on 8th December. The top three sides were tough to separate, but it was Keele, fresh from two league match wins, who came out narrowly on top. Keele scored 1350, only twelve clear of Lancaster's 1338, with Sheffield in close attendance on 1319. Places 4, 5 and 6 were similarly closely fought with Bradford on 1255, two ahead from Leeds and nine ahead of Liverpool.

Here are the NEUAL standings as at new year. No results exist for match 3, MMU Cheshire v Bradford v Liverpool or match 6, Sheffield v Bradford v Hull. Durham are the only club to have completed and won two senior league matches - Liverpool and Sheffield both have one win from one. Keele are top of the novice table with maximum points from two league matches and Novice Championship gold.

NEUAL fixtures resume over the first two weekends in February.