UK Student Archery Association

NEUAL - the story concludes [11/May/22]

This article reviews NEUAL match 3, the conclusion of the NEUAL table, plus NEUAL Outdoor Champs.

Sheffield won NEUAL match 3 with 2133, well clear of UCLan in second place on 2088. Leeds were third pipping Newcastle. This result meant that Leeds overtook Durham at the top, but Sheffield overtook them both to win the senior NEUAL title for the first time in 10 years. Bradford won the novice element of match 3, but Huddersfield actually stretched their lead at the top to win thier first NEUAL-wide title.

NEUAL organisers confirmed that the number of points per match for this season would be 13 points for 1st and 12 for 2nd and so on.

Going in to match 3, Durham held a two point lead at the top over Leeds, with Sheffield a further point back. However, Durham fielded an incomplete team and tumbled to 11th place in the match despite Matthew Likely (Durham) scoring 573 to be joint top scorer in the match alongside Gabriel Beese-Raybould (UCLan). With Durham dropping points so dramatically, the title became a straight fight between Sheffield and Leeds. To win, Sheffield needed to beeat Leeds by 2 places (or 1 place and at least 142 points). With Sheffield scoring 2133 for a surprisingly straightforward win, crucially UCLan were second on 2088, well clear of Leeds' 1955, with Newcastle in fourth on 1949 and Huddersfield and Manchester also in the 1900s. Jack Wells (Sheffield) shot 560, with Changseng Wang (Leeds) on 567.

Match 3's top few novice teams were fairly close. Bradford took maximum points with 1337, with UCLan on 1313, including 504 from top individual novice Mathew Halley. Six points covered Leeds (1271), Manchester (1266) and Huddersfield (1265). Going in to match 3, Huddersfield had a whopping 9 point lead at the top, but with nearest rivals Sheffield absent in the match, 5th place saw Huddersfield turn their margin of victory up to 11. Leeds took second spot.

Sheffield win the senior NEUAL league title for the fourth time overall, but their first since 2012. Durham's failure to defend their title (from 2019/20 season) means that no club has successfully defended the senior NEUAL title since 2006. Durham dropped to 3rd in the final table - still a third consecutive podium. Despite narrowly missing out on the title, Leeds can console themselves with 2nd, a best ever NEUAL finish - a combo their novices exactly matched. Huddersfield were 4th, matching their best ever finish from 2011 and winning the novice title for the first time by a massive margin. Debutantes Manchester finished a respectable 9th

See NEUAL 2021/22 page for the latest standings.

Rounding off the North of England season, NEUAL Outdoor championships were held in Lancaster on 8th May. The round used was a York/Hereford/Bristols. Leeds came out on top with a team score of 3612, roughly 300 ahead of hosts Lancaster who took second, roughly another 300 ahead of Sheffield. There were 8 complete teams. Top senior recurves were Tom Braxton (Leeds) and Georgia Green (UCLan). Leeds won the novice team event, with Kobe Pioquinto (Lancaster) top individual.

This has been quite the NEUAL season. Every league had to restart after the 2020/21 season was written off, but NEUAL struggled with unfilled vacancies over the last few years and the league needed to put out an emergency request for organisers for 2021/22. With Juliet Spedding formally in the chair, NEUAL also altered its league format and were the only league to admit a completely new club, Manchester, although 3 of the clubs who competed in 2019/20 - Hull, Northumbria and Teesside - took no part at all this season. With all that, there was even time for some last day competitive drama in the league too. Many thanks to Juliet and her support team Philip Taylor and Charlotte Gleeson for all their hard work.