UK Student Archery Association

Leeds new NEUAL champions [12/May/23]

Leeds have won the overall NEUAL title for the first time. They made sure of the title by winning NEUAL match 3, which was a postal held across March and April. Results for match 3 were published alongside NEUAL Outdoor Champs, which Leeds also won. Newcastle won the NEUAL novice title, with Leeds second. NEUAL also ran an Unsighted team league for the first time. This was won by Huddersfield. Sheffield were runners up in the overall NEUAL table, the Unsighted league table and the Outdoor Champs.

Leeds had a 4 league point lead heading into match 3, and so needed a 4th place finish to win the title. In the end a score of 2102 was more than enough to win the match outright as no other team broke 2000. Huddersfield were second on 1998, with Liverpool on 1990. Jesse Phillips (Lancaster) was comfortably the top recurve on 565. Top spot in the match took Leeds to 96 league points. Sheffield, who were significantly understrength could only place 8th in this match, advancing to 85 points and 2nd overall. Newcastle managed to draw level with York on 80 points, but a superior match aggregate (9,990 vs 9,877) meant York took third place overall. Liverpool's 3rd place in match 3 meant they jumped up to 5th in the final standings, leading the pack on 69 points.

Newcastle winning the novice match with Leeds close behind them has been a recurring theme in the NEUAL novice campaign. This time, Newcastle posted a tally of 1427, with Leeds on 1408, despite 494 from top novice in the match Zhihao Peng (Leeds). Lancaster were best of the rest in match 3. Newcastle swept to the NEUAL novice title with 6 wins out of 6 and 120 points. Leeds' novices finished on 112 (four 2nds and two 3rds). Huddersfield were fourth in match 3 and were third overall, on 95 points. Newcastle won the NEUAL novice title for the first time - their previous novice team best was 3rd in 2019 and again in 2022.

Alongside the main recurve leagues, NEUAL ran an Unsighted league - a team of 3 competition, which excluded compounds, but also recurves. Results were extracted from the normal league matches, similar to SSS and SWWU's compound leagues.

With a round also extracted from the Novice Champs (UKSAA error - sorry!) for the Unsighted league, Huddersfield led by 1 point, with Sheffield needing to win by 37 points or 2 places to snatch the title. Huddersfield won relatively comfortably in match 3, with 1393, well clear of Sheffield, who notched 1170. Huddersfield ended on 117 league points to 115 for Sheffield. Jasmine Turner (Manchester) was top barebow in the match on 520, ahead of Eoin Dunne (Huddersfield) with 512. Dunne top scored for Huddersfield's title winning unsighted team in all 5 of the unsighted matches that included seniors. York were third in the match and made up a two point gap to overtake Liverpool on aggregate, both teams on 83 league points.

Results from NEUAL Outdoors, held in Newcastle on 7th May are also available in ianseo. The rounds used were the York/Hereford and Bristols. Leeds capped their successful season with another victory here. Sheffield were a close second, with Liverpool grabbing third. Tom Braxton (Leeds) top scored on 1013. Ahmed Mohammed and Jack Wells (both Sheffield) were second and third on 962 and 947. The ladies podium was a mirror image in terms of clubs. Alexandra Langdon-Reich (Sheffield) won with 936, just ahead of Lara Guiet and Rawan Alkandari (both Leeds) on 929 and 926.

Elsewhere Lancaster beat York in the Roses match, results on Other Fixtures 2022/23 page.

Leeds' win maintains the remarkable statistic that no team has successfully defended the overall NEUAL title since 2006. Also Leeds become the eighth different team to win NEUAL - more than any other regional league. Leeds, Newcastle and Huddersfield have never won any of the available NEUAL titles before. Consistency delivered Leeds this title - from 5 matches, Leeds' team of 4 scores were all within 33 points of each other. Perhaps surprisingly, Sheffield have never finished 2nd in the overall NEUAL table before - though they have won it 4 times.

Mancheter Met, Northumbria and Salford all made a return to NEUAL action - at least partially. Clubs at Hull and Sunderland don't seem to be active any more, but there is a start up at Liverpool John Moores.

Match results and final NEUAL tables are available on NEUAL 2022/23 page.