BUCS Indoors 2012 Review

BUCS Indoors made its Telford debut with the 2012 edition shattering the previous attendance records, with no fewer than 523 starters, albeit including double-bowers.

Nottingham won their first BUCS Indoors title in emphatic style, with a score of 2298 breaking the old tournament record by 4 and falling only 7 short of the All Uni Comps record. Huge scores from Andrew Randall and George Harding, a point either side of 590 were the backbone of the Nottingham total with 563 from Christopher Fry and 555 from Charlie Birch enough to push them over the line this year - Nottingham finished runners up in both 2010 and 2011. Edinburgh saw their long winning run at this event come to an end, but were best of the rest, 33 behind on 2265, spearheaded by a 580 from Erik Rowbotham and with support from Margaux Mesle's 566, 563 from Douglas Jardine and 556 from Migle Petruskeviciute. Third place went to Warwick, who posted a total of 2251, with a 570 from Tom Hall, 565 from Jorge Lindley and Matthews Dale and Cranham contributing 562 and 554 respectively.

After the leading trio there was a gap of nearly 40 points to the chasing pack - positions 4 down to 8 were separated by a mere 17. The Dark Blues of Oxford were fourth on 2212, with Matthew Langton on 566. Loughborough and Cambridge needed golds to determine fifth and sixth place, both sides having scored 2206. Loughborough had 104 golds to Cambridge's 88. Loughborough's Tom Cram and Torsten Mix got 569 and 563, whilst the leading Light Blue was Liu Zhaoyong on 564. One point under the 2200 barrier, Birmingham made it six BUTTS clubs in the top seven places. Sarah Russel's 566 and Jack Bryant's 560 took Birmingham four points clear of Southampton who secured the last BUCS point (and maximum points in SEAL leg 4) on 2195. Imperial chased Southampton hard but a 573 from Hannah Beasley-Suffolk was not quite enough and the Imps finished ninth on 2183, one ahead of Sheffield the leading NEUAL side with 2182. A little further back, 11th to 14th were only an arrow value apart. Reading scored 2165, with Thomas Castle on 560, whilst Lancaster finished one ahead of Napier, 2160 to 2159. Lancaster's Kevin Toutain and Napier's Piotr Wojtczuk both top scored for their teams on 563. Bath were just behind on 2155. Essex, London, Aberdeen and Nottingham Trent were all in the 2130s whilst 19th placed Keele were the last team over 2100, with 2122. No less than 41 complete teams of four took part.

The novice team event was a close run affair, but it was Edinburgh who came out on top with 1583 - 539 from Benjamin Arenas, 533 from Stephanie Clason and 511 from Tom Saddler. Second place was taken by Warwick, 12 points behind, with Jacob Bellamy, Luke Rieman and Enrik Nako on 526, 525 and 520. Loughborough were third on 1564 with a team of Louis Richardson 527, Robert Macauley 523 and Craig Murch 514. Similar to the senior team category, after the medal winning teams, there was a bit of a drop to fourth place. Sheffield were fourth powered by 536 from Harry Day and 535 from Tom Watson, for a total of 1536. A score of 540 from Allan West meant Birmingham nudged ahead of Oxford 1523 to 1522, despite a Dark Blue 524 from Eleonore Cossade. Nottingham were in seventh on 1505, Oliver Jackson on 533. Southampton and Napier were eighth and ninth in the 1480s, Napier's Jean Disset on 532, Cambridge and Essex completed the leading group of novice teams, although there were 32 complete teams of three.

Gents recurve turned in to a titanic two way battle between Andrew Randall and George Harding (both Nottingham). Astonishingly both men broke the existing BUCS record of 588 (originally set in 1996), but although George Harding shot nothing outside of the yellow all day, his score of 589 was not enough to win, as team mate Randall boomed in a 591 to take the top prize. The score is only one point less than the All Uni Comps record currently held by Harding. If the contest for gold was between two, so was the contest for bronze, as Erik Rowbotham (Edinburgh) and Sean Evans (Gloucestershire) both finished on 580 - nine behind and seven ahead of anyone else. In the end Rowbotham's fractionally superior number of golds - 42 as opposed to 41 - meant he won bronze at this event for the third year in a row, Evans having to content himself with the last BUCS point. Sherman Ip (London) led the main pack with 573 in fifth place. Gents six down to twelve all arranged themselves neatly one point after another from 570 down to 564, starting with BUTTS duo Tom Hall (Warwick) and Tom Cram (Loughborough), then Rhodri Curnow (Swansea) then David Jobin (Keele). They were followed by BUTTS trio Matthew Langton (Oxford), Jorge Lindley (Warwick) and Liu Zhaoyong (Cambridge). Five gents finished on 563, with a total of 23 making 560.

