London collected their first ever senior SEAL title with a win in the fifth and final leg. Winning the final match made it four wins out of five, but it has been far from plain sailing for London. Three of those wins have been by less than 20 points.
In match 5, London scored 2185, beating Southampton's total of 2166. Behind the leading pair, Surrey and Kent were in the mix for third place, Surrey's 2112 just enough to see off Kent's 2089, whilst Sussex pipped Essex 2011 to 2005. Top scorers in the match were David Barnes (London) and Matt Sharpe (Surrey) both of whom scored 564.
Southampton completed a SEAL match clean sweep, with an impressive 1584 in the match. London were denied a clean sweep of second places by Kent who scored 1399 to London's 1351. Sussex's 1316 saw them finish 4th, their best novice finish of the campaign. Andrew Howe (Southampton) scored an impressive 558 - over 40 clear of his rivals and in fact the top score for Southampton's seniors.
As SEAL completes its tenth season, London are the fourth different club to become champions. London's club has oscillated wildly in terms of strength and size - the nearest they have previously come to this title was back in 2003 when they missed out on points aggregate. This time, with 54 points, they finish seven clear of Southampton who finished second - leg 3 costing Southampton a title charge.
Surrey finished out on their own in third place on 43, although they were well clear in third place, Surrey never truly threatened the top two. SEAL's mid table has been unpredictable all season long. In the end Essex grabbed fourth spot with 34 points - and were the last team with a match aggregate in five figures. Kent (33) overtook Imperial (32) at the finish.
Southampton's five wins out of five in the novice league (albeit leg 3 was by a solitary point) gave a perfect 55 points. London were denied a full house of second places by Kent in the last match, so settle for 49 points, with Kent themselves third on 40. Remarkably, Reading were fourth, despite a DNS, on 32 points, with newcomers Portsmouth finishing in the top half of the table at the first attempt.
Full final SEAL standings can be seen here. A SEAL Outdoor Championships is planned, likely to be a FITA 720 in the first weekend in June. This year, Stephen Fawcett and SEAL have also been looking at possible reconstruction - increasing to 11 teams has put a strain on the hosting capabilities of the clubs in question, with Open Competitions already being used to help piece together matches.
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