UK Student Archery Association

BC - E-League Ends Early [15/Apr/20]

Editor's note - BC stands for Before Covid-19.

The E-League finale, Round 5 March, was corona-cancelled part way through the month. The organisers decided that with all archery effectively at a standstill, it would be unfair on those who hadn't shot their scores early in the month. So instead the competition came to a halt with the end of Round 4, February. Thanks to the leap year, this did at least have an extra Saturday in it. There is a kind of symmetry with the last time the E-League had to relaunch in 2005/06, although in that case the season was shrunk to 4 rounds because there wasn't a first round.

BUCS EMG have done an excellent job of reviving the E-League this season as it appeared to be stalling last year. The truncation of the tournament is unfortunate, but by its nature, it has at least avoided the fate of BUTC and BUCS Outdoors 2020. As ever with the E-League there are too many stories to tell here, but headlines are below.

Back in February itself, Warwick topped the standings for the 4th month out of 4. Birmingham grabbed second spot in the round and overall. The West Midlands duo were again over 2300 and nearly 60 clear of Oxford and Loughborough in the 2250s. Durham and SSS champions Napier also broke 2200, with Exeter in 7th, a point the other side. Liverpool were top compound side ahead of De Montfort. Birmingham were top novice team, well clear of Warwick and then Southampton.

Warwick and Birmingham ended the season 1st and 2nd on 60 points and 53, well clear of the field with dominant performances. The only other club who had been close, at least to Birmingham, were Plymouth. However the SWWU champions did not enter a return in Round 3, Dec/Jan and dropped to 5th. Oxford (44 points) and Exeter (38 points) were the beneficiaries, with Exeter pipping their league rivals on aggregate. Loughborough were sixth, just one behind. Behind the leaders, there was a bit of a drop to Durham and Nottingham on 28 points, De Montfort on 27 and Southampton who were tenth on 25. Scottish duo St Andrews and Napier were 11th and 12th on 22 and 20 points.

26 teams entered the E-League this season and with A teams (and only A teams) coralled in to one division 1, there were good opportunities for clubs to put in best-ever finishes or best equivalents. Teams no longer need to take several years to scale the divisional structure or overcome some of the better B and C teams. Last season's abandonment also meant recent improvers had more "room" for growth - 26th this year is the equivalent of 1st in the old Div 3 (i.e. 10 + 15 + 1).

Of the 26 contenders, exactly half set new all time bests: Aberystwyth (17th), Bristol (13th), Central Lancashire (26th), Coventry (15th), De Montfort (9th), Exeter (4th), Kent (21st), Leicester (18th), Plymouth (5th), Portsmouth (19th), St Andrews (11th), Teesside (25th) and West of Scotland (24th). Oxford (3rd) matched their best result - from 2003.

Nottingham won an evenly contested novice division 1. They ended on 42 points, with Warwick on 40, Birmingham on 39 and Southampton on 36. Either one of these four sides could have won the title - all 4 recorded one blank score out of the 4 contested rounds. Nottingham were the only team to record two wins.

De Montfort became compound E-League winners as they sat on a 3 point lead over Birmingham, who were themselves 4 clear of Warwick.

Sarah Allaway (Warwick) was the overall ladies champion with 71 out of 80 points, but it was incredibly close. Rebekah Tipping (Birmingham) was second on 70 points. Allaway beating Tipping by two places (and 2 points) in Round 4. Eleanor Piper (Birmingham) won 3 of the 4 rounds, but did not enter a score in Round 3, dropping to fourth overall, behind Ffion Edgeley (De Montfort) who was third overall. Four maximums saw William Pike (Warwick) blast his way to top spot. In an echo of the ladies tables, Joe Tripp (Plymouth) had been his closest competitor, but missed a round and dropped to 4th. Chris Woodgate and James Gardner (both Warwick) were second and third, locking down the entire podium for Warwick.

This is the first time this has been done on the gents recurve side, although Edinburgh did have the top three ladies in 2008/09.

Individual winners in other categories were compounds Joanna Clapka (De Montfort) and Timothy Jackson (Warwick) also the BUTTS league organiser. Top longbows were Georgie Jones (Loughborough) and Stuart MacFarquhar (Southampton) and barebows Tia Mulholland and Chris Norwood (both De Montfort).

Top novice recurves were Ilay Sema (Birmingham) and Matt Crawford (Liverpool). Second spots went to Kiki Ng (Birmingham) and Clement Sorbier (Warwick), whilst Line Sommer (Napier) and Charles Trippett (Leicester) were third. Nita Lempiainen (West of Scotland) and Mateusz Weclawowicz (De Montfort) were top novice barebows.

See E-League section of this site and also the main E-League website.

The new E-League season is scheduled to start on 1st September 2020. Round 1 runs over two months until 31st October.