UK Student Archery Association

Regions readying for 23/24 [19/Sep/23]

The 2023/24 season is upon us. Of all the eager new faces assembling to give it a go, who will go on to become a novice main stay or super star? Who will go on to become a fundamental part of the Club's fabric for years and years to come? Who will never be seen again? If only there was a reliable way to tell the difference.

A lot of clubs are doing committee reveals on Instagram, which has proved helpful in updating the UKSAA's Club Directory. If you see any out of date contact names or information, please let UKSAA know. The best results tables has been updated to include 2022/23 results. The "Last 3 years" column has been adjusted to show the last 3 competitive years, which have effectively been spread across the last 4 chronological years, so back to the 2019/20 season. The "Last 10 years" column has been left purely chronological and currently shows best results back to 2013/14.

Last year season, there were a couple of new regional league winners. Since 2010, Dundee had only ever finished as high as 4th once. Last season however, they were comfortably the best team in Scotland, storming to 5 league match wins out of 5 and becoming the 5th different SSS league winner in five seasons. Leeds were pipped to the NEUAL title in 2022, but their greater consistency meant they took the title in 2023, for the first time - in the end by quite a wide margin. Oxford successfully defended their BUTTS league title - the last one before the name change to TOUCAN. Bristol retained their senior title in SWWU, but needed a dramatic 2 point swing in the last SWWU match to overtake Bath. In SEAL, Surrey overcame a modest start to win their fourth SEAL title, but their first since 2009. The five runners up were Heriot-Watt, Sheffield, Nottingham, East Anglia and Bath.

NEUAL debuted an Unsighted League last season, a team of 3 match extracted from normal NEUAL championship and match results, but limited to unisghted bows. Clubs with good barebow sections dominated - Huddersfield and Sheffield ended way out in front and producing a genuinely close title race, won by Huddersfield.

The TOUCAN (formerly BUTTS) league is introducing promotion and relegation from this season. The 9 teams in Division 1 last year will be in Division 1 this year, with the same 4 (or maybe 5, including Worcester) in Division 2. At the end of the season, promotion and relegation will be calculated on the average of their 3 highest match scores - and not league points. This discarding of a club's lowest match total harks back to the early days of the BUTTS league. 2024/25 TOUCAN Division 1 will consist of the 8 teams with the highest average and Division 2 will consist of the bottom 6.

There is no limit on the number of promotions, meaning that it would be feasible (albeit unlikley) for all Division 2 clubs to be promoted. The slight adjustment in number of teams per division means at least 1 team will be relegated. Promotion and relegation is definitely a step forward in terms of sporting integrity.

The new set of regional league organisers for 23/24 is as follows. SSS: Erin Ann Dobbin and Gabriella Saksono. NEUAL: Juliet Spedding, Philip Taylor, Jake Livingstone and Katie Tlusty. TOUCAN: Charlotte Chard and Dan Lewis. SEAL: James Jackson. SWWU: Henry Barnett, Alex Camaly and Alex Williams.

Please contact UKSAA by any channel if you see anything out of date in the Club Directory.