UK Student Archery Association

December Catch Up 4/5 SEAL [13/Dec/17]

Matches 1 and 2 of SEAL took place across the weekends of the 24/25 November and 9/10 December.

For the team results from (and tables following) SEAL match 2, see the SEAL 2017/18 page.

Both senior matches podiums were populated by traditional SEAL top sides Imperial, London and Southampton. In both cases 50 points covered the top three places. In match 1, it was south coast side Southampton who took top spot with 2188, securing them a winning margin of 26. Imperial's margin over third placed London was half of that, with Imperial on 2162 and London 2149. There was another cluster of teams nearly ninety points further back. Surrey (2062) just edged out Sussex (2056) with Portsmouth (2040) and Anglia Ruskin (2022) in close attendance.

Brighton made their SEAL debut in this match and opened with 1838, which was enough to place 12th out of the 14 teams - and only just over 50 away from 10th. Brighton's top scorer was Elizabeth Kellingley with 538. Overall top scorer in match 1 was Harry Charalambous (East Anglia) on 566 whilst there was a 563 from Matthew Sharpe (Surrey) and Russell Foo Chuan Wen (Imperial) scored 562.

Two weeks later in SEAL match 2, the top 3 spots were once again hotly contested. Imperial were first this time on 2166. London finished ahead of Southampton, but the difference was in single figures, 2124 plays 2116. East Anglia and Sussex were clear of the other sides and it was the Norfolk based club whose 2073 saw them finished fourth by four.

The battle for fourth actually saw two of the top three scores, with James Jackson (Sussex) hitting 584 - only 3 shy of the SEAL record - but a 570 from Harry Charalambous (East Anglia) kept his side in front. For the top three, Russell Foo Chuan Wen (Imperial) scored 563, Dominic Collis' (London) 573 kept the defending champions in second and Stuart MacFarquhar (Southampton) 561.

Imperial won the first novice match narrowly from Portsmouth. The Imps team total was 1341, exactly 10 clear of Portsmouth, thanks to top novice Daniel Varga (Imperial) 528. Brunel and Queen Mary were third and fourth, either side of 1200. In novice match 2, Imperial opened up a wide gap on the field with a score of 1456 and all three novices 470+. Southampton were second and London third, the pair on 1264 and 1250. Felix Roberts (London) was top individual on 502.

The senior table now has Imperial on 29, Southampton on 28 and London on 27 and with all three sides pushing out similar aggregates, who might win is far too close to call yet. Perhaps surprisingly, match 2 was Imperial's first win in an all vs. all SEAL match since SEAL began using the format in 2011/12. This fact is surprising because Imperial were arguably the dominant team in SEAL's early days, and won 4 titles, but the most recent of those was (a clean sweep) in 2009/10. Between them, London and Southampton had won the previous 29 regular SEAL matches.

In the novice table, Imperial are also top, but the novice Imps have a 4 point cushion over Portsmouth, with London a further 2 behind. Imperial have won the novice title in SEAL 6 times, including last year.

SEAL's next installment, match 3, doesn't take place until the weekend of the 11th February.