Edinburgh claimed the BUCS Outdoors 2011 title in the sunshine and showers of Lilleshall. The Edinburgh total of 4776 was enough to beat Warwick despite their total of 4635. Nottingham were third on 4551, the leading trio finished 250 points clear. Edinburgh's winning quartet was unchanged from this event last year with Jenny Jeppsson (1232), Kyshiea Steele (1214), Erik Rowbotham (1172) and Lizzie Bell (1158). Warwick hit the highest total by an English university since the FITA format was introduced with Andrew Shreeves (1199), Matt Dale (1177), Jorge Lindley (1154) and Rachael Hutchison (1105). Nottingham won bronze team medals courtesy of George Harding (1202), James Carr (1133), Chris Fry (1119) and Laura Bell (1097). There were 173 starters with three retirees over the day.

Edinburgh's winning margin was 141, the lowest since the introduction of the FITA. Warwick picked up their fourth consecutive set of senior team medals at this event and along with Nottingham, shot the highest two FITA totals to date by English universities. Cambridge saw off the challenge of Southampton for fourth place, the Light Blues' total of 4206 just enough to beat the south coast side's 4185. About fifty behind Southampton were sixth place Loughborough on 4136, Reading a further hundred behind on 4035. Michael Mitchell (Cambridge), Sam Bird (Southampton), Mathew Cole, Thomas Cram (both Loughborough) and Tom Castle (Reading) all scored in the 1110s. Eighth place and the final BUCS point went to Birmingham who were thirteen short of 4000. A total of 23 universities had senior recurves present although only 13 had a complete four man team.

In the novice team category, Edinburgh shot a record busting 3254 (breaking the previous record by 150). Nottingham claimed silver here with 2934, whilst Bath scooped bronze on 2841. Surprisingly Edinburgh's winning trio comprised three gents, Douglas Jardine (1110), Robbie Crick (1103) and David Kidd (1041). In reply for Nottingham were Stylianos Hadjipanayi (1065), Alex Naughton (1009) and Darrel Watkins (860). Bath won bronze thanks to the efforts of Alex Hickson (1104), Kieran Bodkin (1022) and Daniel Paterson (715). Warwick were just outside the medals with 2728, with Loughborough fifth on 2669, including Arthur Coveney (1077). Only 16 clubs fielded novices, with 10 complete teams.

In the morning session gents recurve was a fight between Andrew Shreeves (Warwick) and Erik Rowbotham (Edinburgh), with Shreeves a point up at lunch. However in the afternoon, both faded, though Shreeves remained in front with a distnace to go. George Harding (Nottingham) turned a 7 point deficit into a 3 point win, with 1202 against Shreeves' 1199. This is his third BUCS Outdoors individual title, making it five including the Indoors too. Matt Dale (Warwick) picked up a bronze with 1177, Rowbotham taking the last BUCS point on 1172. Warwick made it three in the top five as Jorge Lindley notched 1154 ahead of Michael Judd (Essex), sixth on 1142 and James Carr (Nottingham) seventh on 1133. Astonishingly four gents finished on 1118, bookended with an 1119 and an 1117. Top of this pile with the 1119 was Chris Fry (Nottingham). All scoring 1118 were Mathew Cole and Thomas Cram ( both Loughborough), Michael Mitchell (Cambridge) and Tom Castle (Reading), whilst Rory Campbell (Sheffield) got 1117. Sam Bird (Southampton) and Rhodri Curnow (Swansea) were the last of the 15 gents to breaks 1100, with a total of 27 gents in four digits.

Ladies recurve was very much an Edinburgh dominated affair, with the Scottish side taking four of the top five spaces. Jenny Jeppsson and Kyshiea Steele (both Edinburgh) were over 20 points clear of the field after the long metric, but were reeled in by an excellent 50m distance from Sarah Smith (Derby). The final three dozen arrows split the trio, with Jeppsson picking up her fifth BUCS Outdoor title (her tenth overall) with 1232, ahead of team mate Steele on 1214, Smith preventing the clean sweep with 1202 and in the process won Derby's first ever senior BUCS recurve medal. Elizabeth Bell and Migle Petruskeviciute (both Edinburgh) were fourth and fifth on 1158 and 1153 respectively, whilst Ellie Dyson (Nottingham Trent) and Rachael Hutchison (Warwick) were the last of the 7 ladies over 1100 with 1127 and 1105. A total of 16 ladies went over 1000.

