UK Student Archery Association

Exeter strike twice [31/May/18]

SWWU matches 3 and 4 have taken place, with Exeter winning both senior matches. Match 3 was hosted by Swansea on 12th May, with match 4 hosted by Exeter two weeks later. Weather conditions forced match 4 to be halted with 2 dozen at 30m still to go. Results from SSS, SEAL and BUTTS Outdoors have also been published and will be reviewed separately.

In SWWU match 3 hosts Swansea would have hoped for home advantage to win their first match of the season and cut into Exeter's overall lead. The Swans accrued a score of just over 3300, but it was not quite enough as Exeter's 3425 enabled them to take top spot in the match. Tom Ledgerwood (Exeter) was top scorer on 1084. Plymouth were third on 2545, with 1057 of those points from Alex Rowe. Gavin Tsang (Swansea) and Adam Banks (Exeter) were also comfortably into 4 figures. In the league table, Plymouth had only been 1 point behind leaders Exeter, but this result moved Exeter up to 29 points with Swansea and Plymouth now level on 26.

Two weeks later the teams were at it again, this time in Exeter. The hosts were in the process of romping very comfortably home, leading by nearly 800 with only the final two dozen at 30m still to go. However with thunder and lightning in the air, the shoot had to be abandoned with Match 4 scores calculated by using the 10 dozen arrows shot before the storm. Maximum points for Exeter takes them to 39 and within touching distance of a successful title defence. Plymouth move to 35, with Swansea on 34.

Ben Trudgill (Exeter) led the way on 939 (after 10 dozen) whilst Alec Hodgkinson (Cardiff Met), Tom Ledgerwood (Exeter) and Tom Braxton (Cardiff) were all within an arrow value of each other but 70-80 behind. The organisers did provide a projected 12 dozen score, multiplying the first 30m dozen by 2 and adding it on.

In the parallel novice matches, attendance has unfortunately played a significant role. Swansea (match 3) and Bristol (match 4) won the respective fixtures and are now the only teams who can win. Bristol were fourth in match 3 as against Swansea's second in match 4 and as a result the Swans are 2 league points up and with a significant aggregate advantage.

Results for SWWU match 5 will be extracted from BUCS Outdoors scores. A top 4 finish will secure Exeter a successfully defence of the senior SWWU title - what would be the club's sixth overall. Assuming Exeter do join Warwick, Imperial, York and Edinburgh as 2018 regional league winners, this will be exactly the same combo as in 2005. Plymouth are guaranteed to finish at least 3rd which would be their best ever senior SWWU finish.

See SWWU 17/18 page for the latest tables.

News just in - taking over the SWWU reigns from John McGrath (Swansea) in 2018/19 is Daniel Sint Nicolaas (Exeter).