UK Student Archery Association

Southern leagues take festive shape [09/Dec/21]

Imperial and Cardiff were the winners of SEAL match 2 and SWWU match 3 and now both lead their respective leagues. In both fixtures the battle for second and third was very close with Surrey pipping East Anglia and Bristol edging out Exeter by single digit margins. Imperial and Swansea won the equivalent novice fixtures.

Starting in the south east, SEAL matches are typically hosted by 5 different universities. The match 2 calendar threw together Imperial, Surrey and East Anglia - the top three from match 1. A fascinatingly close contest developed with Imperial pulling slightly clear at the end with 2115. Surrey nudged a fraction ahead of East Anglia right on the final whistle, with 2088 against 2086. Over 160 points behind the leading trio, Southampton, Portsmouth and Reading were all sandwich in a 15 point gap in the low 1900s. There were no scores over 560 - Bryony Pitman was busy winning the ArcheryGB national title - Callum Newlands (Southampton) came closest with 552.

The win for Imperial, coupled with UEA's 2 point reverse to Surrey ended up costing UEA top spot over Christmas. Instead Imperial are top on 29 points, East Anglia have 28 and Surrey 27. With 3 more fixtures expected (one of which will be extracted from BUCS qualifying) the race is wide open with. There is then a gap of 6 league points back to Reading on 21. They lead a chasing pack of 5 clubs.

Imperial also won the novice fixture on 1282, with Queen Mary in second on 1159 and Reading third on 1134. Essex, who won match 1, were fourth. Top individual novice was Kai Channon (Portsmouth) on 475. Imperial now lead the SEAL novice table on 28 points, ahead of Essex on 27.

Cardiff won SWWU match 3 - at home of Welsh rivals Swansea - with a score of 2017. In second place, and 17 points the other side of the 2000 mark were Bristol, who narrowly saw off Exeter 1983 to 1976, with Will Black (Bristol) contributing 563. Bath were fourth overall. Alex Rowe (Plymouth) top scored once again with 575. Swansea won the novice fixture convincingly with a team of 4 total of 1646. In the 1300s, Bath were second and Cardiff third. Top individual novice was Ryan Flemming (Swansea) who scored 501.

Having never won a SWWU fixture outright since they joined in 2014, Cardiff have now won two of the last three. They boast a four point lead, with 29 ahead of Exeter's 25. After fielding an incomplete team in match 1, Bristol have bounced back to be only 1 behind Exeter in third place. Swansea now lead the novice table by 4 from Exeter. They also lead the compound standings.

For the current tables, see the SEAL 2021/22 page and the SWWU 2021/22 page. SEAL will be back next weekend as Imperial host a SEAL Non-Recurve event. SWWU will be back in January, in Exeter... with a frostbite. Brrr.