BUCS Outdoors Review [28/Jun/09]

Edinburgh won the first BUCS Outdoor championships held at Lilleshall. Conditions were warm and sunny in the morning with a little cloud and a slight breeze in the afternoon. Host club Warwick finished second, completing a silver sweep of BUSA Indoors, BUTC and the ELeague and coming within 200 of Edinburgh, the closest margin since the introduction the FITA. Southampton lead the chasing pack taking third place. Edinburgh's winning team was Jenny Jeppsson (1268), Kyshiea Steele (1153), Naomi Jones (1118) and Erik Rowbotham (1111) for a total of 4650, Jeppsson also winning ladies recurve breaking her own record. Warwick's silver medal winners were Chris Wells (1197), Christopher Butler (1131), Julie Chenery (1081), Alex Stuart (1053) for 4462. Southampton were third by only nine points with 4103. Their team comprised Laura Bridel (1091), Robert King (1062), Brad Keogh (1002) and Emyr James (948). George Harding (Nottingham) won gents recurve with 1237. In broadly good conditions, there were a mere 169 starters with two retirees making it the smallest BUCS Outdoors since 2003.

Edinburgh's team total of 4650 was just under 200 clear of Warwick who were well clear in second with 4462. The next four sides finished with 60 points of one another. Southampton just over 4100 on 4103 claimed third - their best performance at this competition since 1992. Coupled with 4th at BUCS Indoors it has been a strong end of season for the south coast side. Oxford's 4094 was led by Samuel Johnson's 1119, and saw them fourth ahead of their old rivals Cambridge who finished fifth on 4070, Robert Fryers and Carrie Oliver shooting 1154 and 1136. Completing the leading group, BUTC champions Nottingham were sixth. Their 4042 included 1237 from George Harding. Only one place, but 160 points behind were Loughborough on 3880, making it five BUTTS sides in the top seven. Grabbing eighth and the last BUCS point were Surrey on 3723.

In the novice team category, Edinburgh were the winners with 3104, breaking the clubs own BUCS record by a clear 30 points. Their team was Anni Van Nieuwenhuizen (1128), Matthew Dalby (1035) and Russell Bannerman (941). Nottingham shot precisely 3000 to finish second - the closest margin so far in since the novice team category moved to the Metric I/II round. Nottingham's silver medal winners were Christopher Fry (1107), Ray Wong (952) and Laura Bell (941) as Nottingham's novices added to BUCS Indoors silver, 2nd in ELeague Novice division 1 and an almost perfect BUTTS campaign. Southampton took home their second set of team bronzes as the south coast side's strong end of season continued - their team comprising Sam Bird (1012), Josh Price (967) and Charlotte Whitlock (923), 100 behind second, but 140 clear of fourth. BUTTS pair Loughborough and Cambridge were tight for fourth and fifth, with Loughborough edging the Light Blues 2762 to 2754. Mike Furlong was Loughborough's top score on 1062, ahead of Tak Ho with 1025 for Cambridge. Imperial were sixth on 2658.

Having missed out on the indoor title by 1 gold, George Harding (Nottingham) hit 1237 to beat Jamie Adams (London) who finished on 1218. Adams did have a two point lead at half way, but a strong short metric from Harding saw him home. Craig Bowley (Birmingham City) shot 1201 to claim bronze, Chris Wells (Warwick) just missing out on a medal and a 1200 with 1197. The 2007 champion Colin Geenes (Coventry) was fifth with 1164, ten ahead of Robert Fryers (Cambridge) who recovered from a slow start to pip Rory Campbell (Sheffield) by one. Christopher Butler (Warwick) was eighth on 1131. Positions 9 to 13 were very closely contested. Marc Bibby (Brunel) was ninth on 1125, with next season's BUTTS organiser Steven Johnson (Birmingham) tenth on 1120, just one ahead of Samuel Johnson (Oxford). Edinburgh team-mates Erik Rowbotham and Graeme Anderson were also one point apart, Rowbotham ahead 1111 to 1110 and claiming the fourth spot on Edinburgh's senior title winning side as a result. In all, 25 gents were in four figures out of a field of 68 starters - last year's figures for comparison were 18 out of 96 starters.

Jenny Jeppsson (Edinburgh) broke her own ladies record by a full 27 points, scoring 1268 for a sixth consecutive BUSA/BUCS individual gold. After an excellent start (within 8 of Jeppsson after the first distance) Kyshiea Steele finished on 1153 and although not quite keeping up her initial form, she was never seriously threatened for silver, to add to the indoor bronze she won in 2008. Twelve months ago, only Carrie Oliver (Cambridge) prevented an Edinburgh clean sweep of ladies recurve medals. This year she did it again, third this time, on 1136, ahead of Naomi Jones (Edinburgh), fourth on 1118. Nine ladies broke 1000 this year, up from only 2 in last year's weather, however the number of starters tumbled from a scarcely robust 34 to a positively anaemic 22.

Records went tumbling in gents novice recurve with Christopher Fry (Nottingham) winning decisively on 1107. Andrew Shreeves (Warwick) overtaking Mike Furlong (Loughborough) at the last distance, 1068 to 1062 overall - the previous record was 1063. Matthew Dalby (Edinburgh), Tak Ho (Cambridge) and Sam Bird (Southampton) were fourth, fifth and sixth, all breaking 1000. Novice ladies was a two horse race almost immediately as Anni Van Nieuwenhuizen (Edinburgh) and Kirsty Dunnett (Lancaster) went well clear. Van Nieuwenhuizen impressively top scored at each distance and finished on 1128 (just 12 short of the record) with Dunnett's 1070, well over 100 clear of bronze. The bronze medals was extremely closed contended. Laura Bell (Nottingham) had a strong last distance to make up just enough ground to grab third with 941, denying Maria Papallou (Imperial) on 940 and Zoe Hawken (Birmingham) on 937.

