REPORT: Aberystwyth/Plymouth Indoors

The second SWWU leg of the year sure was a thriller! Kindly co-hosted by Aberystwyth University on Saturday and Plymouth University on Sunday, archers shot a Portsmouth round, with 8 SWWU records being broken!

Plymouth extended their lead at the top of both the experienced (2214) and novice (1217) non-compound leagues, with strong wins in both. Exeter were hot on their heels, with their experienced team totalling 2151 points and their novice team finishing with 1036. Aberystwyth used their home advantage wisely to seal third place in the experienced league - A feat that they haven't achieved since 2015(!) with a score of 2141. Third place in the novice league was picked up by Swansea with a score of 986. Meanwhile, the compound team league table has been turned on its head after this weekend, with Swansea, the winners of leg 1, not fielding any compound archers. Exeter capitalised on this, with Catherine Hughes and Daniel Sint Nicolaas putting in a great score of 1120, only 14 points ahead of Cardiff's Jack Pickford and Becca Eckles in 2nd. Aberystwyth also took 3rd place in the compound team event, with a score of 463. Exeter are now top of the compound league with 19 points, followed by Plymouth with 14 and Swansea with 10.

Notable individual performances came from Joe Tripp, who took 1st place in the men's experienced recurve category with a score of 571, with Plymouth's Alex Rowe in 2nd (569) and Swansea's Gavin Tsang in 3rd (561). Surabhi Desai put in a consistent score of 553 to win the women's recurve event, just 3 points shy of the SWWU record. In the men's barebow category, Aberystwyth took 1st and 2nd place with Alex Newnes (548) and Toby Johnson (523) narrowly edging Plymouth's Lonja Selter into 3rd (522).

The novices, not to be outdone, also put in some blistering scores, with Plymouth's Oscar Johnson taking gold in the men's novice recurve category by over 120 points with a score of 452 and Exeter's Harriet Wood taking gold in the women's novice recurve category by over 40 points with a score of 419.

A full list of gold medal winners are below, with new SWWU records starred:

Men's Experienced Recurve - Joe Tripp, Plymouth (571)

Men's Experienced Barebow - Alex Newnes, Aberystwyth (541)

Men's Experienced Compound - Jack Pickford, Cardiff (568)

Men's Experienced Longbow - Rodolfo Perez, Plymouth (341*)

Women's Experienced Recurve - Surabhi Desai, Exeter (553)

Women's Experienced Barebow - Eloise Hepburn, Plymouth (502*)

Women's Experienced Compound - Catherine Hughes, Exeter (563*)

Women's Experienced Longbow - Emily Hartley, Exeter (202)

Men's Novice Recurve - Oscar Johnson, Plymouth (452*)

Men's Novice Barebow - Ben Lindsey, Plymouth (392)

Men's Novice Compound - Samuel Balson, Bristol (321)

Men's Novice Longbow - Aaron Wilkinson, Bristol (183*)

Women's Novice Recurve - Harriet Wood, Exeter (419*)

Women's Novice Barebow - Maria Adam, Swansea (343*)

Women's Novice Longbow - Stacy Oswald, Swansea (254*)

On the whole, the competition ran incredibly smoothly, with the exception of one of Bristol's cars, who mistakenly ended up in Wales on the way to Plymouth... We're still trying to work out how that happened too.

A HUGE thank you to the committees and volunteers from both Aberystwyth and Plymouth who ensured that the competitions ran so well, with smiles all round.

The next SWWU leg is a BIG one - The first ever SWWU Indoor Championships, being held in Exeter on Saturday 7th December, followed by the SWWU ball. The target list for this is now available here. Archers are reminded to please remember your suits and dresses for the ball and vote for the winners of the SWWU awards here (voting closes midnight on 1st December!)

Photos from this weekend's competitions will follow very soon, but for now, you can find:

Updated league tables here

Updated record tables here

Full results here