UK Student Archery Association

NEUAL title race 1/2 [15/May/18]

The final bloc of indoor results for NEUAL 2017/18 have been published with match N4 (18th Feb), the BUCS Regional Qualifying (24th/25th Feb, run as a championship style event) and NEUAL Indoors itself (17th Mar) all confirmed. League champions were York (seniors) and Keele (novices). The senior league was a five way fight for the crown, with York emerging on top for the first time since 2006.

In N4, Durham's seniors narrowly pipped Teesside, with Teesside's novices returning the favour.

That result concluded the individual match phase of NEUAL and left York, Central Lancashire and Newcastle on 60 points, with Bradford on 59 (with by far the second highest aggregate), plus a further four clubs on 58 including Liverpool. NEUAL's decision to include BUCS Qualifying as a championship/all-vs-all style round meant that the leading clubs now had two chances to compete directly with one another and the net result was a 5 way free for all. The novice table had Keele on 80 ahead of Liverpool and Bradford's 77.

At the BUCS round, a mere 25 points covered the top 5 teams. Liverpool (league champions most recently in 2016) came out on top here with 2187, whilst Newcastle steamed in to second place on 2185, just two behind Liverpool and nearly 200 more than their match NEUAL match average coming in. Margaux Mesle (Liverpool) powered her side to first place with 580, seven clear of everyone else. Behind the top two, Central Lancashire (who hosted the event) recorded 2169, just a further fraction clear of York fourth on 2164. Bradford were fifth on 2162, despite a 573 from the top gent in the match, Matthew Gardiner. Elsewhere, David Shaw (York) hit 568 with Andy Johnstone (Newcastle) on 565 and Harlie Mason (UCLan) scoring 562.

Durham won the novice fixture (1451) just ahead of Bradford (1444), then Keele (1436), completing the leading group in third place. The leading individual novices were Theo Blackwell (Durham) and Paula Uusnakki (Liverpool) on 552 and 542, well clear of their competition. Keele saw their three point lead at the top cut to two by Bradford.

Newcastle only joined NEUAL in 2014/15 and have finished 12th/14, 10th/16 and 9th/16 last year, slowly improving in each of their three seasons to date. Going in to NEUAL Indoors however, the Geordies topped the table on 79 points. NEUAL's Northern Conference appears to be the weakest of the three and Newcastle did just enough to win those fixtures, averaging 1989, before posting an average of 2180 for the two championship rounds.

Central Lancashire joined NEUAL the year after Newcastle and finised 11th/16 followed by 5th/16 last year. This season the Preston based club hosted the BUCS Indoor Northern Regional Qualifier again and, like Newcastle, gained strength in the championship rounds, upping their average from 2039 up to 2180. Central Lancashire and Liverpool were both on 78 points and both had a higher aggregate than Newcastle, meaning that a win (for either) at NEUAL Indoors would guarantee the title. York were a point further back on 77, with a much higher aggregate than all three teams above them - a win for York would clinch them the title unless Newcastle finished second. Bradford had a similar aggregate to York - hundreds clear of the top 3 - but only had 75 league points.

Senior table on 19th Feb:
York 60 points (6523 aggregate), UCLan 60 (6117), Newcastle 60 (5966), Bradford 59, 4 teams 58

Senior table on 26th Feb:
Newcastle 79, UCLan 78 (8286), Liverpool 78 (8251), York 77, Bradford 75

What happened at NEUAL Indoor Champs and its effect on the league title and table will follow in the next editorial.