UK Student Archery Association

Southampton lift SEAL crown [07/Mar/25]

SEAL match 4 was held across 4 venues on Sunday 23rd February. It completes the league part of the SEAL season, as the BUCS Regional Qualifying also contributes scores. SEAL clubs were mostly at the between Southern Qualifying (Bristol, Sat 8th Feb). The individual SEAL Indoor and H2H championships, followed on Sun 2nd Mar. Southampton won match 4 and are SEAL champions.

SEAL scores from the BUCS Qualifiers are covered in the Qualifying for BUCS editorial earlier in the week.

Heading in to the final match of the SEAL season, Southampton held a 2 point lead over Imperial 44-42 and also had a 100+ point aggregate lead, meaning Imperial might well need to finish 3 places ahead. Surrey and UEA were back on 38. In the novice table Surrey and UEA were also level on points, this time in 1st place, both teams on 43, with Southampton on 40.

Needing a top two finish to guarantee top spot, Southampton made no mistakes. They scored 2227, strolling to a relatively comfortable win. Imperial were second on 2169, well ahead of Surrey's 2093. Brunel were the only other side over 2000, fourth with a score of 2018. Freddie Crosby (Southampton) was the top scorer in the fixture with 579, supported by a 566 from Min Seok Kim (Southampton). Yin Chan (Imperial) shot exactly 560, anchoring his side's second place. Elsewhere in the match, Charlotte Hempsall (ARU) shot a 561.

Southampton ended the season on 59 out of a possible 60 points and with three match wins in a row. Imperial were second overall, on 56 points. With East Anglia absent from this match, Surrey cruised into third with 51. Anglia Ruskin were 7 league points behind East Anglia going in to the final match, but overtook them. Brunel were 13 league points behind UEA and very nearly did as well.

In the novice fixture, Surrey stormed to victory, both in the match and in the final table. Surrey's novice team score was 1491 - 9 shy of 1500 but 146 more than Portsmouth who scooped 2nd place, themselves well clear of Essex. However, neither Portsmouth nor Essex were Surrey's immediate challengers at the top of the table as East Anglia were absent altogether and Southampton, missing a couple of their top novices, struggled. Surrey end the season with 58 points and almost out of nowhere they opened up a winning margin of 12 league points - something that doesn't really tell the tale of a competitive season. Surrey win the SEAL novice title for the third time, after 2006 and 2022. Southampton were second. The top two swapping places from last year.

See the final standings on the SEAL 2024/25 page.

This is Southampton's fourth all time senior SEAL title, although, perhaps surprisingly it is their first for over a decade. They previously won 3 titles in 4 seasons in 2011, 2012 and 2014. They have been runners up 8 times, including last year. SEAL has now had 4 different champions in the 4 years post-Covid. Imperial kept Southampton within reach and were the only other match winners this season. Southampton draw level with Surrey on 4 SEAL titles. Third placed Surrey are the only remaining team to have been on the SEAL podium in every post-Covid season.

Anglia Ruskin's 4th place is their joint highest ever finish, matching their result last season. Royal Holloway recorded their best ever senior SEAL finish. That was despite losing the Shauna Punjabi from their early season scores. Her course had changed, rendering her ineligible for SEAL. Nevertheless, Holloway placed 8th overall.

SEAL Indoor Championships took place on Sun 2nd Mar. This is a standalone compeititon, not counting towards the SEAL standings. It consists of a WA18 ranking round, followed by an individual H2H, much like the BUCS Indoor National Finals. Min Seok Kim (Southampton) and Eliza Tully (Reading) were the recurve H2H winners, with Simon Hake and Fin Hamp (both Surrey) runners up. Links to those results are also on the SEAL 2024/25 page.