BUCS Indoors 2019 Finals Review

Since 2017, BUCS Indoors has used regional qualifying events (two Portsmouths) to whittle down the field, whilst the Finals themselves consisted of a WA18m ranking round, with a further cut for those qualifying for the H2H. The team titles were determined from the 18m round scores. Once again, places at the finals were allocated proportionally by bowstyle, but also proportionally by gender, giving a 60/40 male/female split and meaning that women's H2H field was smaller in some bowstyles.

In the recurve team categories there were numerous parallels, plus one big difference between the men's and women's results. Both winning teams had margins of around 80 as they cruised to first place. Warwick's men (1663) and Birmingham's women (1634) were crowned as champions - the same pairing won at Lilleshall in the summer and 12 months ago in Bristol. Warwick added women's silver to men's gold on 1555, whilst Plymouth's men were second on 1580, their best ever finish at any national student competition, bettering their 4th last year. Nottingham took home both sets of bronze medals (1565 and 1544).

In the gents team results, Nottingham were just ahead of a tightly packed field. The gap from 3rd down to 7th was only 20 points - from 3rd to 5th was only 3 points. London (1564) and Loughborough (1562) were next, making it 3 BUTTS teams in the top 5. Exeter were sixth on 1553, ahead of league rivals Swansea next on 1545 making it 3 SWWU clubs in the top 7. The last gents team BUCS point was fought out between Bradford and Oxford, with the newly crowned NEUAL champions taking it 59 tens to 50, after both sides notched 1516 points.

Edinburgh were fourth in the women's team standings on 1487. Loughborough were 5th, the same position as their gents, but on 1359 points. Exeter, De Montfort and London rounded off BUCS-point-earning top 8. De Montfort's 7th spot here is their best ever at a national. The lower number of female recurves invited to the National Finals (50 vs 90 gents) meant that correspondingly fewer clubs had 3 lady recurves present (5 vs 15 gents) - with the top 8 earning BUCS points. The remainder of the women's "recurve" teams were only made up to 3 by barebows and longbows, clearly affecting the lower section of the women's team leaderboard.

There were only 3 compound teams of 2 this year, with Warwick out in front on 1165, enough to beat the existing All Unis record by 5 points. In total there were 5 new and 1 tied All Unis record set.

This is only the third season in the WA18m format, and it is also new as a All Uni record category. However there were some impressive displays, in some cases demolishing the records that once stood. The only team record to fall was Warwick's compound team (Kai Thomas-Prause, James Edmondson) as discussed. Bryony Pitman (Northumbria) put a massive 10 points on the women's recurve record with 581. Top qualifying man was Alex Wise (Northumbria) but his 580 fell 2 short. In barebow, Paul Cobee (Bath) score 495 to beat the existing gents mark by 12, whilst Jessica Nilsson (Edinburgh) matched the existing ladies record of 505. Nilsson originally set this record back in 2017 (with 485) only for Sarah Shahzad (Bournemouth) to beat it the following year, last year. Shahzad and Nilsson are now joint holders. Kai Thomas-Prause (Warwick) made it 2 All Unis records for the day with his 584 smashing the previous record of 573. Alex Newnes (Aberystwyth) beat his own record from 2 years ago, hitting 479, a record by an eye-watering 51 points and indeed only 16 short of the gents barebow record.

Top seed Alex Wise (Northumbria) won the gents title. With gents recurve up to 64 making the cut, Wise had to win 6 matches to do so. He was relatively comfortable throughout (despite a little wobble in the second round), including a 6-0 against Harry Charalambous (East Anglia) in the QFs. The semi final, against Jonas Skackauskas (Brunel) was arguably the match of the day however. Wise and Skackauskas dropped only 4 points each over 15 arrows, with a tie breaker arrow going 10-9 in Wise's favour. Consider that Skackauskas shot four 29s and then a 30 just to force a shoot off, having beaten Enrik Nako (Warwick) in the QF. In the other half of the draw Arthur Coveney (Loughborough) fought his way through from 15th seed to the final. Coveney had a scare back in the round of 64, needing to win the 5th set and then a shoot off to get past Arfan Khan (Liverpool) seeded 50th, but then took full advantage of the fact that William Pike (Warwick) seeded second, was unexpectedly toppled by 31st ranked Dmytro Petryshche (Lancaster) in the round of 32. Coveney beat Petryshche, Max Harding (Nottingham) seeded 10th in the QF and James Gardner (Warwick) in the semi. 14th seed Gardner beat near namesake and 3rd seed Matthew Gardiner (Bradford) in the round of 16 and went on to beat Matthew Sharpe (Surrey) in the QFs. Wise and Coveney shared the first set 28-28, but Wise took the next two to lead 5-1. Veteran Coveney won set 4, but, fittingly a 30 won Wise the title. Skackauskas beat Gardner 6-2 in the bronze match. Alex Rowe (Plymouth) seeded 7th came unstuck against Andrew Smith (Napier) seeded 26th on a tie break. Biggest upset of the day, also settled in a tie break was Peter Cox (Lancaster) who qualified in 56th and overcame Dominic Collis (London) seeded 9th.

