UK Student Archery Association

Edinburgh win Titles Fight [15/Feb/13]

Quick note to start this editorial - we are hoping to bring live streamed coverage of BUTC 2013, now less than 48 hours away. Full details of how to watch will appear on this site shortly.

Edinburgh won the fourth and final senior and novice SSS League Matches to retain both trophies in what has been the most competitive Scottish league season for many years, see SUS tables. There was also a SEAL match completed and won by London, with Imperial returning to form and Southampon hit by exam withdrawals - this will be reviewed in full in an editorial article after BUTC, see SEAL tables.

Having lost their first Scottish league (or championship) match for very nearly 11 years, Edinburgh roared back to wining ways with a team score of 2216. This was exactly 40 clear of 2176 from Aberdeen, who caused said defeat the previous week, with Napier on 2126, a further 50 behind.

Piotr Wojtczuk (Napier) top scored in the match on 572, with David Gardner (Aberdeen) just behind on 569. Third in the match, and leading his side to fourth overall was Florian Trigodet (Heriot-Watt) who scored 562 out of 1989.

Edinburgh therefore finish the league season as champions on 39 points, with Aberdeen on 37. Napier finished 3rd in all 4 matches and Heriot-Watt were best of the rest, pinching 4th spot on the final day from Dundee on points aggregate.

In the novice league, Edinburgh vs Napier has been a fantastic tussle so far. In the end a great performance from Edinburgh saw them home with 1570 - a very high novice team total for early February. Napier fell just short of 1500 on 1494, despite a 533 from Andrej Chrustaliov. Edinburgh's top scorers were Roy Hotrabhvanon 549 and Vlad Cecati 524. Heriot-Watt were third going just over 1400.

Napier had led the novice league all season, but in the last match Edinburgh drew level on 38 points, after two wins each. Edinburgh secured the novice title with a superior aggregate over the four matches, 5865-5780. Heriot-Watt were comfortably third overall on 31 points.

On the surface it seems like yet another set of Scottish titles for Edinburgh, but in reality this is the second year in a row that Edinburgh have been required to dig much deeper to make sure of silverware. This is altogether a much healthier situation for the Scottish league which has suffered in this regard in the past.

There is a mixed team H2H event in Edinburgh on Sat 16th, with Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Napier heading down to Lancaster for BUTC afterwards. The SSS Indoor Championships, which are separate from the League, take place in Aberdeen on Sat 23rd Feb.