UK Student Archery Association

SSS, SEAL titles decided [17/Mar/16]

Edinburgh and London won their final league matches to win the SSS and SEAL senior league titles. Aberdeen and Southampton were the closest challengers, with both two league points behind. Edinburgh made it a SSS double with a novice clean sweep, whilst Southampton topped the SEAL novice table despite a late wobble. Results from batch 7 and Indoor Champs of NEUAL will follow shortly.

Edinburgh had stuttered before Christmas and led Aberdeen by only one point heading in to match 4 (Strathclyde, 27th Feb). As in match 3, Edinburgh fielded a full strength side and cruised to victory with 2272. Just over a hundred points behind, Aberdeen scored 2169 in second place, whilst Strathclyde took third place ahead of Napier 2111 to 2093. Individually the match was dominated by Vlado Hurban and Guy Matzkin (both Edinburgh) who scored 585 and 574.

In the novice match, Edinburgh completed a clean sweep with a fourth win. Napier, Strathclyde and Heriot-Watt meanwhile were level on points in second going in to the match. Napier easily took second in this match (and thus overall) 200 clear of Strathclyde (who were third), whilst Heriot-Watt only brought two novices. Thomas MacArthur (Heriot-Watt) hit 546 to be top novice by some distance, with Christel Yeung (Napier) hitting 510.

West of Scotland completed their maiden SSS campaign this season. Based in Hamilton, they are the first new club to join the SSS league since Napier in 2005 and even hosted a fixture.

In SEAL, London secured their third senior championship in four years with a score of 2173 to win match 5 by over 50 points. Southampton were second on 2120, with Portsmouth in third, 2 points over 2100. Southampton also finished second in the league overall - London have 73 points to Southampton's 71. Portsmouth finished third in the final table on 61, by far their best result. In all three of Portsmouth's previous SEAL campaigns, they finished 9th. Andrew Howe (Southampton) scored 577 in the leg, whilst there was a 570 from Dominic Collis (London).

Imperial scored 2085 against Surrey's 2083, with Sussex in sixth. This result moves Imperial and Surrey up to 4th and 5th overall, overtaking Brunel, with Surrey doing so narrowly on points aggregate. Despite the late stumble, this sixth place is Brunel's first ever finish inside the top half of a senior SEAL league table. They did finish 3rd in 2004/05, but that was in a 4 team league - these days SEAL is somewhat larger.

Four clubs have worn the SEAL crown. London join Southampton and Surrey on three titles each, whilst Imperial have four.

In SEAL's novice league, the final match was won comfortably by Imperial with Southampton finishing as league champions, although the table closed up markedly at the end. Southampton had led Reading by 6 after 3 fixtures, but Reading closed that gap by 3 in match 4. Fourth place in the final match would effectively guarantee Southampton their 4th novice title in 5 years and they did just that. Reading were third in the match, with London in second. Southampton finished on 68, two ahead of Reading, with Imperial on 65. This is effectively Reading's best ever novice finish. They did also place 2nd in 2007/08, but fixtures from that season were not all completed.

In the match itself, there were scores in the 510s from James Jackson (Sussex), Samuel Everett (Brunel) and Shawn Ong (Imperial).

See the SSS and SEAL standings.