BUCS Indoors 2023 Finals Review
Tournament Results page
Oxford (men's) and Nottingham (women's) won the respective BUCS Indoor recurve team titles. Oxford won their second BUCS Indoor title, with a score of 1630. They previously won the women's team title in 2015. Nottingham mounted a successful defence of the women's title they won last year with 1632. On the men's side, only 13 points separated the teams on the podium. Sheffield won silver, a mere 4 points behind Oxford on 1626. This matches Sheffield's best ever results at a national student event - BUTC 2022 and BUCS Indoor 1982. In a successful weekend for the Dark Blues, Oxford were also second in the women's team category with 1570. Newly minted BUTC winners Birmingham won team bronze in both men's and women's team categories, with 1617 and 1497.
Further down the gents results, Warwick were fourth on 1594, ending their run of 4 consecutive BUCS Indoors men's team wins. They were in the leading pack, just over 20 behind third but nearly 120 ahead of the rest of the field. SWWU teams took the next three places with Exeter on 1479, Bath on 1470 and Bristol on 1465. Nottingham grabbed the last BUCS point with 1448. Dundee backed up their BUTC quarter-final appearance, placing 10th which is their best finish at a BUCS championship for 25 years. There were 21 complete gents teams.
In the ladies team results, Loughborough were 4th on 1457, exactly 40 behind third place. Edinburgh were 5th on 1441, the SSS club's best post-Covid result. Anglia Ruskin took 6th place (1421), Royal Holloway were 7th (1317) and Portsmouth were 8th (1295). As well as pocketing BUCS points, this is a best ever result at a student national event for all three SEAL clubs. There were 16 complete women's teams, a welcome boost as against last year (10) but again, the lower reaches of the ladies team rankings reflect the fact that fewer women than men are allocated spaces if fewer enter the qualification process.
There were 3 compound teams of 2 this year, with Edinburgh scoring 1145 to narrowly pip Birmingham.
Since 2017, BUCS Indoors has used regional qualifying events to whittle down the field. In 2020, the number of regional qualifying events rose from 2 to 3. The National Finals consist of a WA18m ranking round, with a further cut for those qualifying for H2Hs. Men's and women's recurve team titles were determined from the 18m round scores. Once again, places at the finals were allocated proportionally by bowstyle, but also proportionally by gender, which gave a roughly 55/45 male/female split and meaning that women's H2H field was smaller in some bowstyles.
This is the sixth season BUCS Finals have used the WA18m format. None of the individual or team records were broken, although ladies recurve team and ladies barebow were both only a whisker away.
Top seed Yang Pei (Oxford) claimed the gents recurve title, defending his title from last year. Pei worked up a 5-1 lead, with 2 29s and a 30 against Joshua Phillips (Aberdeen) in a high quality final. Phillips fought back with a 30 and a 29 to force a shoot off, which Pei took. Yang Pei completed a team and individual golden double. Phillips won Aberdeen's first ever individual recurve medal at a BUCS Indoors. Pei had come through 7-3 in a QF against 8th seed Max Harding (Nottingham) before whitewashing Benjamin Hamer (Strathclyde) in the semis. Hamer had qualified 20th, but he was not the lowest seeded quarter-finalist. That honour went to Dylan Halse (Plymouth) who qualified 44th. Halse beat Oliver Buckingham (Oxford, q 21st), Samuel Walby (Oxford, q 12th) and Jack Wells (Sheffield, q 5th). Against Wells, Halse came back from 5-1 down to win via shoot-off, before being eliminated 6-4 by Hamer. Joshua Phillips had beaten the 15th seed Oliver Taylor (York) 6-2, before Taylor beat Benjamin Hamer by the same margin in the bronze match. Taylor won York's first individual BUCS medal since 2004, knocking out the 2nd seed Cheung Sum Hin (Sheffield) 7-3 in the round of 16, then requiring a shoot-off to edge out Zinan Ni (Birmingham, q 10th). Ni had beaten team-mate John Wong (Birmingham, q 7th) in the previous round - Ni and Wong were two thirds of Birmingham's BUTC win the previous weekend. Wills Chiu (Warwick, q 11th) had KO-ed team mate Chris Woodgate (Warwick, q 6th) in the round of 16, before he lost 6-2 to Joshua Phillips in their QF. The biggest seeding upset came from 52nd ranked Jamie Suchodolski (Durham) who won his first round match, but then lost to eventual semi-finalist Benjamin Hamer.
