UK Student Archery Association

Catching up with SWWU [23/Jan/26]

The catch up train veers South and West now to look at SWWU's pre-Christmas fixtures. There were 3 matches. Matches 1 and 2 were seniors only, with the novices joining the fray in match 3.

Match 1 was also a postal, spread across September and October - a mirror image of E-League Round 1. Despite the physical separation, the fixture was closely contested, with Exeter's 2170 just enough to see them first ahead of Bath on 2164, just 6 points behind. Like Edinburgh and Birmingham, Exeter have also had to wait a fairly long time since their last league match win. Exeter's most recent came in November 2022 when coincidentally they also won by 6 points. Bristol were third but were back on 2086, with Cardiff on exactly 2000. Luke Burch (Exeter) helped push his side to the top of the standings with 575, whilst Alex Williams (Bristol) shot 565.

Match 2 was the first in person match and it was a WA18 held in Swansea on 23rd Nov. In this match, Bath ran away with maximum points, courtesy of a 200 point win and 3 of the 5 archers who broke 500. Bath's total was 2046, with Bristol in second on 1843. Exeter scored 1801 and Aberystwyth were fourth on 1785. Luke Burch (Exeter) was top individual on 550, with Jonathan Jackson (Bath) on 524 and Alex Williams (Bristol) on 520.

Match 3 was a return to Portsmouth, split across two venues and two weekends. Bath finished ahead of Bristol 2176 to 2108, with the rest of the field trailing. Third down to seventh out of eight was covered by only 29 points - 1996 down to 1967. Hosts Plymouth scored the 1996 in third, 1 point ahead of Aberystwyth. As in match 1 Luke Burch (Exeter) top scored with 575, whilst Samantha Roberts (Cardiff) scored 565 - Exeter and Cardiff both score 1967. Alex Williams (Bristol) anchored his side with 561.

Match 3 was the first look at SWWU's novice contingent. Bristol won this fixture a shade under 1200 with 1196, whilst Swansea's 1104 saw them come second, with Bath third. Will Gao (Bristol) was top individual by a fair distance on 490.

These results have left Bath's seniors in the SWWU driving seat. In the overall SWWU table, after 3 matches, Bath have 29 out of a possible 30. They are 3 points ahead of Bristol, who are 3 points ahead of Exeter, who are 3 points ahead of Aberystwyth, who are 3 points ahead of Plymouth.

SWWU resumes with a Worcester (the round) in Plymouth (the venue) on Sun 25th Jan. See SWWU 2025/26 page for tables as they stand.