UK Student Archery Association

Success at M5's end [07/Dec/16]

They may be separated by the length of the M5, but there were regional league wins for Exeter and Birmingham over the weeked of the 26th/27th Nov. Exeter won the first SWWU match of the season, whilst Birmingham picked up another win in BUTTS match 2.

Last weekend there was a win for Exeter in the opening match of the SWWU calendar. Exeter scored 2178 whilst defending champions Swansea responded with 2126 in second place. Cardiff were third on 2080, with Bristol in fourth on 2021 as the teams all finished quite spread out from one another. Top scorer in the match was Alec Hodgkinson (Cardiff Met) who scored 563. Hodgkinson won NEUAL with Lancaster in 2014/15. Exeter got within 22 points of 2200 despite having a top score of only 545 - in fact they had 5 archers in the lower 540s.

In the equivalent novice match, Exeter and Swansea were well clear in first and second, Exeter's novice trio combining for a total of 1320, with Swansea on 1248. Plymouth beat Bristol for third place by only 3 points, 1137 to 1134.

Further north, BUTTS match 2 took place on the same weekend. Ashe Morgan and Rebekah Tipping (both Birmingham) and Tom Hall (Warwick) were all absent from this match, Tipping and Hall in Marrakech for the Indoor World Cup. In their absence, Francis Berti (Birmingham) anchored his side's second win from two matches with a 589 that was the highest in the match. Berti also hit a 585 in match 1. Birmingham's total was 2266, with Warwick not far behind on 2243. Sherman Ip (Warwick) top scored for his side with 581. As in match 1, Loughborough were third, but this time they were much closer to the action on 2233 - just an arrow behind Warwick - despite 572 from Arthur Coveney. Rob Gray (Nottingham Trent) scored 585 to help lift Trent ahead of their city rivals Nottingham, but the pair missed out on 2200s.

With the top 4 finishing in the same order for the second match, the overall table is relatively unmoved. Elsewhere there was a 578 from Philippa Taylor (Derby). Christopher Avins (Birmingham) and Jack Masefield (Derby) were 1 and 2 points away from a 570 with 5 other archers in the low 560s. Last BUTTS match saw the All Unis record for gents recurve beaten - this time is was the gents barebow record, which previously stood at 540. Ollie Hartfield (Loughborough) scored 541 to break it and make the Loughborough team.

BUTTS novice matches in recent years have been dominated by Birmingham, who have won 14 of the last 15 BUTTS novice fixtures starting in March 2014. This remarkable run finally came to an end with victory for Warwick who won the match a week after finishing eighth and last in BUTTS match 1. Loughborough were second in the match with Birmingham third. Despite this Birmingham actually ended up increasing their lead to 2 points ahead of Cambridge and Loughborough in the overall table. Jacob Kronquist (Nottingham Trent) scored 508.

For the full tables and results, see the SWWU 16/17 page and the BUTTS 16/17 page.