UK Student Archery Association

BUCS Indoors 2011 Review [14/Mar/11]

BUCS Indoors made its first ever appearance in Wales, the huge competition's 2011 edition being held at Cardiff University Sports Training Village. There were 410 starters this year despite all the venue problems that plagued this event.

Edinburgh won the 2011 senior team title with a grand total of 2289, only five short of the tournament record they set last year, to clinch this trophy for a remarkable ninth year in a row. Edinburgh shrugged off the relative disappointment of BUTC and were led home by a 581 from Erik Rowbotham and a 578 from Migle Petruskeviciute and support from Jenny Jeppsson 569 and former Imp Lizzie Bell 561. Nottingham won senior team silver for the second year in a row. George Harding got 585, Nicola Turner 566, Laura Bell 562 and James Carr 555 to leave Nottingham 21 points behind on 2268. Competition for bronze medals was very tight, but it was the light blues of Cambridge who pinched third place with 2241 with a very solid team performance from a quartet of Tak Ho 566, Heather Reynolds 564, Tim Craig 559 and Michael Mitchell 552. Cambridge were the last side other than Edinburgh to win this event, back in 2001 and 2002.

Fourth place had to be settled on golds, with both Loughborough and Warwick having finished on 2235. In the end, the superior 10 count was Loughborough's, fuelled by 574s apiece from Tom Cram and Mat Cole. Warwick's leading duo were Jorge Lindley and Andrews Shreeves on 568 and 567. David Timmins top scored 571 for Oxford as the dark blues totalled 2231 in sixth place, bringing the number of BUTTS league clubs in the top six to a remarkable five. The next three places were held by SEAL clubs as London were seventh on 2213, Jamie Adams, a 3 time former individual winner here, got 577. Sam Bird got 582, powering Southampton over the 2200 barrier to 2204 and the last BUCS point. Just inside the top ten, Imperial held off Sheffield 2189 to 2187. Birmingham followed up their remarkable BUTC with a 2164 to place 11th, Reading rounding off the top dozen on 2146. As last year, there were no less than 36 complete recurve teams of four in the field, with nearly half of them going over 2100.

Edinburgh and Nottingham were well clear of the rest of the field in the Novice Team category as well, but once again, Edinburgh were on top. Edinburgh's giant total of 1624 was shot by Douglas Jardine 554, Robbie Crick on 537 and Imola Cseke on 533. As with the seniors, second down to sixth were all BUTTS clubs. Nottingham's silver medal winning novice team comprised Alex Naughton 539, Stylianos Hasjipanayi 523 and Darrel Watkins on 509. Birmingham grabbed bronze thanks to Tom Sherwood 516, Mickie Green 513 and Paul Griffin 504, pushing them to 1533, just three points clear of Loughborough, who bagged their second fourth placed team finish of the day, their top scorer Aadi Malkar on 524. Oxford finished ahead of Warwick 1523 to 1517, despite a 530 from Warwick's Ben Pooley. Imperial were the last club to break 1500 on 1502 in seventh, whilst a 533 from James Towle left Southampton in eighth on 1491. The top ten was completed by Lancaster on 1475 and Bath on 1461. Bath's Alexander Hickson notched 538 to keep his side two clear of Liverpool. Stuart Archer's 527 gave twelth placed Sheffield a total of 1433. A total of 31 complete novice teams of three finished the day.

George Harding (Nottingham) won his fourth individual BUCS title (& second at the Indoors) with a score of 585, keeping just ahead of his leading competitors. Sam Bird (Southampton) was second on 582, just one ahead of Erik Rowbotham (Edinburgh) on 581, winning his second consecutive bronze in this event. Remarkably, this is exactly the same top three in the same order as BUCS Outdoors 2010 - Bird's silver is Southampton's first individual medal at BUCS Indoors since 1987. Michael Judd (Essex) was fourth and claimed the final BUCS point available in this discipline with 579. Defending champion Jamie Adams (London) was fifth on 577 ahead of Tom Cram and Mat Cole, both with 574 (both Loughborough). Cram won sixth place and bragging rights for the bus home 38 golds to 36. David Timmins (Oxford) was the last gent over 570, with 571, whilst Jorge Lindley and Andrew Shreeves (both Warwick) were ninth and tenth on 568 and 567. Tak Ho (Cambridge) was eleventh on 566 just ahead of the group between 12th and 20th place all sandwiched between 564 and 557.

