UK Student Archery Association

Calculators out for SEAL thriller [19/Mar/18]

The fifth and final SEAL match of the season gave rise to a sensational finish to the league, with Imperial coming from 3rd place and seemingly out of contention to grab the title. SEAL 2017/18 has been the tightest regional league in the history of regional leagues - the top three were all on identical points after both 3 and 5 matches. SEAL match 5 was hosted over the weekend of the 3rd and 4th March with some postal scores added in over the coming week.

Going in to the match in the senior table, Southampton led by a point (& 33 aggregate) from London in what had apparently become a two horse race. Imperial, who had recorded a 4th placed finish behind Sussex, were a further 2 behind and thus saw their title chances "recede sharply", according to UKSAA.

In match 5 itself however, Imperial scored 2189 to win the fixture comfortably. The next highest score came from Sussex with 2145. Second place is Sussex's best individual match result since the league brought in the all vs. all format in 2011/12, but their score in this match proved important for other teams too. London were third on 2136, whilst Southampton were fourth on 2108. Only this exact combination sandwiched Imperial, Southampton and London all back together on 69 league points each.

Imperial's winning margin meant that not only did they draw level with Southampton and London, but their 5 match aggregate total of 10,838 took them to the senior SEAL title for a record breaking fifth time and first time since 2010. Southampton narrowly stayed ahead of London, 10,798 to 10,793. The margins were cruelly fine - had London scored 10 more points in match 5 they would be overall champions. Had Southampton scored 9 more points in match 5 then they would be champions. Call your line cutters.

Sussex's strong finish saw them finish 4th on 61 points, 12 clear of East Anglia. This matches Sussex's best ever SEAL finish, but in a much bigger league, this can be considered their best. In their maiden SEAL campaign, Brighton were 13th.

Top scorer in the match itself was Harry Charalambous (East Anglia). Charalambous shot 591 and broke the SEAL record doing so. Elsewere Russell Foo Chuan Wen (Imperial) and James Jackson (Sussex) shot matching 568s, whilst Oliver Tse (Reading) notched 565.

See the final tables from an exciting campaign on the SEAL 2017/18 page.

Imperial made it a double as their novice team completed a clean sweep by winning leg 5. Imperial's 1469 was just 20 ahead of Surrey. Portsmouth were a little way behind in third, but maintained their second place overall on 65 points ahead of Surrey's 61. Top novice individual score in match 5 was 532 from Yin Chan (Imperial).

Elsewhere, there were results from NEUAL matches E7 and W7. Bradford just had enough for Sheffield 2148 to 2113. Keele won match W7 comfortably despite only scoring 1931. Matthew Gardiner (Bradford) hit 568. Bradford and Keele were easy winners in their respective novice matches on 1427 and 1442. Ather Butt (Bradford) was top individual on 518.

Results from match N4 have not yet been published, but the top of the table has already taken shape with just the Indoor Champs in Salford to be added in. York, Newcastle and Central Lancashire are all on 60 points, with Bradford on 59. Four (possibly five depending on N4) teams are on 58 points and if the the final outcome of SEAL 2017/18 has shown anything, it is that if it's possible, it's possible. Judging by match aggregates so far though, York are in pole position to win the title for the first time in more than a decade, with Bradford most likely to stop them. To do so however, Bradford would need to beat York by 44 points or 2 positions.