UK Student Archery Association

Oxford fly away with TOUCAN title [15/Mar/24]

Oxford produced a big win at the TOUCAN Indoor Champs on 10th Mar and in doing so, also won the overall TOUCAN league title. Warwick won the novice Indoor Champs and TOUCAN league title. Nottingham, who hosted the Indoor Champs, finished runners up in both tables.

At the start of the day, Nottingham led the senior TOUCAN table by 1 league point and had an aggregate advantage of 7. However, Nottingham's challenge never quite ignited. Their tally of 2197 was their lowest of the TOUCAN season by over 30. With many of Oxford's archers shooting in the third of three sessions, the Dark Blues stormed to a 102 point win, only missing out on 2300 by a solitary point. Nottingham were second in the fixture and finish on the 34 league points - the same number as Oxford. Nottingham Trent nearly caught their city rivals in this match, posting a total of 2191 - their highest TOUCAN score of the season by over 30. Trent's third place in the event is their best single match result since November 2014. Warwick pipped Loughborough to fourth 2180 to 2176. Only 21 points split second from fifth. Birmingham were not far behind on 2144. Warwick (25 points) and Birmingham (24) confirmed third and fourth place overall, with Loughborough (21) in fifth.

Coventry were the top div 2 finisher on 2124, 64 points ahead of De Montfort on 2060. Div 2's Leicester were second to Coventry in that match on 2051, but were still div 2 title winners with 19 points to Coventry's 16. After 2020, this is Leicester's second div 2 title win.

In terms of the promotion and relegation, for the 2024/25 season, it looks like Leicester and Coventry will both go up to the main division. De Montfort, Cambridge and Derby will drop down into div 2. It was close between De Montfort and Coventry for the 8th spot in div 1. The 64 point swing at the Indoor Champs proved decisive.

Callum Piggot (Coventry) was top individual on the day with 586 and provided a crucial scoring boost to his side. Yang Pei (Oxford) was next on 583, with Luca Anghelache (N Trent) notching 581. Ecaterina Pogorenii (Oxford) scored 578, whilst there were 571s for Samuel Walby (Oxford) and James Gardner (Warwick). Amanda Liu (Oxford) was the last remaining lady over 560 on 567, with Adam Bates (Oxford) just one behind her on 566. Curtis Workman (Loughborough), Thomas Greenwood (Birmingham) and Callum Henfrey (Oxford) were all in the lower 560s. Oxford's strength in depth was such that neither Bates nor Henfrey qualified for the team of 4 - a warning to their rivals in the TOUCAN region and beyond with BUCS Indoor National Finals up next.

Warwick won the novice match with 2067. De Montfort produced their best ever TOUCAN novice match result, second on 2006. Nottingham edged out Cambridge to third spot. Anna David (Loughborough) was top novice on the day with 544, exactly 10 points clear of top gent Rohit Ravichandran (Warwick) who led his team to gold. Warwick ended top of the novice league table with 33 points, with Nottingham on 31. The teams who finished 3rd and 4th in the novice table were Cambridge and De Montfort but they will drop down into division 2 next season, despite outperforming four novice teams who will not.

Results and the final TOUCAN tables are available on the TOUCAN 2023/24 page.

Oxford have now won the senior TOUCAN title four times, including the last three on the bounce. The Dark Blues seem to specialise in last day drama. One year ago, heading in to the Indoor Champs, Oxford held a 1 league point lead over Nottingham, but the aggregate gap was only 3, so almost any win for Nottingham would have delivered the title. Oxford won by 47 to make things look less close than they actually were. Two years ago, Warwick led Oxford by a single league point and had an aggregate advantage of 36. Oxford did beat Warwick but by only 29. However, Nottingham finished in between the pair, meaning Oxford secured the 2 league point swing they needed. Oxford were only 1 point ahead of Nottingham. A point below and it would have been Warwick's title.

Although Nottingham may have lost out in both 2024 title showdowns, they pushed Oxford all the way and they were the only club involved in both overall and novice title showdowns. Elsewhere, Warwick won the TOUCAN novice title for the first time since 2006 - 18 years ago, when presumably some of the current squad were born. Warwick's 3rd spot in the senior table was their 22nd consecutive top 3 TOUCAN(/BUTTS) finish - a remarkable run that goes back to 2002.

Elsewhere, Worcester made their competitive TOUCAN debut this season. In contrast, Derby returned no scores at all, effectively withdrawing from the league for this season. The return of Derby, plus a possible new club at Harper Adams in Shropshire (only 6 miles from Lilleshall NSC) could bring TOUCAN numbers up as high as 15 next season.