UK Student Archery Association

NEUAL 8, 11, 15, 19 and IC [24/Apr/12]

With no other results having recently emerged from NEUAL, time for a quick update on how the the largest of the regional leagues is shaping up. Since the last editorial there have been four league matches and the Indoor Champs too, with two wins for Keele, two wins for Sheffield (including one against Keele) plus a tightly contested Indoor Champs won by Sheffield.

Match 8 was scheduled from before Christmas but ended up as a postal match won with a stunning performance from Sheffield. Their team total of 2261 was led by Rory Campbell and Hugh Williamson, who were 2 points either side of 570, with novice Harry Day breaking the All Unis record on 561 and Gareth Beeby on 560. Lancaster could only muster 2035 in response and Leeds did not return a score at all. Day's score anchored Sheffield's novice team who scored 1547, way ahead of Lancaster, with Leeds not scoring.

Match 11 saw Sheffield face off against Keele and this match was a tense affair. Neil Robson top scored for Keele with 554, to leave them on 2133, but a 576 from Rory Campbell took Sheffield to 2150 and a potentially very important win. Sunderland were third in the match, notching just over 2000, with a 553 from Dan Simmons. Sheffield won the novice match with 1410, ahead of Keele's 1206, with Sunderland's team of one in third.

Match 15 should have involved Leeds and Northumbria, but instead Keele and Huddersfield were left to do battle alone. Keele's all round team effort saw them post a 2187 with a 552 from Chris Edmunds the top score. Huddersfield were a distant second and only fielded one novice to hand Keele maximum points here.

Match 19 was contested by a full complement of full teams, Keele, Liverpool and York. Keele's firepower carried them to a total of 2228, with York taking second in the match on 2119, with Liverpool third on 2022. James Robson and Dave Jobin scored 566 and 563 for Keele, whilst Arjun Kharpal scored 562 for York. The novice match was decided by the margin of only 7 points, with Keele's 1410 just edging out the 1403 from Liverpool and York not too far behind on 1340.

NEUAL's Indoor Champs were held on Sat 3rd Mar and were hosted by Liverpool. With plent of league points at stake, the competition between the leading three clubs was fierce, with just 16 points separating the teams on the podium by the end, round and about the 2200 mark. Sheffield repeated their league wins over Keele and Lancaster with a total of 2209, powered home by Rory Campbell's 578 and a 550 from Stuart Archer. Scores in the 550s from Matt McCormack, Kevin Toutain and Mat Smith meant Lancaster took second place on 2202, whilst Keele's 2193 had 550s from Neil Robson and David Jobin.

Huddersfield snatched fourth place ahead of York by 20 points, 2128 to 2108- this is Huddersfield's best finish at a NEUAL-wide event, Michael Wallhead (Huddersfield) scored 563, ten ahead of York's top scorer Arjun Kharpal. Hosts Liverpool were sixth on 2048, whilst Leeds and MMU Cheshire scored 1873 and 1852. Bradford, Durham, Northumbria and Sunderland did not shoot.

In the novice match, Sheffield were clear winners on 1520, Harry Day on 545. In the reverse outcome from their league match, Liverpool edged out Keele, this time by a single point, 1432 to 1431, top scorers Chris Sebastian (Liverpool) on 511 and Lana Innes (Keele) on 519. These three were well ahead of the chasing pack, with York fourth on 1248.

All these results have had quite the impact on the NEUAL tables. As things stand, there are 4 match results still outstanding. Two of these are from before Christmas, that is, Bradford v Keele v Lancaster and Bradford v Liverpool v Northumbria and they are included in the tables already as DNS all round. The other two matches are Bradford v Leeds v Sunderland and Durham v Northumbria v Sheffield are simply not in the tables yet.

As things stand there are lots of possible permutations with four matches possibly remaining unshot. Those teams involved in such matches - two-thirds of the league - should contact Michael Ward ASAP to sort out what (even if it's a partial postal) can be done, but there can be no doubt that the number of DNSs has affected NEUAL badly this year.