UK Student Archery Association

Northern Lights Part 2 [12/Feb/17]

This article is a quick (and slightly belated) review of the regional league fixtures from January, i.e. BUTTS match 3 and Team Champs, SSS match 4 plus a couple of NEUAL fixtures, E4 and W4.

First out of the blocks this calendar year was BUTTS. Match 3 saw Birmingham once again run away with a big win, despite the attentions of Warwick. Birmingham scored 2315, with Ashe Morgan's 593 and Francis Berti's 586 propelling them to a 55 point win. It is worth noting that there have been 4 scores in excess of 2300 ever recorded on the university circuit, two of them by Birmingham this season. Sherman Ip was Warwick's top scorer on 576 out of their total of 2260. Loughborough finished third for the third time in succession, posting a total of 2236, exactly 10 clear of Nottingham. Cambridge and Trent were 5th and 6th in the match on 2201 and 2185, with Trent's Rob Gray hitting 583. There were a further 10 archers in the 560s.

In the BUTTS novice league match, Loughborough won the leg with Birmingham in second, to close the gap to 1 point at the top of the table. Warwick were third, with Trent and Oxford split on hits. Toby Beasley, Sam Benham (both Loughborough) and Nasir Ahmad (Oxford) all broke 520.

The following weekend, the BUTTS Team Championships took place. Given that the BUTTS league has contributed 16 of 20 semi-finalists in the last 5 BUTCs, this competition provides an interesting insight. BUTC entry forms must be submitted by the end of the week.

SSS has expanded to 5 league matches this season and match 4 took place on 28th January. Edinburgh extended their winning run to eight fixtures, with a straightforward win, scoring 2212, including 567 from Neringa Siugzdinyte and 560 from Lisa Kompfner. Once again Napier were second, but distantly so on 2035. St Andrews picked up third place on 2004. This SSS season did promise to be competitive, with Edinburgh's winning margin in match 1 only 21 points. Since then, yawning chasms of 126, 206 and 177 tell the story. Despite a match average of around 2060, Napier find themselves 7 league points clear in second with one match to go.

In NEUAL, there were 2 low scoring two-way matches, with wins for Leeds and Central Lancashire, both teams in the upper 1800s. Central Lancashire have (temporarily) top of NEUAL, at least until the weekend of the 11th/12th Feb when NEUAL round 5 (E5, W5 and N3) take place. Also that weekend is SEAL match 3.

In the respective novice fixtures, there were wins for Edinburgh, Sheffield and Central Lancs. Evripidis Avouris (Edinburgh) scored 555, with team mate Josh Croall on 523.