UK Student Archery Association

UEA, Coventry claim first titles [08/Mar/22]

East Anglia won a final day duel with Surrey to win SEAL match 5 and with it, the Norwich club's first ever SEAL title. Surrey won the novice match and won the SEAL novice league for the first time since 2008. Coventry also won a BUTTS div 2 fixture to be mathematically assured of finishing top of this table with a match to spare.

Going in to the final day of SEAL, UEA and Surrey were locked together on 56 points, with Imperial on 54. With the match spread across 2 days and 4 venues, it was UEA who went first, posting a tally of 2094. Would it be enough? Surrey had to beat it and they had managed 2105 in BUCS qualifying. In match 5 however, they amassed 2060. Southampton actually pinched second spot in the match with 2086. Portsmouth pipped Imperial to fourth spot 2014 to 2009. Matthew Wickes (Southampton) was top individual, a point under 560.

UEA ended on 71 points and become the fifth club to win the SEAL title, having joined the league in 2014/15. Their previous highest finish was second in 2019/20. As is now almost mandatory, SEAL went right to the wire. Surrey were second on 69, which is their best finish since 2009/10. Imperial were third on 65, ending a run of the three consecutive pre-Covid titles. Southampton, Portsmouth and Reading were 4th, 5th and 6th, whilst Queen Mary recorded their best ever placing in 7th. Anglia Ruskin and London took no part in this season, but both will hopefully return next year.

Going in to SEAL novice match 5, Surrey had a commanding 6 league point lead over Southampton in second after a topsy turvy season. Those two clubs went head to head in a very close match, with Surrey coming out fractionally on top 1437 to 1433. Brunel were third in the match, but over 100 behind on 1301. Imperial stayed third, ahead of Brunel overall. Thanaya Leelakanok (Surrey) was top individual on 516.

In the BUTTS division 2 match, Coventry were unstoppable on 2131, almost 200 clear of hosts Northampton who were second. Northampton were themselves well clear of Lincoln and Leicester. Charlie Alvarez (Northampton) scored 560. Coventry's novices David Bosmans and Bo Zhang scored 530 and 528. Coventry now have 12 points, with Leicester on 7. Coventry have not previously won the BUTTS division 2 title. There is only one more fixture remaining in BUTTS, the Indoor Champs on Sat 12th Mar, in Loughborough. All 13 clubs will shoot and Coventry and the other 3 clubs will get to test themselves against the existing division of 9, although the scores will be tabulated separately.

The BUTTS main division fight may be very close. Warwick lead Oxford by a single league point, 25 to 24 but have a slightly higher aggregate 6859 to 6823. A win (or a narrow second place) for Warwick would give them the title. Oxford would need to beat Warwick by at least 36 points or by 2 places. Nottingham could be a wild card in this situation. They have 22 league points, but their match scores imply they could yet have a say in the destination of the title. Warwick won the three senior BUTTS titles prior to Covid. Oxford's last senior BUTTS league championship was in 2003, though they have had three second placed finishes since, in 2008, 2013 and 2015.

See the SEAL 2021/22 page the BUTTS 2021/22 page.