UK Student Archery Association

Sheffield take NEUAL title [24/May/12]

Sheffield have been confirmed as the winners of both the senior and novice NEUAL titles, after results from the last 4 league matches have been finalised. Sheffield's senior and novice sides both went through the entire NEUAL season undefeated. Keele took second spot in the senior table with Lancaster third. There were wins for Lancaster in the Roses match and NEUAL Outdoors.

Match 3 was between Keele, Lancaster and Bradford. With Bradford not shooting, Keele and Lancaster were up against each other and it was defending champions Keele who broke 2200 with 2209, with Lancaster down on 2038. Keele were led by Neil Robson on 573 and David Jobin on 563. Keele's novices scored 1356, but Lancaster only fielded one novice in response.

Liverpool's 2104 was comfortably enough to win match 6 as Bradford notched 1923 and Northumbria did not register a score at all. Top score in the match was novice Chris Sebastian with 546. Unsurprisingly Liverpool also won the novice match scoring 1381 - Bradford fielded only one novice, picking up their first and only novice points of the year.

Sunderland, Bradford and Leeds should all have contested match 16, but only the Wearsiders took part, scoring 1988 unopposed points, with Daniel Simmons on 560. Unfortunately for Sunderland they did not field any novices - a score of any kind would have yielded 10 league points.

Match 17 was closely fought between Sheffield and Durham, with Northumbria not shooting again. Durham scored 2139, with 552 from Miranda Camping, but Rory Campbell (580) and Gareth Beeby (555) saw Sheffield to 2176. Only Sheffield fielded novices and they got 1362.

In addition to these four matches, Leeds (Match 8) and Sunderland (Match 14) had some extra postal results to feed in. In both cases the senior sides finished third out of three gaining 8 league points. The novice teams both finished second out of three, gaining 9 league points and in both cases displacing Lancaster, who dropped 2 league points as a result.

The final senior tables show an impressive season for Sheffield who claimed their third senior NEUAL title in five seasons with 6 wins out of 6. Defending champions Keele were second on 57 points, with Lancaster on third on 56 points. Sheffield's 2261 was the highest NEUAL score of the season, although Keele actually have the higher 6 match aggregate. Crucially, Keele went 0 for 2 against Sheffield when the pair went head to head in match 11 and the Indoor Champs. York were fourth in the senior table on 54, with Liverpool fifth on 51 points, one ahead of Huddersfield who squeezed in to the top half of the table.

Sheffield won the novice league title on a maximum 70 points, with only Keele on 64 even in the rear view mirror as a DNS cost Liverpool second place. York placed third in the end. there were DNSs and plenty of sides taking points from each other. In fact a large number of NEUAL matches did not run as scheduled this year, with several postals and a total of 12 senior team DNSs and a horrifying 21 novice team DNSs.

See the final standings for NEUAL 2011/12.

With Hull attempting to join NEUAL in 2012/13, Michael Ward is in consultation with the clubs as to appropriate next steps, (including the split venue format adopted by SUS and SEAL this year) but there are match hosting issues, with approximately half of clubs unable to adequately host even a league match.

Those DNS figures do not including the Outdoor Champs which were sparsely attended. Lancaster hosted and won them over a FITA/Metric I/II on Sat 12th May, with Huddersfield a very distant second. Liverpool won the novice team event, with Lancaster second. Kevin Toutain and Matt McCormack (both Lancaster) contested gents recurve, Toutain eventually scoring 1083 against McCormack's 1081. Top lady was Sally Morris (Lancaster) on 1019. Top novice, by some distance was Chris Sebastian (Liverpool) who scored 1023 on the Metric I.

Lancaster beat York in the Roses match, held the week before NEUAL Outdoors.