UK Student Archery Association

SSS spoils shared [11/Apr/18]

Edinburgh won the fifth and final SSS league match (shot on 17th Feb, results now presumed official) to win the overall SSS league title once again. St Andrews won SSS Indoors Championships. The two clubs picked up the corresponding second places. Edinburgh completed a novice clean sweep.

Results from Match 5 have existed online for a while and are now presumed to be official. SSS Indoors was originally scheduled for the weekend of 24th February and indeed was originally slated to be a third BUCS Regional Qualifying event. That fell through and SSS Indoors was moved to 7th April.

Turning first to match 5, Edinburgh had led St Andrews by a point going in to the fixture. On home soil for this fixture, Edinburgh took no chances and fielded a stronger line up to win the match with 2249 and the league title as a result. Johanna Meyer top scored for Edinburgh on 570 and not even a 578 from Paul Ross (St Andrews) could help his side pull off a shock. St Andrews finished on 2150, 99 behind Edinburgh but just over 100 ahead of the scrap for third place, with Strathclyde nicked ahead of Dundee 2046 to 2038. Douglas Jardine (Borders) scored 574, whilst Andreas Nicolaou and Andrew Smith (both Napier) scored 564 and 561.

Edinburgh completed 5 wins out of 5 in the novice league with 1512. Heriot-Watt took second in the match with 1424, with Strathclyde third just under 1400. Strathclyde were too far ahead of HW in teh table to be caught for second overall. Petr Manas (Edinburgh) scored 532.

Edinburgh completed 5 wins out of 5 in the compound league, with Napier in second in match 5. Napier moved up to third in the compound league as a result with Heriot-Watt staying second. Pip Tucknott (Edinburgh) scored 578.

See the final tables on the SSS 2017/18 page.

At SSS Indoors, hosts St Andrews recorded their third victory over Edinburgh in six SSS meetings, scoring 2197, their highest total of the year. Edinburgh fielded a considerably weaker line up than in match 5 and were duly knocked back in to second place on 2154, with Dundee in third on 2072. Paul Ross (St Andrews) was the top scorer at the event, knocking in a 585, with Johanna Meyer (Edinburgh) on 573.

The adjusted timing of the event undoubtedly affected attendance levels, particularly down the field. Edinburgh were the only team to field three novices, although their total of 1519 would have likely be enough to win anyway. Top novice was Nicole Fernandez (Dundee) who notched 551.

Strathclyde won the compound event, with Edinburgh in second, however it's worth noting that Edinburgh fielded only novice compounds at the event. One of those novices however, Ove Schoeppner, broke the All Unis record (previously 567) with 570.

Even though Edinburgh are SSS league champions (senior, novice and compound) again, unquestionably St Andrews have been the story of the Scottish season. For most of the last 15 years they have bounced around the lower half of the SSS league table, but this season they have turned their fortunes around and recorded 3 wins. The Fifers timing has been good too. Aberdeen and Napier have duopolised the lower podium for the last decade, but this season, both have suffered a downturn in SSS scores, albeit Napier did make the last 16 at BUTC. Despite all that, Edinburgh were still able to field as strong a side as they needed to win the overall league title again.