UK Student Archery Association

December Catch Up 5/5 NEUAL [15/Dec/17]

NEUAL matches E1 and W1 took placed over the weekend of the 11th November, followed by E2, W2 & N1 (18th November), followed by E3, W3 & N2 (25th November) and followed by the Novice Championships (2nd Dec).

For the new and updated team results from (and tables following) the third set of NEUAL fixtures, see the NEUAL 2017/18 page.

E1 and W1 (11th Nov) were of contrasting competitiveness, with winning margins of 1 and 229. UCLan, who finished 5th (out of 16) overall last season, came out on top against Keele 1956 aganist 1955, with Salford trailing well behind in third. Hull scored 2085 and are top overall. Hull beat Huddersfield by around 200, with Leeds a further 200 behind. Keele and Hull won the novice matches.

W3 saw defending champions Lancaster beaten by UCLan 2063 to 2046, with Liverpool trailing in third on 2006. Further east there was a higher scoring encounter between York, Hull and Sheffield. Sheffield's 2057 would almost have been enough to win match W2, but in E2, they finished comfortably third. Hull scored 2120, but ultimately had no answer to York, who posted 2181, with a 570 from David Shaw. Newcastle won N1 on 2023 with Durham in second and Sunderland a distant third. Hull and Liverpool had fairly easy novice wins. Astonishingly no novices at all were fielded in match N1, so no points all round.

The highlight of the third set of matches was unquestionably in E3 as York tussled with Bradford. David Shaw (York) hit 570 for the second week in a row, but despite Matthew Gardiner (Bradford) scoring 573, Bradford fell just short with 2186 against York's 2195. Huddersfield were a distant third. Liverpool cleared 2000 by a whisker, but still had far too much for second placed Salford and new club Chester. Chester's maiden score of 1288 came from 4 barebows (two of whom were novices). Max Clark was Chester's top barebow on 380. In their match, Durham managed to reverse their defeat to Newcastle from seven days previously, 2054 to 2010, with Teesside third. Bradford, Liverpool and Teesside were relatively untroubled in the novice matches. Top novice score was 505 from Ather Butt (Bradford).

The NEUAL novice championships were in Leeds on 2nd December. Because all the clubs are up against one another, there is a greater reward for good performances and greater punishment for poorer ones - assuming you attend, you can only drop 2 points in a NEUAL league match, whereas at a NEUAL championship event you can drop a lot more.

Eighty points covered the top 5, with Keele coming out with maximum points courtesy of a team total of 1332. Durham were the other side over 1300 on 1306. They included top scorer Theo Blackwell's 511. Liverpool were third on 1289, with Bradford, Huddersfield and Leeds spread across the 1200s.

Trying to work out who is winning in NEUAL can be slightly tricky as clubs can have played differing numbers of matches and against differing standards of opposition. League points dropped and average match aggregate are good indicators though and there does seem to have been a marked shift in power from West to East this year. Western Conference clubs have won the overall title in each of the last 5 seasons. This year York lead, whilst Bradford are by far (so far) their closest competitors. Bradford have never won the NEUAL senior title but have finished runners-up three times in 2005, 2016 and 2017. How important York's 9 point win over Bradford in E3 proves won't be truly resolved unti the NEUAL Indoor Champs when the pair meet again.