Hannah Beasley-Suffolk (Imperial) won ladies recurve with a total of 573 and a winning margin of seven points. Perhaps surprisingly, she becomes the first ever Imp to win an individual recurve gold at BUCS Indoors or Outdoors. Margaux Mesle (Edinburgh) and Sarah Russel (Birmingham) both got 566, with Mesle's 35 golds taking silver, Russel's 33 golds taking bronze. There was another ten point gap down to another tie breaker in fourth place Migle Petruskeviciute and Kyshiea George (both Edinburgh) on 556, defending champion Petruskeviciute taking fourth spot on golds 31 to 28. Charlie Birch (Nottingham) was a point behind the Edinburgh pair, and two ahead of Rachael Hutchison (Warwick). Sophie Ruthven and Lizzie Bell (both Edinburgh) were next on 549 and 548, making it an astonishing five ladies in the top ten for the Scottish club. Charlotte Whitlock (Southampton) and Ellie Dyson (Nottingham Trent) both finished on 545 with 23 golds.

Gents novice recurve was a tight affair, with Allan West (Birmingham) producing a 540 to be one solitary point ahead of Benjamin Arenas (Edinburgh). Harry Day and Tom Watson (both Sheffield) were third and fourth with 536 and 535, whilst the leading group was rounded off by Oliver Jackson (Nottingham) and Jean Disset (Napier) on 533 and 532. Exactly 20 novice gents finished on 500 or better whilst it was only the leading group of four lady novices who followed suit. Stephanie Clason (Edinburgh) was clear in front with 533, whilst Camille Roux (Essex) pipped Eleonore Cossade (Oxford) 525 to 524. Siobhan Boyle (Reading) was fourth on 519 and then there was a 20 point gap to fifth placed Susana Navarro Agusti (Cambridge) who led the chasing pack on 499.

Tapani Kalmaru and Alex Bridgman (both UWI Cardiff) repeated their one-two from this event last year, Kalmaru first on 587, Bridgman on 582. The UWIC pair were 11 clear of third placed Phil Dunn (Swansea). Elliot Moss (Plymouth) claimed the last individual BUCS point on 568 and thanks to David Leach (Swansea) and George Churchill (Cardiff), the top 6 gent compounds were all from unis in SWWU or the SWWU area. Top lady compound Zoe Coggins (Sunderland) exactly matched gent winner Kalmaru with an excellent 587 to break both the tournament and All Unis record. Coggins was ten clear of second placed Mary Perrott (Portsmouth), with Naomi Jones (Edinburgh) third on 571. Julie Ryan (Sunderland) and Lucy O'Sullivan (Nottingham Trent) both finished on 570 with 30 golds and 30 nines. Top novice compound was Jason Yiu (Swansea) with a total of 560, just four away from the record.

Barebow continues to grow in size, although it was noticeable this year that numbers were augmented by recurves double-bowing, surely because the size of the venue allowed space for this to happen. There were 78 barebows compared to 33 compounds and 19 longbows. Top gent experienced barebow was a close contest between the three eventual medal winners. Alex Gilliland (Edinburgh) got 521 to edge out the 520 from Daniel Paterson (Bath), with Matthew Batchelor (Exeter) third on 516. Christopher Watters (Aberdeen) was fourth on 491. In senior ladies barebow, Jos Sarsby (Birmingham) won with 501, six clear of Amyce Aurora-Smith (Bath) on 495 herself a point clear of Lexi Elliot (Southampton). Defending champion Annie White (Oxford) was fourth. Remarkably the top novice gent barebow scored 523 - which would have been enough to win the senior gents title and BUCS points but Robert Macauley (Loughborough) only won the novice title, smashing the old BUCS and All Unis record in the process. Macauley's nearest challenger was team-mate John Hodgson (Loughborough) on 487 with Joe Blatch (Sheffield) third on 465. Alix Snell (Bath) won novice ladies barebow on 462, from Emma Moralee (Northumbria) on 425 and Laura Warren (also Bath [corr.]) on 420.

Jonathan Ellis (Loughborough) won gents longbow with 419, clear of James Maskery (Bangor) on 394 and well clear of Niall Shields (Dundee) third on 312. In ladies longbow, the winner was Llinos Murray Williams (Liverpool) on 315, just ahead of Kathryn Evans (Surrey) 307. Jess Turberville (Loughborough) was third on 256. Top novice longbow was James Barnaby (Queen Mary, London) who shot 209 to claim a gold medal for the emergent club.

BUCS Indoors ventured in to new territory with this event at Telford, with the cavernous venue able to accommodate so many archers that no waiting list was required. Such a mighty tournament would rapidly hit the buffers without the organising team, so many thanks to Anthony Pike and the rest of Aberystwyth, with Steven Johnson, Marc Tamlyn, Ash McCloud and the AFS crew put on such a successful event, with preliminary results online within hours of the final whistle. BUTC takes place in Warwick on Saturday 10th March and BUCS Outdoors is to take place on Saturday 16th June at Lilleshall NSC. However the event is currently without a host. There is a deadline for bids of Friday 16th March, so get in touch with Ed Curran at BUCS on ed.curran@@bucs.org.uk, with any questions to go to Steven Johnson at BUCSArcheryChair@@gmail.com.

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