UK Student Archery Association

Hall-E-League-lujah [29/Nov/19]

The E-League is back.

The rebooted E-League published its first set of results, see the E-League website. Before we get any further a reminder that scores for E-League Round 2 must be shot before the end of November and submitted by 5th December or they will not count.

The E-League competitive structure has been altered. The 5 month-based rounds remain, but the divisional structure has been revised. All A teams are now part of Division 1, with all B and C teams piled in to Division 2. 1st place gets 15 points, 2nd 14 points and so on down to 1 point for 15th and nothing for 16th or below. Whilst this effectively does away with the promotion and relegation aspect that leant an extra edge to the old E-League, it does mean any club can win, or at least compete at the relevant level, without having to wait up to 4 years (the length of an undergraduate degree) to have a go at lifting an imaginary E-trophy.

Warwick pick up maximum points in Round 1, narrowly seeing off Birmingham by 9, 2332 v 2323. There was a bit of a drop of 90 to the next group of teams. Plymouth were third ahead of Nottingham, Exeter and St Andrews. Here is a good example of the re-organisation working well. Those 4 teams were all heading for promotion last season. Plymouth and Exeter were the leading A teams in the old Division 2 and would have been in the top flight anyway. However Nottingham were coming back in to the E-League after dropping out and would have been in the old Division 3 this year. St Andrews would likely have gained promotion to the old Division 4. In total, 22 teams contested Round 1.

Bristol, Oxford, Southampton and Durham were 7th to 10th in the senior standings. Nottingham took maximum points in the novice team division with Napier in second place, Exeter in third.

The way individual E-League standings are calculated has not changedL 20 points for 1st place, 19 for 2nd, down to 1 point for 20th and 0 thereafter.

After one round, Eleanor Piper leads Rebekah Tipping (both Birmingham) in the ladies recurve, with William Pike (Warwick) top of the gents ahead of Callum Platt (Birmingham). Paul Ross (St Andrews) and Emma Davis (Warwick) currently sit third. There was also a noteworthy performanced from Alex Newnes (Aberystwyth) who tops both gent barebow and gents longbow categories.

The weekend of 23rd/24th November 2019 unleashed something of a score tsunami, with all 5 regional leagues were in action. With NEUAL still to publish any results, there were match wins for Warwick, Edinburgh, Plymouth and Imperial. Birmingham, Napier, Exeter and East Anglia were second. Cambridge, Strathclyde, Plymouth and London won their novice matches. Reviews for those fixtures will follow ASAP. The only scheduled fixtures this weekend are the third round of NEUAL matches.