UK Student Archery Association

Passport to Ireland [04/Oct/19]

The Irish university league section has been updated and two clubs in Northern Ireland have been added to the Club Directory.

Up until 2012, the UKSAA website carried occasional updates from what was then called the Irish Intervarsity League (IVL) as results were published on the website of University College Dublin (UCD). Results stopped being published there and not being able to find any alternative source of scores, UKSAA's coverage halted.

This summer, the Editor stumbled upon the Irish Student Archery Association website which has complete results and tables going back to 2012/13, see the ISAA website. Summary tables for the 7 "missing" seasons have been published in the ISAA section of this site, with a link added in the main site menu.

Last season saw a fascinating battle develop between UCD and NUI Galway. The league uses total match aggregate (rather than league points gained per match) with a university discarding their lowest total out of the five matches shot. NUIG built up a 148 point lead after the first two fixtures and looked likely to win the league for the first time since 2012. However, UCD fought back in matches 3 and 4, reducing the gap to 71 overall, but only 56 once both clubs had discarded their lowest totals. NUI Galway hosted the 5th and final match and needed to finish within 56 of UCD to win. However UCD blasted in the highest ISAA total of the season and beat NUIG by 77 to grab the title, 8439 to 8418. Defending champions Dublin City ended the season third on 8118 with UC Cork fourth on 7952, well clear of Maynooth. Top individual recurves were Carl McCaffrey (UCD) and Róisín Mooney (NUI Galway).

No side has successfully defended the Irish title since 2011, although during the 7 "found" seasons, University College Dublin (UCD) won three titles (2013, 2015 and 2019) and finished no lower than 5th. Dublin City (DCU) won twice, whilst 2012 winners NUI Galway finished runners up in the last three seasons - to three different winners.

In total, ISAA/IIVL records go back 18 years to the 2001/02 season. Up to and including the 2018/19, Dublin City (DCU) are the most successful with 5 titles. Dublin IT and UC Dublin have 4 each. Five clubs (Limerick, Galway Mayo IT, Dundalk IT, Maynooth and NUI Galway) have won once.

Results from the 2012/13 season onwards:

-	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
2018/19	UC Dublin	NUI Galway	Dublin City	UC Cork	Maynooth
2017/18	Dublin City	NUI Galway	UC Dublin	UC Cork	Limerick
2016/17	Maynooth	NUI Galway	Dundalk IT	UC Dublin	Dublin City
2015/16	Dundalk IT	Maynooth	Dublin IT	UC Dublin	NUI Galway
2014/15	UC Dublin	Dublin IT	Limerick	Maynooth	Dublin City
2013/14	Dublin City	Limerick	NUI Maynooth	NUI Galway	UC Dublin
2012/13	UC Dublin	Dublin IT	Limerick	Dublin City	NUI Maynooth

Most of ISAA/IIVL are based in the Republic of Ireland. Two Northern Irish clubs, Queens (Belfast) and Ulster have also now been added to the UKSAA Club Directory, the former having reached out to UKSAA via Facebook.