UK Student Archery Association

BUTTS goes virtual [17/Nov/10]

BUTTS broke new ground over the weekend with the first ever virtual leg, combining the results from two separate physical matches. Loughborough and Birmingham played host to the usual seven teams, plus newcomers Nottingham Trent ,who made their BUTTS bow at Loughborough. To the virtual victor, 8 points are the spoils, with 7 for 2nd place and so on.

Nottingham won this first leg with 2277 - a mighty total so early in the season and one that left the rest of the BUTTS unis trailing nearly 70 behind. George Harding fired in a 586 to get Nottingham on their way, with 570s from Chris Fry and David Middleton-Gear. Second place down to sixth were very tighly contested, the scores sandwiched into a narrow 50 point [corr.] gap. Warwick claimed second place with 2215 [corr.], 574 from Andrew Shreeves the highlight. A 579 from Mat Cole carried Loughborough just over the 2200 barrier with 2201. Matt Dale (Warwick) and Tom Cram (Loughborough) providing supporting 560s. Cambridge and Birmingham could hardly be separated, the final totals 2191 and 2189, with top scorers Heather Reynolds (Cambridge) and Jack Bryant (Birmingham).

Oxford were sixth despite a perfectly respectable 2165 and there was debut joy for Nottingham Trent as their team total of 1969 was enough to see off Derby who got 1858. Derby start their fourth BUTTS campaign but are still without a single senior team victory after 19 matches.

Nottingham also won the novice match ahead of Loughborough, with Warwick picking up third. Nottingham Trent made an excellent start in the novice league securing 5 points in fourth and the top individual novice score of 480 from Sam Gibbs.

First blood of the Scottish season went to Aberdeen as they easily overcame Dundee and Heriot-Watt in Dundee on Sat 6th Nov. Aberdeen broke 2000 thanks to a 568 from James Pike. Shooting as a SUS guest in the match, the other high score was a 564 from Matt Beattie (Abertay). Heriot-Watt narrowly beat Dundee to second place by only seven points in the senior match, but both sides notched under 1800. In the novice match it was a similar tale of one team dominating and a close fight for second, but this time it was hosts Dundee who were well clear.

The first round of E-League results are also out and there are, as ever plenty of emerging stories, too numerous to go in to here. Edinburgh put in a very strong set of scores again, with the top four lady recurve scores. Other notable performances come from Essex and Reading, promoted from the Conference last year, they easily occupy the top two slots in Division 4. Perhaps the most interesting entry however is from Southampton in Division 2. Last season they scored 40 points (nothing in round 1, followed by four maximums), but missed out on promotion because of an inferior 5 round average. This time, a total of 2271 leaves the south coast side 10 points better off than at the same point last season.

See the latest BUTTS, SUS and E-League (external link) tables. Results from the four NEUAL matches scheduled for this weekend are not yet available.

In other news, East Anglia will not now be joining SEAL in 2010/11. They may however, appear as guests at a few BUTTS matches.