UK Student Archery Association

Season opener at NUTC [06/Nov/26]

This article was written by Mollie Bower (Huddersfield), Club Captain for 2026/27. UKSAA is keen to have more guest contributions from the student archery community itself. If you would like to join Mollie as a guest contributor here, please let UKSAA know.

On Saturday 24th October 2026, the Northern Universities Target Championships were hosted at the University of Lancaster. This event is unique in itself because it is the only event in the NEUAL calendar which allows Alumni (who graduated the previous Summer) as well as experienced archers to compete.

This is the first time that both barebow and recurve teams were eligible to compete separately, alongside there being multiple divisions.

For qualification, archers were expected to shoot a Bray 1 round and their team combined score would determine their placings! In Recurve Division 1, Sheffield A beat Lancaster A to the first place position, 812 points to 782. In Recurve Division 2, Lancaster B beat Leeds B to the first place position, 728 points to 689. In Barebow Division 1, it was a battle of Manchester... Manchester Metropolitan A because the Uni of Manchester A to the top spot by a narrow margin, 672 points to 623. In Barebow Division 2, Lancaster B topped the placings, and beat Salford B to top spot, 518 points to 406.

Next came the team H2Hs, with a slightly different format from previous years. The faces used were still the hit or miss style, but with recurves shooting at 60cm spots, while barebows shot at 80cm spots... making the format more exciting for all involved! So... what where the results you ask? Lets get down to the business end!

In Recurve Division 1, Lancaster A beat Sheffield A to the trophy, 5-1, while only dropping one point for the entirety of the match! Whilst, Keele A beat Leeds A to the Bronze, 6-2, with consistency scoring 5 points for all 4 ends of their match! In Recurve Division 2, Lancaster B beat Leeds B to the trophy, 6-2, whilst scoring 5 points every end! Whilst, Sheffield B beat Lancaster C, 6-2, to secure the Bronze!

In Barebow Division 1, Uni of Manchester A beat Keel A, 6-2, to secure the win! Whilst, the match up between York A and Huddersfield A took an interesting turn! Both team were matched even, 4-4, at the end of the 4th end, which took the match to a shoot off! Huddersfield A scored 2, but were just pipped to the Bronze by York A who scored 3! In Barebow Division 2, it was a close matchup between Lancaster B and Salford B for the trophy! Lancaster B just took the win, 5-3, and secured the Gold! Whilst, York B beat Leeds A to the Bronze, 6-2!

Full results for both the qualification round and Team Head-to-Heads can be found on the event page on I@NSEO.

A massive thank you to all involved in running the event, the NEUAL committee, the work of Lancaster University Archery club for hosting, our Lord Patron: Nye O’Neil, and especially our judges who made this event run so smoothly!