UK Student Archery Association

NEUAL - the story so far [18/Mar/22]

Reminder for all those travelling to BUCS Indoor Finals. Remember a mask, your ArcheryGB and student cards. We also hope to have BUTC 2022 deatils to announce very shortly.

Two NEUAL match results have so far been published. Match 1 was a postal primarily held late in the autumn, but with a few clubs competing in the new year as autumn storms had disrupted their sessions. The other published leg is the one extracted from BUCS qualifiers. NEUAL will also have results from two further league matches, plus its Indoor Championships - another postal. This will mean that senior NEUAL clubs should contest 5 fixtures. Novice teams will contest 6, with the standalone Novice Championships also included.

This season, NEUAL has moved away from its geographical conference structure to use an all vs all or championship format. Clubs of comparable standard will now compete against each other more often and the number of fixtures pre/post Christmas is now consistent across the whole league.

Match 1 of NEUAL's new era saw the defending (aka the 2020) champions Durham claim a comfortable win. They posted 2187, powered by the top two scorers in the match, Matthew Likely and Charlotte Llewellyn-Smith who scored 581 and 575 respectively. Durham were nearly 50 clear of second placed Huddersfield's 2139, which was in turn 80 ahead of a 4-way chasing pack. Sheffield were third on 2055, with UCLan next on 2050, including 572 from Georgia Green. Leeds were fifth on 2027, with Tom Braxton on 574 and Samson Wang on 563. Lancaster were the final team over 2000 on 2007.

Manchester made their full NEUAL debut in this match. Their total of 1642 was enough for 11th spot. Lia Seccombe was their top scorer with 519.

Huddersfield won novice match 1 easily. Their total of 1241 was over 100 ahead of York's 1113, with Newcastle third, just over 1000. Barebow Adam Crook (York) was highest scoring novice with 453.

The second match for which published results currently exist was extracted from BUCS qualifiers in Manchester and Napier in February. As in match 1, six clubs broke 2000, but this time the number breaking 2100 was 5 rather than 2. Leeds finished top of the pile, only 1 point under 2200. Durham posted a score of 2188 (almost identical to match 1) in second, with UCLan third on 2174 as a mere 25 points covered the top three. Lancaster were fourth on 2148, with Sheffield in fifth on 2109. Huddersfield were sixth on 2025. All the top 4 had one archer over 560. Tom Braxton (Leeds) was top individual on 583. Gabriel Beese-Raybould (UCLan) and Matthew Likely (Durham) scored 574 and 571, whilst Kate Roadknight hit 561 for Lancaster.

Leeds also won the novice team part of this match with 1317. Durham finished second on 1295, just ahead of Huddersfield. Top individuals were Jack Bonner (Durham) and Matthew Halley (UCLan) who both narrowly broke 500.

Considering these two fixtures, Durham lead with 39 points - from a 1st and a 2nd - out of a maximum 40. They have a 3 point cushion over Leeds on 36. UCLan have 35 in third, whilst Huddersfield and Sheffield are joint 4th, with 34 points and identical match aggregates of 4164. Lancaster are next on 32. The novice table also include the novice championships. Huddersfield lead the way on 57, well clear of Sheffield on 50, with Leeds and Newcastle on 49.

See the current league standings NEUAL 2021/22 page. Other NEUAL results will be added in once available.