UK Student Archery Association

HW, Cardiff win on return [03/Nov/21]

Heriot-Watt and Cardiff were the winners of the first SSS and SWWU matches of the season. The effects of Covid were clearly on display as many teams' strength in depth was vastly reduced across both sets of results. Cardiff won a SWWU leg outright for the first time - having joined in 2014. Heriot-Watt won a SSS-wide fixture for the first time since the Outdoor Championships of 2002.

In Scotland, Heriot-Watt were the only club to clear 1900 on 1907, just under 20 ahead of St Andrews' 1888. Aberdeen and Edinburgh were third and fourth but were well adrift on 1817 and 1741. Top individual scorer was Euan Ogilvie (Strathclyde) on 562, with Yohann Renault (St Andrews) and Rebecca Leigh (Aberdeen) just under 560. Edinburgh won the novice match on 1120, with St Andrews winning the compound match on 1145, including a 578 from Benjamin Lawrence.

Cardiff's tally of 2041 was enough to secure SWWU top spot, with Exeter next on 2014. Exeter were the only side in either SWWU or SSS match 1 to have 3 scores over 500. Bath were third on 1981. Plymouth were fourth - under 1600, but including a 578 from new league organiser Alex Rowe. Elsewhere in the match, Swansea were the only side to field a full team of (four) novices and a compound, so won both of those fixtures.

Those results and the (very) early season tables are available on the SSS 2021/22 and SWWU 2021/22 pages. SSS are in action again on Sat 6th Nov, with SWWU match 2 in Plymouth on Sun 28th Nov.

Compared to two years ago, it is unthinkable that 2041 would be the highest score across these 15 clubs. With only a few seniors remaining at many clubs, overall team scores are being topped up by novices. Particularly at this early stage of the season, those novices have only a few weeks experience and thus scores are lower. Although those novice scores will go up as the season progresses, it is hard to say how big an effect the Covid enforced gap in recruitment will have on overall team results come March. Will the traditionally stronger clubs re-emerge, or will the reset enable new names to step into the limelight? In all liklihood it won't be clear cut, but we are certainly in for an interesting and perhaps surprising season.