UK Student Archery Association

Catching up with NEUAL [25/Jan/26]

Finally it's NEUAL's turn. Here we have NUTC (the NEUAL version of BUTC), the first league match of the NEUAL season and also the NEUAL Novice Champs.

NUTC was hosted by Bangor on 25th October. Bangor were traditionally a member of SWWU, though rarely attended fixtures. The club has moved to NEUAL, with an actual reduction in travel times and an uptick in attendances. This edition of NUTC seems to be the first time that Bangor have ever hosted an inter-university fixture themselves.

Keele A (Lucy Hawkins, William Addison, Will Oakes) qualified first and beat Lancaster A (Emily Harries, Myles Hulme, Jesse Phillips) who had qualified in second in a final that required a shoot off. Lancaster won the first and fourth ends but went down 2-1 in the shoot off itself. Liverpool A (Tama Harrison, Michael Madden, Jack Yates) beat Lancaster B (Zuzanna Dubowska, Jack Hutton, Ignas Spudulis) in the third/fourth play off. The semi between Liverpool A and Lancaster A had required a double shoot off. Teams from 9 clubs took part in all.

Team totals for Match 1 have been issued by NEUAL organisers. The match was split over 4 hosts from late October to late November. Lancaster scored 2222 to win match 1 by a clear 50 points. In contrast, Keele edged out defending champions Manchester by a single point, 2172 to 2171, with Sheffield next on 2126. There were a further 5 clubs between 2100 and 2000, led by Liverpool (2096), Newcastle (2075) and MMU (2076). In the equivalent novice fixture, Liverpool came out on top with 1142, with Salford in second, but in touch on 1109. Lancaster were best of the rest, but a relatively distant third. The match 1 Unsighted match was close with 3 teams within 12 points of first and 5 teams within 60. Liverpool took top spot here with 1486, with Newcastle (1479) and MMU (1474) breathing down their neck. York (1455) and Lancaster (1426) were not far away either.

In the NEUAL novice champs results issued, the team scores were calculated using a team of 4, with Salford taking top spot on 1665, with the chasing pack about 100 behind. Huddersfield were second on 1552, with Newcastle on 1538 and Leeds on 1523. An Unsighted match (team of 3) was also extracted from these results with Huddersfield first on 1179, just ahead of Salford (1165) and Sheffield (1152).

The senior table has only one set of results with Lancaster, Keele and Manchester 1-2-3. Manchester are defending champions - but no side has successfully defended the senior NEUAL title since 2006. In the novice table, Salford are on 39 and after only 2 fixtures, they have a significant 6 point lead over Liverpool and Sheffield. Salford's previous best finish in the NEUAL novice table was 7th in 2018. In the Unsighted table, Newcastle are top on 36, with MMU and Liverpool on 34.

NEUAL match 2 has started and NEUAL (alongside SEAL and SWWU) will extract with a leg from the BUCS qualifying events. See NEUAL 2025/26 page for tables as they stand.