Ladies recurve was won convincingly by Migle Petruskeviciute (Edinburgh) with 578 points, a senior individual gold medal this year, a step and a bit up from the novice individual silver she won twelve months previously. Second place went to Jenny Jeppsson (Edinburgh) who remains on "'only"' nine individual BUCS titles, including the last 5 BUCS Indoors. The next six ladies were compressed into a five point gap. Nicola Turner (Nottingham) emerged on top of this pack with 566 to claim bronze, whilst Ellie Dyson (Nottingham Trent) won the last remaining BUTC point on 565, one clear of Heather Reynolds (Cambridge). Laura Bell (Nottingham) scored 562 with 34 golds as against Monica Blanco (London) 562 with 30 golds. Lizzie Bell (Edinburgh) completed the leading rgroup in eighth place on 561. In ninth place was the only other woman to exceed 550, Magdalena Skowron (Aberystwyth) on 554, but only 59 hits - a ten instead of a miss would have put her fifth.

Gents novice recurve was won comfortably by Douglas Jardine (Edinburgh) on 554, a full 14 points clear and narrowly missing out on the BUCS record. Positions 2 down to 5 were all a point apart, from 540 down to 537. Silver went to Ed Turner (Durham) with bronze to Alex Naughton (Nottingham). Just missing out on individual medals were Alexander Hickson (Bath) in fourth and Robbie Crick (Edinburgh) in fifth. A total of 22 gents novices broke through 500, whilst in the ladies novice category, it was only the three medal winners. Imola Cseke (Edinburgh) won by a full 20 points with 533, as Mickie Green (Birmingham) claimed silver on 513. Alex Lucas (Cambridge) was third lady novice on 501, twelve points behind second and twelve ahead of fourth.

Tapani Kalmaru (UWI Cardiff) defended the gents compound title he won last year with a titanic 593 points to win by 6 from Alex Bridgman (also UWI Cardiff). Despite shooting only seven 9s, Kalmaru's total is one short of the BUCS and All Unis record. David Wright (Northumbria) won bronze on 584, whilst Michael Bass (Lancaster) picked up the final BUCS point on 579. Both of the top two lady compounds broke the previous BUCS & All Unis record of 582. Hard lines then to Lucy O'Sullivan (Nottingham Trent) whose 583 was not enough to stop the title and records going to Naomi Jones (Edinburgh) with a formidable 585. Mary Perrott (Portsmouth) picked up third place with 576, whilst Hope Greenwood (Edinburgh) picked up a BUCS point, fourth with 561. Top novice compound was Richie Dunk (Edinburgh) on 558.

Barebow continued to grow in size this year, with the number of barebow starters up a whopping 62 - that's in comparison to 21 longbows and 30 compounds. Andrew Buchan (Loughborough) finished top of the heap with 515, clear of James Annall (Bath) on 508. Jonathan Brownett (Aberystywth) pipped Chris Watters (Aberdeen) to bronze 497 plays 496, but Watters still picks up a BUCS point for his club. In ladies barebow, Annie White (Oxford) broke the BUCS record by two points with a score 509. White's closest competitor was Amyce Smith-Bannister (Bath) who scored 497 for silver. Colette Bailey (Swansea) ensured a second senior medal would stay in Wales, third on 481, with Samantha Moss (Southampton Solent) fourth on 472. Top gent novice barebow was Tapiwa Chiwaridzo (Loughborough) who scored 489 to break the BUCS and All Unis record by nine - this record was set way back in 2002. Levi Schrama (Bangor) was second on 469 ahead of a 467 from Oskars Dzelme (MMU Cheshire). Claire Bailey (Keele) won novice ladies barebow with 340 ahead of Gwenan Evans and Milan Thomas (both Swansea) on 316 and 312 respectively.

Chris White (Cambridge) won gents longbow, breaking the BUCS record in the process with a total of 442. Tom Goodwin (Loughborough) was second on 416, the top two over a point per arrow clear. James Maskery (Bangor) picked up bronze on 354. The top lady longbow was Holly Halford (Loughborough) on 283 - with only 4 starters, all the senior lady longbows guaranteed their clubs BUCS points. Top longbow novice by some distance was Metodi Salov (Essex) on 309.

It's customary at this point for the host club to be thanked, but of course, as everyone should be aware by now, there is currently no such thing as Cardiff University Archery Club - one wonders if hosting this competition will spark any local interest. Full details of what went on in the lead up to BUCS are detailed in the previous editorial article, so it only remains to thank in particular Steven Johnson, Ashleigh McCloud, James Cowie, Zoe Hawken and others for their performance in the week leading up to the competition and on the day itself, in ensuring the competition kept its head above water, despite all the difficulties. As it stands, BUCS Outdoors 2011 is currently without a host, so please get in touch with James Cowie or Ed Curran ASAP.