On the 5th of November, Newcastle University’s Archery Club narrowly came second to Teesside, by only 41 points, in the first NEUAL round.
Newcastle had been training ever since and last Saturday the team felt confident going into round three against Sunderland and Durham.
Newcastle’s team consisted of Novice Barebow Elliott Fletcher; Experienced Barebows Miriam Atkinson and Kate Stanton; and Experienced Recurves Jowan Barnes, Sarah Byers, Heather Flint, Emily Henderson, and Riki Kusuyama.
Due to the lack of space at our range Sunderland competed in the morning with Byers, Fletcher and Henderson while Durham competed in the afternoon with Atkinson, Barnes, Flint, Kusuyama and Stanton. All the scores were then combined at the end.
When Sunderland eventually found their way to the range, the match began. Byers and Henderson performed well and Fletcher achieved a personal best of 188.
“Special mention must go to Flint, who won the women’s experienced recurve category ”
The afternoon was a different story with several members of the team struggling to get close to their best scores, despite having home advantage. All the while Durham’s novices shocked everyone by outperforming many of the experienced archers.
After the final arrows were released the scores were carefully checked. Teams can enter as many competitors as they wish but only the top four scores per team are counted as part of the overall total. Here experience, bow type and gender do not matter – only the best scores.
Sunderland came third with 1658 points. Newcastle waited glumly, surely about to come second once again. The final scores: Durham 1872 and Newcastle 1875. The combined points of Barnes, Byers, Flint and Kusuyama had earned Newcastle a three point victory over Durham.
Special mention must go to Flint who won the women’s experienced recurve category with 549 points out of a possible 600. Teammates Atkinson and Stanton battled to win the women’s experienced barebow category; with Atkinson just managing to take first place.
There were certainly mixed feelings for Newcastle in round three with highs and lows. The team now has to wait until February to face Teesside and Durham again – plenty of time to train and improve.
