UK Student Archery Association

Napier tie up SSS advantage [31/Jan/20]

Before we begin, a reminder that this is the last day to shoot scores for E-League Round 3. Scores must be submitted by 5th February and may come from December or January. Geographical and session allocation for BUCS Indoors regional qualifiers have been made. Confirmation of BUTC hosting is hoped for imminently. The discs won't be getting dented until after BUCS Finals.

SSS match 4 was held on 25th January, with all teams heading to Heriot-Watt to shoot a Worcester and there were level scores at the top of both the recurve and compound matches. Also there have been a few more NEUAL results come to light, including NEUAL novice championships, which was decided by only 2 points. Call your linecutters!

In Scotland, there has been a three way battle for top spot this season. In match 4, two of those three duked it out in a dramatic draw. Both Napier and Edinburgh landed on 1055 points. Edinburgh amassed 115 golds, but Napier's tally of 129 put them top. Matthew Mawhinney and Andrew Smith (both Napier) piled on the golds as they scored 282 and 279. Edinburgh's team were remarkably consistent, all finishing with 8 points of each other. Aberdeen took third spot, but were over 100 behind on 952. Strathclyde edged out Heriot-Watt for fourth, 910 plays 906. St Andrews league title defence effectively came to an end as they were 6th. The Fife side's term started late and they only fielded 3 archers, although this did include Paul Ross and Yohann Renault who scored 282 and 277, almost exactly mirroring Mawhinney and Smith for Napier. Elsewhere Guillaume Andrieux (Glasgow) scored 283.

As Napier claim 15 league points, Edinburgh 14 and St Andrews only 10, Napier now lead Edinburgh by 3 and St Andrews by 6, and have a higher match aggregate than both. Had the gold tie-break gone the other way Napier's 3 point lead would only be 1, but as it stands Napier need only finish 3rd in match 5 (on Sat 15th Feb) to guarantee the senior SSS league title for the first time.

In the novice match, Strathclyde, Edinburgh and Napier all had 41 league points heading in to the fixture. Edinburgh won the match convincingly, with Strathlyde second, well ahead of Napier in third, who were themselves well clear of the field. Ilija Ristovski (Edinburgh) scored 264, almost 30 clear of any other novice present.

In the compound match, Edinburgh and St Andrews finished level at the top, not only on score - 593 - but also on golds - 113. Both Beth Martel (Edinburgh) and Ben Lawrence (St Andrews) cleaned the round with 300. In the table, Edinburgh now lead St Andrews by three, with one match to go.

See the fully updated SSS 2019/20 page.

A few more pre-Christmas NEUAL results have declared, specifically matches N2, N3 and the Novice Champs. N2 and N3 were both won by Newcastle albeit in contrasting fashion with scores of 1984 and a week later, 2101. Teesside and Newcastle won the novice equivalents. Matches W2 and E3 are thought not to have happened yet.

At the NEUAL novice champs, there was a thrilling finale between Liverpool and Teesside with only 2 points between the teams. Liverpool took the honours with 1424 with Teesside just eased into second on 1422, albeit Fjolnir Kvaran (Teesside) top individual on 510. Over 100 points behind the top two, Lancaster pipped Durham to third spot, 1319 to 1310, with Bradford fifth, a little further back on 1282.

In terms of results from the fourth set of NEUAL fixtures, no scores have been released, but from social media, defending champions Bradford beat Sheffield in a two way match.

This coming weekend (1st/2nd Feb) sees the 5th set of NEUAL matches and two thirds of BUTTS match 3. SSS match 5, the last SSS league fixture doesn't take place until the weekend of the 15th/16th Feb.