Gents novice followed a startlingly similar pattern to the seniors, with a leading group of four. Robbie Crick (Edinburgh) was leading at the half way stage and again after three distances by one from Stuart Archer (Sheffield) and by 12 from Douglas Jardine (Edinburgh). However it was all change in the last three dozen as Crick fell away and Jardine made up ground. At the final whistle, Archer and Jardine had finished dead level on 1110 points, Jardine claiming 23 golds and the title to Archer's 15, both men having narrowly eclipsed the existing record of 1107. Alex Hickson (Bath) produced the top 30m score from the gents novices to steal third place on 1104, Crick fourth on 1103. Arthur Coveney (Loughborough) was fifth on 1077, with 11 gent novices in four figures. There were only 12 lady novices in the field this year, with Jennifer Archibald well clear of Imola Cseke (both Edinburgh), 981 to 907. Alex Watson (Warwick) secured the bronze ahead of Anna Rees (Loughborough) 862 to 854.

Gents compound was a tussle between Phill Dunn (Swansea) and Stefan Gies (Edinburgh), with Gies taking an early lead, the pair gradually peeled away from the pack and were dead level with 30m to go, Dunn pulling out an 8 point lead by the end, to finish on 1269. The ladies event was domainted by Lucy O'Sullivan (Nottingham Trent) who won every distance rattling in a total of 1355 to win by 37 from Naomi Jones (Edinburgh), but miss out on the BUCS record by 2. Senior bronzes went to Chris Emmerson (Birmingham) and Julie Ryan (Sunderland). There were 15 senior compounds, and 2 novices, one of whom, Richie Dunk (Edinburgh), shot 1170 to break the record. Natasha Oliver (Swansea) scored 1026.

Bath become barebow kings as three of the four barebow records were smashed by an astonishing combined margin of 289. James Annall and Amyce Smith-Bannister (both Bath) had winning margins in triple digits and stuck about 70 points on to the respective records (768 and 796), scoring 841 and 862 respectively. There were 2 novice gent barebows, both of whom demolished the previous record of 565. Hard lines then to runner up Richard Mill (Swansea) whose 703 was not quite enough to beat the 715 of Daniel Paterson (Bath). Gwenan Evans (Swansea) was the only novice woman and scored 358. There were 13 barebow finishers.

Eight longbows finished the day, with Tom Goodwin and Jess Turberville (both Loughborough) taking the honours with 331 and 277 points respectively, Turberville only 10 short of the existing record. There was only one longbow novice but the 249 points scored by Elspeth Arthur (Birmingham) were not in vain as she thrashed the previous record of 177.

The informal Home Nations match was a close as it has been for several years. Edinburgh's top four were the top Scottish scores, whilst the English Unis team comprised George Harding (Nottingham), Sarah Smith (Derby), Andrew Shreeves and Matt Dale (both Warwick) scoring 4780 to win by four. England's novice team scored another narrow win, Stuart Archer (Sheffield), Alex Hickson (Bath) and Arthur Coveney (Loughborough) scoring 3291 against Edinburgh/Scotland's 3254.

Attendance was back down to 2008 levels, with 170 finishers with only 13 complete senior and 10 complete novice teams. Seven [corr.] more BUCS/All Unis records were broken (TRN, GRN, GCN, GBE, LBE, GBN, LLN) in some cases by very wide margins. The event was co-ordinated by Archery for Students, a relatively new body which sprang up to help run BUCS Indoors 2011 in Cardiff. Although initially drawn primarily from BUTTS universities, AFS are keen to spread their wings and invite any who are interested in join and help support university archery. Their email address is archeryforstudents@@hotmail.co.uk, so make yourself useful and get in touch with them! Naming names, the tournament organiser was Ashleigh McCloud, the judges were Phil King, Ed Rial, Ian Caufield, Thom Hutchins and Tom Kemp and thethe field party and scorers were led by Juliana Urdal.

Finally the banners came down and the boat race was run, Warwick going one better than in the main competition. Are you interested in hosting either BUCS Championship in 2012? If so, then get in touch with BUCS SMG Chair, James Cowie j.i.cowie@@hotmail.co.uk. The earlier the better.