There were only four competitors in gents compound, with Phil Glover retaining his title from last year, but this time breaking the BUCS record with 1356, Tim Nash (London) second on 1340, Glover and Nash shooting identical short metrics. Becky Gridley (Keele) was top lady compound on 1313 with Ali Sewell (Edinburgh) second on 1304 out of only three. David Jurenka (Durham) won gents novice compound and Lucie Robertson (Edinburgh) won novice ladies compound. Robertson may have been alone in her category, but she did put over 50 points on the BUCS record, scoring exactly 1200.

Samuel Knight (Bath) went comfortably over the previous barebow gents record to win with 768 (the previous mark was 686) with Andrea Bastin (Loughborough) winning ladies barebow with 545. Mark Tideswell (Leeds Met) was the only gent novice barebow, but there were four lady novice barebows, three of whom broke the existing record of 443. Hard lines to Lynsey Anne Burke (Dundee) third on 527 and Liz Robertson (Southampton) second on 533 as Amyce Smith-Bannister (Bath) blew away everyone with 858 nearly double the previous mark, to go with the BUCS/All Unis record she shot at BUCS Indoor champs. Eleven barebow competed.

Tom Cram (Loughborough) set a new standard in gents longbow with 549, beating the previous record of 301, but, astonishingly, scoring only two points less than his three competitors' scores added together. Sarah Barnes (Sheffield Hallam) shot 287 to win ladies longbow and also break the BUCS record. The only longbow novice was Alec Geoghegan (Loughborough) who scored 242, only one point away from the existing BUCS mark.

England won the home nations match with a team of the top four gents, Harding, Adams, Bowley and Wells on 4853. Scotland were represented by the Edinburgh team and Wales by Swansea. England's winning novice team was Christopher Fry, Kirsty Dunnett and Andrew Shreeves who combined to total 3245, with Scotland and Wales second and third, Edinburgh and Swansea again. The senior and novice teams in the regional league match finished in the same order, BUTTS first, then SUS, SEAL, NEUAL and SWWU.

At least this year the competition finished in daylight, but the cost of introducing a required qualifying score, however low, was clear to see. The idea was brought in by BUCS but with only 169 starters, this year was the lowest seen at a BUCS/BUSA Outdoors at any time since 2003. The student archery landscape in 2003 was very different though - before SEAL even existed and the same season that NEUAL and BUTC started up. In 2009 only 15 clubs even fielded a complete senior side of four archers, with a breathtaking 11 fielding a complete novice side. Perhaps this is a minor blip and attendance will improve next year when more clubs are more familiar with the system. Certainly if the qualifying score continues, regional leagues whose current outdoor round cannot be used as the qualifying score should strongly consider changing.

No less than eight BUCS/BUSA records were broken (GBE, GCE, GLE, GRN, LBN, LCN, LLE, LRE) and in some cases those records were smashed on a good day for scoring. Thanks as ever to the hosts, Warwick for putting in the huge amount of work that is required to host one of these events - their list of thanks is at the bottom of the results. This was also John Sullivan's last BUSA/BUCS event after ten years - with more years at SUS (SUSF in those days) before. His replacement as SMG Chair is James Cowie and if you are interested in holding BUCS Indoors or Outdoors 2010 then get in contact with him or Aaron Campbell at BUCS.

News and Editorials 2008/2009

  • Bath survive Swansea charge [15/Jul/09]
  • BUCS Outdoors Review [28/Jun/09]
  • Sullivan to vacate SMG Chair [04/Jun/09]
  • ELeague Season Review [04/May/09]
  • League Catch Up pt 4/4 - SEAL and SWWU [11/Apr/09]
  • BUCS Outdoors Entry Info [01/Apr/09]
  • League Catch Up pt 3/4 - SUS [25/Mar/09]
  • League Catch Up pt 2/4 BUTTS [20/Mar/09]
  • BUCS Indoor Review [17/Mar/09]
  • League Catch Up pt 1/4 NEUAL [09/Mar/09]
  • BUTC Review [05/Mar/09]
  • BUTC Answers and Questions [23/Feb/09]
  • Dundee lead SUS scrap for second [18/Feb/09]
  • SEALed with a kiss [13/Feb/09]
  • ELeague tables take shape [10/Feb/09]
  • League Points in January Sales [23/Jan/09]
  • Get into BUCS and BUTC [19/Jan/09]
  • How was 2008 for you? [12/Jan/09]
  • Nov/Dec Round Up pt 2/2 [16/Dec/08]
  • Nov/Dec Round Up pt 1/2 [12/Dec/08]
  • Scores on the doors [05/Dec/08]
  • Warwick match Edinburgh [28/Nov/08]
  • Mixed joy for Bath [25/Nov/08]
  • Imperial match Surrey [17/Nov/08]
  • Nottingham open with a flourish [11/Nov/08]
  • Oxford pip Kent to Stag Hill win [31/Oct/08]
  • Hall you need is love [27/Oct/08]
  • NEUAL and SWWU show their hands [16/Oct/08]
  • Stag Hill FITA is season KO [23/Sep/08]
  • New Stuff for the New Season [15/Sep/08]

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