Louisa Piper (Nottingham) won the ladies recurve title. She was the 2nd seed and beat 5th seed Thea Rogers (Cardiff Met) as the ladies final went to a shoot-off. Astonishingly, this was Piper's third consecutive match win by shoot off. In the final, Piper opened with two 29s, enough for a 3-1 lead. A wobble in set 3 saw Rogers equalise, and then a 29 of her own put Rogers 5-3 up, before Piper came back with another 29. A 10 in the shoot off saw Piper claim the indoor title to go with the outdoor title she won at Lilleshall last June. In contrast to the gents, where only 3 of the top 8 seeds made the quarter-finals, the top 8 women all made their way to that stage. Piper's previous sudden death wins came against Imogen Newby (Surrey) in the semis and Ecaterina Pogorenii (Oxford) in the quarters. The Piper/Pogorenii QF saw both women hit 3 ends of 29, level after 4 sets and again after 5 - they even both shot 9s in the shoot-off. Piper scored 1 more point than Pogorenii across 15 plus 1 arrows. The Piper/Newby SF was somehow even closer, with scores level across 15 plus 1 arrows. Another better 9 saw Piper to the win. Imogen Newby had previously beaten Hannah Evans (Nottingham), the match starting with an eye-catching 30-30 draw. Three ends of 29 later Newby came out on top. In the other two quarter finals, Thea Rogers (Cardiff Met) got the better of Natasha Homer (Edinburgh) 6-2, whilst top seed Charlotte Hempsall (Anglia Ruskin) needed a shoot off against Racheal Chin (Dundee), having been behind all match. In their semi-final Thea Rogers set off at a blistering pace against Charlotte Hempsall, with two ends of 30 and dropping only 3 points in 12 arrows to win 7-1. Hempsall recovered to beat Imogen Newby 7-3 in the bronze match. Both Cardiff Met and Anglia Ruskin chalked up their first ever recurve BUCS individual medals.
Both men's and women's compound saw their top 4 qualify directly to the semi-final stages. Compound KO matches are 15 arrow matches rather than sets. In the final, Sam Cartwright (Nottingham q 4th), beat Jake Walsh (Edinburgh q 2nd) by the odd point 142-141. Cartwright opened up a 2 point lead after two ends, but Walsh fought back to lead by one after four ends. 30-28 in end 5 saw Cartwright take top honours. Cartwright had beaten Ajay Scott (Kent q 1st) 144-143 in the semi, whilst Walsh beat Callum Platt (Birmingham) 147-143 in the other semi. Walsh also beat Platt in last year's final. Grace Chappell (Arts Bournemouth) beat Layla Annison (East Anglia) 148-146 in the women's final. Annison led 29-28 after the first end, but from that point top seed Chappell took control, shooting 12 10s on the bounce to take gold. Chappell had needed a shoot-off against Jenny Bryan (Birmingham) after that ended 141-141, whilst Layla Annison beat Faye Balcombe (Leicester) 147-137. Ajay Scott and Jenny Bryan won their bronze medal matches.
In barebow the top 16 men and top 8 women qualified for the knock-out stages - both one round less than the previous 2 years. Rens Van Velzen (Warwick) won gents barebow, the second seed beating fourth seed Adam Selman (West of England) in the final. Narrow wins in the first and third ends put Van Velzen 5-1 ahead. Selman faded in the fourth set and Ven Velzen's consistency saw him home. Shooting a 9 in a shoot off saw Van Velzen beat Daniel Kilgallon (Central Lancashire) in the QFs and then Rafail Panagiotidis (West of Scotland) in the SFs. Adam Selman had beaten Kieran Newell-Thomas (East Anglia, q 17th) in the semi final, coming back from 4-2 down to win 6-4. In the earlier round of 16, Newell-Thomas has toppled top seed Joe Maskell (Bath) in a see-sawing fixture that needed a shoot-off. Newell-Thomas then ousted 9th seed Alex Kendrew (Birmingham) to get to the semis. Rafail Panagiotidis beat Kieran Newell-Thomas in the bronze medal match, with yet another shoot off needed.
Top seed Marilyn Wong (Plymouth) beat defending champion Simran Panesar (Law) in the ladies barebow final. Honours were even after the first set, but in sets two, three and four, Wong beat Panesar by 2 points a time to win 7-1. In the semis Wong had too much for Sophie Lodge (Surrey q 12th) winning 6-0, but the the top seed was nearly undone in the QFs. At 5-1 up against Sam Bogle (Portsmouth q 9th), Wong appeared comfortable but Bogle stormed back to force a shoot-off. A 9 from the Plymouth archer kept her progressing. Panesar was given a tough semi-final by Leah Millington (Newcastle q 14th), the matching hinging on the fifth set which Panesar took to win 6-4. Millington had earlier seen off 3rd seed Illaria Knibb (Bristol) 6-4 and went on to win bronze against Sophie Lodge.
Both longbow gents and ladies had enough competitors for a last 4 knock-out. Kieran Rugg (Nottingham) beat Tom Braxton (Leeds) 6-2 in the gents final. Rugg is still a novice but has bulldozed the All Unis gents novice longbow Portsmouth record, bumping it from 400 to 482. Braxton wins BUCS Indoors longbow silver 12 months on from winning BUCS Indoor recurve silver, joining a tiny group of archers to medal in more than one bowstyle. Katie Axup (Loughborough) beat Axelle Monniaux (Bedfordshire) 7-3 in the ladies final. Axup won this title last year as a novice. Oliver Clarke (UCLan) and Helen Woodcock (Manchester Met.) won longbow bronzes.
As always, many thanks to all those who donate their time and energies to putting on a such great competition, including the teams at Warwick and the three qualifiers, Stirling, Manchester Met and Bristol. These kind of tournaments could not happen without so many willing and able volunteers.
Return to main BUCS Indoor section.
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