Bryony Pitman (Northumbria) won the ladies title without losing a single set all day. The only points she conceded were two drawn sets in the final, but that match was much more competitive than the scoreline suggests. Pitman breezes past Charlotte Lunt (Bath) and Lizzie Elmer (Nottingham), the 9th and 4th seeds in their QF and SF. The story of the ladies event however came from Elmer's QF opponent, the 28th seed Phoebe Noble (Bristol). Noble was by far the lowest seeded in any of the QF line ups but in the round of 32, she ousted 5th seed Ellen Jones (Oxford), 26-25 to win 6-4 in a five set thriller. Things got even closer against 12th seed Kirsty Falcus (Nottingham) in the round of 16. Noble again won a crucial 5th set, this time to force a shoot off which she won with a 10 - closer to the middle than the 10 shot by Falcus. Against Lizzie Elmer, Noble forced a third consecutive fifth set against higher ranked opposition, but it was third time unlucky, 27-25. In the bottom half, Eleanor Piper (Birmingham) seeded 2nd beat Hannah Burnage (Warwick) seeded 7th 6-0, although all three sets were close. Piper's semi-final had the extra spice of being against clubmate and 3rd seed Rebekah Tipping. Tipping had beaten Pip Taylor (Derby) 6-2 in her QF. Two of Birmingham's gold medal winning trio from the morning served up a classic as Piper took a 3-1 lead, but saw Tipping turn the match on its head to 3-5 with a 30-29. Staring down the barrel, Piper shot 30 in set 5 to force a shoot off which she won with a ten. Rebekah Tipping took the bronze match from Lizzie Elmer. In the final itself, Pitman and Piper drew the first set (30 all - Pitman's first dropped set of the day remember) and also third set. In sets two and four it was the Northumbria woman who prevailed, but only by a single point each time.

2019's individual BUCS Indoor recurve champions both shot for the same club, Northumbria. Such an individual indoor double has only happened once in the last 30 years (2006 - Tim Mundon and Jenny Jeppsson for Edinburgh). Prior to that you have to go back to 1987 (Warwick) and 1981 (Bath).

In compound only the top 8 gents and top 4 ladies qualified for the knock out stages. Compound KO matches are 15 arrow matches rather than sets. Ladies compound was an incredibly close affair, with the all match scores being between 142 and 145. Second seed Sarah Prieels (Edinburgh) beat top seed Sarah Moon (Nottingham Trent) 144-143 in the final. The gents final was Kai Thomas-Prause against James Edmondson (both Warwick). Top seed Thomas-Prause was run close but came out with a 145-144 win. Rhys Harper (Lancaster) and Izzy Carpenter (Sheffield Hallam) won bronzes, Carpenter on a shoot off.

In longbow the knock-out phase comprised only the last 4 archers for both gents and ladies. Alex Newnes (Aberystwyth) and Jessica Nirkko (Edinburgh) were both top seeds and both ran out dominant winners. Georgiana Jones (Loughborough) and Rodolfo Perez (Plymouth) were the runners up.

In barebow the top 8 women and the top 16 men qualified for the knock-out stages and in both cases, the top 4 seeds made the semis. Top seed Paul Cobee (Bath) shared the first two sets with Lonja Selter (Plymouth), but a 29 from Selter in set 3 helped send the fourth seed and defending champion through. Chris Norwood (De Montfort) seeded 3rd, built up a 4-0 lead against Matt Waters (Nottingham), but saw it evaporate to 4-4. Norwood equalled the new All Unis Portsmouth record shot by Waters earlier in the season and in set 5 held his nerve to secure a place in the final. Selter actually beat Norwood in the semis last year. This time he led 2-0 and 4-2, but a strong finish saw De Montfort's Norwood take the title, Cobee beating Waters to bronze. Top ladies seed was Jessica Nilsson (Edinburgh) but she lost to Annabel Brunt (Bath) 7-3 in close match, whilst Amelia Elgey (Birmingham) seeded second had too much for Amy Cole (Central Lancashire [corr.]) in thier semi. Elgey had lost in the final 12 months ago, but immediately won two close sets for a 4-0 lead against Brunt. Both women raised their game in set 3, which ended 28-28. Set 4 was also shared putting Elgey over the line. Nilsson beat Cole for bronze.

As always, many thanks to all those who donate their time and energies to putting on a such great competition. Find out more about hosting the Qualifiers or Finals for 2020 on the BUCS website - deadline for that is 12th July 2019. The festival of student archery rolls on, as many of those who went to Leeds, now head to Reading to tidy up some discs.

Return to main BUCS Indoor section.

In Resources, All Unis records have been updated. The Archive page has been updated.

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