UK Student Archery Association

Consistent Surrey SEAL double [30/Mar/26]

Surrey, Birmingham and Dundee have all recently won regional league titles - the SEAL season is wrapped up below. Results from the BUCS regional qualifiers counted as leg 3, with most clubs competing in Bristol on 7th Feb. Leg 4 was held over the weekend of 21st/22nd Feb. Southampton won leg 3 and Imperial won leg 4, but Surrey were runners up in both. There was also a separate SEAL Indoor Champs on 7th Mar. Surrey won and senior and novice SEAL titles, with Southampton and Imperial second and third in both.

Before the matches began, Surrey (29) held a two league point lead over Imperial and Southampton (both 27) heading in to the two fixtures. Southampton and Surrey (both 29) were co-leaders of the novice table.

In the BUCS qualifying leg, only 27 points separated the top 3 from each other - but the gap down to fourth was 118. Southampton scored a maximum with 2226. Surrey scored exactly 2200 - whilst Imperial were only a single point behind on 2199. Third place was despite 580 from Yin Chan (Imperial). Kim Minseok (Southampton) scored 571, whilst there were scores in the 560s from Eliza Tully (Reading), Liam Aronson (Sussex) and Alfred Bestford (Southampton). The novice match 3 was dominated by Southampton's 1549. Surrey were second on 1465, with Imperial and UEA in the 1450s. Nick Sexton and Wilf Parry (both Southampton) shot low 520s.

Heading in to the final match, Surrey (43) led Southampton (42) by a point but with a hefty aggregate advantage, meaning Southampton would likely need a 2 league point swing. Imperial (40) were third. In the novice table, Southampton (44) led Surrey (43) and had a slightly better aggregate - 38.

Imperial's 2195 was actually a shade lower that they got in match 4, but this time they were match winners rather than in third place. Second place would have guaranteed Surrey the title anyway and their 2176 got them the points they needed, whilst Southampton slipped to third with 2123. There were 3 scores in the 580s in this match. Min Seok Kim (Southampton) hit 588, with Yin Chan (Imperial) on 583 and Liam Aronson (Sussex) on 582. Isaac Mcllwrath and Emily Menezes (both Surrey) saw their side home with 564 and 560. Eliza Tully (Reading) scored 562.

Surrey won the final novice match with 1462, finishing narrowly clear of Imperial's 1450 for the second match in a row. Southampton however were back third with 1394. George Davies (East Anglia) was top individual novice with 533. This meant that Surrey overtook Southampton on the line to take the SEAL novice title with 58 points ahead of Southampton's 57. Imperial (52) placed third.

In terms of the title, SEAL matches 3 and 4 virtually cancelled each other out. The top 3 teams finished Imperial-Surrey-Southampton and Southampton-Surrey-Imperial, and thus all three teams picked up 28 points. That meant that Surrey finished the season as champions on 57 league points with Southampton and Imperial on 55. Southampton took second spot on aggregate ahead of Imperial. Heading into match 4, Imperial were 2 league points behind Southampton and 85 ahead of aggregate. The Imps got the 2 league point swing, but "only" beat Southampton by 73 in match 4, meaning Southampton clung on by 12. East Anglia held off the challenge from Sussex for 4th place, 45-43.

The win is Surrey's fifth senior SEAL title and their second post-Covid win after 2023. In the all time SEAL standings, it moves them ahead of Southampton and London (both 4) and behind only Imperial (8). Although they only actually won 1 of the 4 individual SEAL matches, Surrey's greater consistency won them the crown, with only 40 points between their highest and lowest team scores. They never finished lower than second place in any match and their 4 match aggregate ended up being over 200 higher than any of their rivals. Elsewhere in the 2025/26 table, Sussex's 5th spot is their best finish since 2018, whilst Kent's 6th is their best since 2014. Essex ended up taking no part at all.

Following the league matches, the free standing SEAL Indoor Championships took place on 7th March. Full results, as well as complete league tables are available on SEAL 2025/26 page.