UK Student Archery Association

SSS 3 plus SEAL opener [26/Nov/21]

Aberdeen and East Anglia won the matches that were completed over the weekend of the 20th and 21st November - SSS match 3 and SEAL match 1 - with both teams winning by around 70 points. Heriot-Watt and Imperial were second with Edinburgh and Essex winning the equivalent novice matches.

East Anglia posted a total of 2057 to lead that match early on the Sunday and were then left wondering if it would be enough as results rolled in from around the region. In fact it was enough to win by a comfortable 74 points - with Imperial ending up on 1983 in second. The Imps were 20 ahead of a group of four clubs sandwiched in the 14 point gap between 1963 and 1949. Surrey were third, with Queen Mary fourth on 1959. Reading's 1950 kept them a solitary point ahead of Brunel, despite Bryony Pitman (Brunel) who top scored in the match by nearly a point per arrow. Her score of 591 broke the all time SEAL ladies record. Queen Mary's fourth place is their best ever single match result.

Essex won the novice match on 1103, with the gaps down to Surrey, Imperial and Southampton all around 30 points each. Essex previously won the SEAL novice league outright back in 2010.

SSS is already on match 3 thanks to some early season scheduling, with this round using a Worcester. Aberdeen found the 5 zone targets to thier liking as they won a SSS-wide fixture for the first time since December 2015. Aberdeen's total was 1041 and included 284 from Rebecca Leigh, the match's top score. League leaders Heriot-Watt were second on 972 and St Andrews on 941. Strathclyde were fourth on 888. Euan Ogilvie (Strathclyde) and Yohann Renault (St Andrews) scored 282 and 280. Heriot-Watt now have 44 league points and lead in the senior table by 3 with 2 matches remaining. The match win has lifted Aberdeen within a point of second placed St Andrews.

The novice match produced a photo finish. Heriot-Watt pipped Edinburgh 534 to 533, despite Tom Storey (Edinburgh) being the top novice again with 243. Edinburgh are 3 clear of Heriot-Watt with 2 to play - had the single point margin been the other way, the league point gap would be 5. St Andrews won the compound match with 595 out of a possible 600. Beth Martel (Edinburgh) was top compound dropping only 1 point for 299.

See SEAL 2021/22 and SSS 2021/22 pages.

SSS now takes a break until after Christmas. SEAL match 2 is spread mostly over the weekend of the 4th/5th December - the Essex-hosted leg is on Wednesday 1st December. This coming Sunday sees SWWU match 2 in Plymouth and the conclusion of BUTTS match 1 in Nottingham. The first two-thirds of BUTTS match 1 has already happened, but Nottingham, Nottingham Trent and Birmingham have still to shoot, so the match review waits until next week. Warwick's 2290 is the score to beat.