BUCS Indoors 2014 Review

BUCS Indoors 2014 took place on Saturday 1st March in Telford, and yet again there were a record breaking number of entrants. Even Telford's mighty hall was not quite big enough to entertain everyone. The BUCS Indoors attendance record has now been broken in the last three consecutive years: 523 (in 2012), followed by 571 (in 2013) to 619 this year.

Nottingham completed a hat-trick of BUCS Indoor team titles, with a combined total of 2279. Andrew Randall led the team home with 593, supported by Richard Haydock's 570, 561 from Luke Bray and 555 from Victoria Bratty. Oxford matched their silver medals from last year, with 2265, 14 behind the winners. Oxford's winning BUTC team was very much in evidence. Matthew Langton, Alexander Smith and Ciprian Zahan contributed 583, 579 and 555, whilst Kirstie Smith added 548, to keep Oxford nine clear of Birmingham. Birmingham recorded their best ever finish at a BUCS Indoors, taking third place and bronze. Ashe Morgan scored 586, Alex Morrell 573 and there was support from James Radcliffe on 552 and Christopher Avins on 545. BUTC runners up Warwick were just outside the medals on 2251, with Edinburgh in fifth place on 2247. Jorge Lindley scored 571 for Warwick, with Tom Hall on 567. Ben Tseng shot 569 for Edinburgh in reply, but the Scottish side miss out on BUCS team medals for only the second time since 1996, having finished 4th last year.

Southampton pipped Derby to 6th spot by 2 points as they finished a point either side of 2240, despite a 579 from Derby's Shaun Rhodes. Tom Currall (Derby) and Andrew Howe (Southampton) scored 569 and 571. Southampton were the leading SEAL club. The last of the BUCS points for 8th place went to Nottingham Trent who amassed 2229. This is the highest score ever to finish 8th and means that Aberdeen (9th - 2222), Napier (10th - 2210) and Loughborough (11th - 2200) become the first ever teams to score 2200 but fail to claim a BUCS point. Aberdeen and Napier are the first Scottish clubs (other than Edinburgh) to make the BUCS Indoors top 10 since 2003. Despite a 573 from Alex Hickson, Bath fell just two short of 2200, but they were the leading SWWU team and finished five ahead of London's total of 2193. There was a slight drop down to 14th place, as Surrey scored 2176, 575 of which came from Amelie Aichinger. That was just enough to keep them ahead of Cambridge who managed 2174. Exeter, York and Strathclyde were next, all in the 2150s and there was a 577 from Gerda Pociunaite, keeping Exeter ahead in 16th. Swansea were 19th in 2128, with 5 NEUAL teams in row behind them. Lancaster (20th - 2124), Durham (21st - 2119) and Keele (22nd - 2116) were the last clubs over 2100. There were 46 complete teams of four.

Edinburgh did grab a convincing win in the novice team category, sweeping to a total of 1613, with Marcus Wright and Jacques Janos Peters on 552 and 551, with 510 from Bozhidara Ivanova. Exactly 20 points behind were Derby, for whom Dan Johnson, Davi Simmons and Adrian Hulmes scored 539, 537 and 517 to make 1593. Exactly 20 points behind them were London, who claimed bronze by only 2 from Nottingham. London's 1573 was a result of Arman Amini 545, a 527 from Tuan-Anh Nguyen and Graeme Stevens' 501. Michael Hall and Sarah Lester hit 535 and 533, whilst Harry Ives-Keeler added 503. After the leading group, there was a slight drop down to 1538 and Cambridge in 5th spot, Birmingham (6th - 1526) and Oxford (7th - 1521). Bath narrowly finished ahead of SWWU rivals Swansea 1513 to 1509, whilst 10th placed Huddersfield were the last team to break 1500, with 1501. There were 39 complete teams of three.

Remarkably the three gents who won medals at this tournament last year did it again - and almost in the same order. Andrew Randall (Nottingham) won the title for the third year running with an imposing 593. Ashe Morgan (Birmingham) and Sean Evans (Gloucestershire) could not be separated in the race for second. Both men scored 586 points with 46 golds and so both were rewarded with silver, Morgan upgrading from the bronze of 12 months ago. Matthew Langton (Oxford) grabbed the last BUCS point with 583, just ahead of Kieran Slater (Leicester) who was fifth with 581. The leading group of gents was rounded off by Shaun Rhodes (Derby) and Alexander Smith (Oxford) who were both one point short of 580, Rhodes in 6th place, courtesy of a slightly higher gold count. Six gents scored from 573 down to 570. Joint 8th were Alex Morrell (Birmingham) and Alex Hickson (Bath) on 573, with Jacob Vick (Harper Adams) on 572. Jorge Lindley (Warwick) and Andrew Howe (Southampton) were also tied on 571. Richard Haydock (Nottingham) scored exactly 570. Last year 14 gents broke 570 and 21 broke 560 - this year the comparable totals are 13 and 33.

