UK Student Archery Association

200+ at NEUAL Indoors [09/Feb/26]

NEUAL's Indoor Championships were held in York on Sat 1st Feb. It was a big shoot, with a shade over 200 archers taking part, despite a few clubs not shooting.

Keele emerged on top, scoring 2183 to win and they did so by a fairly comfortable margin. Hosts York took second spot on 2120, 63 behind first, but 42 ahead of the chasing pack. Behind the top two, the next eight teams - 3rd (18 pts) down to 10th (11pts) were all sandwiched into a 69 point gap. Newcastle (2078) were third, with Manchester (2068) in fourth. Chester (2061), Liverpool (2058) and Leeds (2054) were next, all separated by single point margins.

There were also 2 individual scorers out in front in the event, with 588 from William Addison (Keele) leading his side to victory. Myles Hulme (Lancaster) hit 584 - exactly 30 clear of the field.

The novice match was very tight. Sheffield just squeezed out Lancaster for top spot by 3 points 1367 to 1364. MMU were third, not far away on 1335. Salford pipped Leeds for fourth 1311-1309.

In the unsighted team match, 54 points covered the top 7 teams. Liverpool's 1454 saw them claim maximum points. Newcastle narrowly claimed second on 1440, with both Manchester (1437) and York (1436) incredibly close behind. Myfanwy Fflur (Manchester) was the top individual on 548.

BUCS regional qualifiers are now in flight and NEUAL extracts a leg from these, with many NEUAL clubs heading to Aberdeen. NEUAL match 2 is also partially completed, so saying exactly who is leading NEUAL is a tricky task. However, in terms of completed, published results, the current standings are on the NEUAL 2025/26 page. With the senior, novice and unsighted matches all producing very congested leaderboards, there was a real possibility for teams to make signficant gains - or losses - depending on just a few points.

In the main NEUAL table, Keele's Indoor Championship win has helped to carry them 4 points clear at the top on 39 points out of a possible 40. Keele have won the senior NEUAL title three times in the past, but not since 2013. They now lead by 4 as defending champions Manchester move up to second on 35. Newcastle are up to third on 33, whilst there are a trio of clubs on 31 points: Lancaster, Liverpool and York.

In the novice table Salford's lead at the top has been cut to 3 by Sheffield. After three fixtures here, Salford have 56 to Sheffield's 53, with Lancaster on 51. Salford's best NEUAL novice campaign to date was ending the season in 7th in 2018.

The unsighted table sees Newcastle and Liverpool out in front on 55 and 54.