UK Student Archery Association

Something beginning with S [18/Mar/11]

This editorial covers the latest matches, five of them, from SUS, SEAL and SWWU. Fans of the NEUAL and BUTTS Indoor Championships will have to wait for the next editorial.

Starting in SWWU, the second leg took place in Bath on Sat 19th Feb and the home side held off Exeter for maximum points 2054 to 2012. Swansea finished clear of Plymouth in third, but Gloucestershire were a DNS. The novice teams finished in exactly the same order, Bath on 1455 almost 200 points clear in the clear in the lead, with Plymouth fielding a full side of novices for the first time. Dan Maskell (Bath) top scored in the match with 549.

Both of the 3 way SEAL matches had one DNS each. On Sat 12th Feb, Southampton played host to Reading (and not Brunel), but the match suffered from van hire then venue hire problems and ended up taking place seven hours later than originally scheduled and in a different venue. The company who run the partially privatised university sports facilities had double booked the hall, acknowledging the problem might be 'at their end'.

In the match itself, Southampton rattled up a score of 2225, with a 566 from Sam Bird and 550s from Brad Keogh and Chris Skipper. In response Reading got 2063. In the novice match however things were a lot tighter, but Southampton came out on top 1430 to 1409. Two weeks later and Reading had better fortune hosting Surrey with Sussex absent. Home team Reading just had enough for a win 2119 points to 2093, with Anthony Tang (Reading) top scoring with 546. Surrey only fielded one novice, so Reading picked up maximum points in just about the most comfortable manner possible.

The results leave Southampton on three wins out of three, within touching distance of what would be their first ever Regional League title. However their remaining fixture is against defending champions Imperial and unpredictable London. Fascinatingly, these three finished within 25 points of each other at BUCS.

Two results from SUS, on Sat 26th Feb, Jamie Paton (Strathclyde) with 562 outscored everyone by nearly 50, to ensure Strathclyde won with 1968. St Andrews were second on 1889, about 100 ahead of Dundee. Dundee did comfortably win the novice match on 1279 ahead of Strathclyde - St Andrews fielded only one novice, despite being the home side. Aberdeen v Napier v St Andrews was a postal, postponed from late November because of bad weather. Aberdeen scored 2080 to win easily, Napier's 1949 just enough to see them past St Andrews. James Pike (Aberdeen) top scored with 560. The novice match went the same way, Aberdeen clear winners on 1272, with Napier edging St Andrews in to third place.

The final SUS League Match, Napier v Edinburgh v Dundee will now also be a postal because of Napier's ongoing venue troubles - wins for Edinburgh will ensure they retain senior and novice SUS league titles. SUS Novice Champs were scheduled to be hosted by St Andrews at the start of December, but again bad weather forced their postponement. Napier had also been slated to host the Indoor Championships, but no venue for it, so St Andrews will host a combined event on Sat 19th Mar.

The SUS H2H event was cancelled due to a clash with BUTC. Earlier in the season, BUCS announced the Indoors as being in Aberdeen but later Aberdenn Sports Village withdrew their support, forcing the Cardiff move. All in all, it has been a troubled seasons for SUS but on the positive side, SUS participation levels at BUTC and BUCS were up sharply.

A concerning theme to emerge however, from Aberdeen to Southampton and in between, is the trend for university sports facilities to be run/owned by the private sector, where revenue streams can easily trump the adequate provision of facilities to student clubs.