Ladies recurve was dominated by two women who led the field by over a dozen points. Gerda Pociunaite (Exeter), who missed out on a medal by one point last year, won the title outright with 577. She becomes Exeter's first ever individual recurve BUCS champion and wins their first BUCS medals since team bronze indoors 2005 and 2006. Amelie Aichinger (Surrey) was runner up on 575. Both women win their clubs' first individual lady recurve BUSA/BUCS medal. The chasing pack was led by Amy Curnock (Nottingham Trent) who added a bronze (to go with her silver 12 months ago) with a score of 562. Missing out on a medal by one point, but taking one BUCS point was Veronique Heijnsbroek (Aberdeen). Nottingham Trent and Aberdeen also had 5th and 6th position as Steph Reynolds (Nottingham Trent) and Rebekah Tipping (Aberdeen) amassed 559 and 558. Victoria Bratty (Nottingham) and Bethan Koller (Napier) were 7th and 8th on 555. Defending champion Kirstie Smith (Oxford), Margaux Mesle (London) and Ellie Dyson (Nottingham Trent) were 9th, 10th and 11th, all on 548.

Gents novice recurve saw Marcus Wright and Jacques Janos Peters (both Edinburgh) take gold and silver, with Wright's 552 giving him a 1 point margin over Peters. Arman Amini (London) was third with 545, but with a miss costing him badly. Dan Johnson (Derby) and Zhe Wang (Durham) were joint fourth on 539. Davi Simmons (Derby), Michael Hall (Nottingham) and Hugh Pearce (Bath) also broke 530, with a further five over 520. Sarah Lester (Nottingham) beat Mirusha Adampulle (Hertfordshire) 533 to 530 to take the novice ladies title despite a miss. With 524, Claire Pilgrim (Birmingham) was well clear in third place, ahead of Merry Eady (Huddersfield) fourth on 513. Scottish universities dominated the rest of the top ten with Bozhidara Ivanova (Edinburgh) on 510 and Mechelle Diamond (Napier) leading the chasing pack on 506. A total of 37 novices broke 500.

Alex Bridgman successfully defended his gents compound title, although he now shoots for Edinburgh rather than Cardiff Metropolitan. His total of 581 was just enough to see off Billy Gao (Birmingham) who was second on 578. A few points further back Alex Blake (Strathclyde) and Matthew Dale (Warwick) finished with 572 and 32 golds each, both winning bronzes. In ladies compound, Rebecca Blewett (Nottingham) also won with 581, ahead of Hope Greenwood and Stephanie Clason (both Edinburgh) who scored 577 and 567 respectively. Hope Greenwood won silver for the second year in a row. Emily Blake (Robert Gordons) was fourth on 565. Top novice compound was Louise Hepworth (Nottingham) who notched 543 to break the BUCS ladies record by 4 points.

Barebow participation is up yet again, now to 127 in total. Huw Vaughan-Jackson (Edinburgh) won gents senior barebow and in doing so took the BUCS and All Unis record. Vaughan-Jackson's 540 eclipsed the 536 of Alistair Wilson (Bangor) shot at BUCS (then BUSA) Indoors, 11 years ago. Jacob Bellamy (Warwick) was second on 514, with Harry Martland (Bangor) third on 506. The top three were well clear. Liam McDonnell (Southampton) and Niall Millar (Dundee) both shot 466, but McDonnell took fourth and a BUCS point with 7 golds, to Millar's 3. Elizabeth Rees (Bath) was the runaway winner of ladies barebow with 548, just over 30 clear of second placed Morag Douglas (Aberdeen). Juliet Spedding (Liverpool) was third on 499. Similar to the men's, 4th and 5th finished level, with Jos Sarsby (Birmingham) and Emily Williams (South Wales) both on 493, Jos Sarsby taking the BUCS point with 60 hits against 59 hits. Adrian Hulmes (Derby) won novice gents barebow by two points. Hulmes' tally of 488 was just ahead of Graeme Stevens (London) on 486. Mark Buckingham (Bath) was third on 475, whilst Jennifer Hohmann (Durham) won novice ladies by a single point with 401. Sarah Roderick (Swansea) took silver on exactly 400, whilst bronze went to Alexandra Neag (Essex) with 381.

Luke Rieman (Warwick) broke the BUCS record to win gents longbow with 449. Edward Pike (Edinburgh) was second on 417, with Matt Reeve (Derby) third on 392. Adam Lack (Warwick) picked up the final BUCS point with 386. Ladies longbow was won by Emily Williams (South Wales) who scored 407 to win comfortably. Victoria Swann (Bath) and Katharine Simmons (Loughborough) were the other medallists on 362 and 353, whilst 309 saw Elspeth Iliff (London) take the last BUCS point. Emily Williams tripled bowed - in compound (547 - 8th), barebow (493 - 5th) and longbow (407 - 1st). Easily the top longbow novice was Yahya Alqurashi (Essex) with 293.

BUCS Indoors has increased rapidly in sized - from the plain large to a competition so enormous that even the Telford International Centre is not quite big enough to accommodate everyone. Thanks to all those who put their bodies/sanity on the line to host this event both from AFS and the BUTTS clubs. Following the SSS clubs last year, it seems that an entire regional league's worth of helpers is the best way. On the subject of regional leagues, SEAL, SWWU and NEUAL will all extract a set of league match results from the Telford totals, whilst this coming weekend sees the Indoor Champs of NEUAL, BUTTS and leg 5 of SEAL.

However, if your club (or indeed your entire league) fancies a go at the Outdoors at Lilleshall on 14th June, then get in touch.

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