Edinburgh won BUCS Outdoors 2010 convincingly at Lilleshall. Conditions were cooler in the morning, warming up in the afternoon, with the wind variable throughout the day. Nottingham were second, but they were over 400 points behind Edinburgh's 4805, on 4374. Warwick followed up their BUTTS Outdoors win with third place on 4301 - almost 250 clear of fourth. Edinburgh's winning team was Jenny Jeppsson (1274), Kyshiea Steele (1205), Erik Rowbotham (1166) and Elizabeth Bell (1160), Jenny Jeppsson putting six points on her own record, set last year. Nottingham completed a hat-trick of team silvers this season, their team score comprising George Harding (1248), Chris Fry (1094), Nicola Turner (1036) and Laura Bell (996). Harding putting five points on the gents recurve tournament record. Warwick's team of Matt Dale (1161), Andrew Shreeves (1119), Chris Wells (1050) and James Mudd (966) claimed bronze. There were 199 starters with four retirees.

Edinburgh's winning team total was 4805, with a winning margin of 431 points - over 100 points per person and the largest since the introduction of the FITA. Nottingham and Warwick contested second place, themselves well over 200 points clear of the rest of the field, Nottingham adding BUCS Outdoor silver to team silver collected at BUCS Indoor and BUTC this year. The BUTTS pair finished on 4374 and 4301 respectively. Fourth, fifth and sixth places, were eventually decided by less than one single arrow value. Southampton, Loughborough and Reading were all were sandwiched together. Southampton kept up their excellent recent run in BUCS events with a final total of 4062 to nick fourth spot, chiefly thanks to top scorer Sam Bird's 1184, an 1155 from Matt Cole helping Loughborough to fifth on 4058 with Reading on 4056. Also clearing the 1000 point per person barrier were Imperial in seventh place with 4010. Tournament hosts Birmingham grabbed the last BUCS point available in eighth place.

In the novice team category, Edinburgh romped home in first place with 3013. Warwick and Nottingham swapped places from the seniors with Warwick's 2796 clear of Nottingham's 2714. Edinburgh's all female winning trio was Siobhan Garner (1109), Migle Petruskeviciute (1001) and Hope Greenwood (903). Warwick's silver medal winning novices were Jorge Lindley (1042), Alan Dawson (1015) and Michaela Bruntraeger (739), whilst the bronze medal winning team of Nottingham were Rob Umpleby (1043), Adam Przelak (861) and Clare Diston (810). Leading the chasing pack were Sheffield who were fourth and Southampton fifth. Having finished on 2605 and 2576 respectively both Sheffield and Southampton were over 100 points outside the team medals, but were 340 clear of Lancaster who led the chasing pack.

George Harding (Nottingham) successfully defended the BUCS Outdoor title he won last year with a score of 1248, taking the tournament record in the process. Harding's win was never really in doubt from the outset, teasing out a 64 point lead over the course of the day - comfortably the biggest winning margin in gents recurve since the introduction of the FITA in 2007. Second place went to Sam Bird (Southampton) who won the south coast club's first individual medal since 1996 with a score of 1184. Erik Rowbotham (Edinburgh) won bronze with 1166, repeating his feat from the this year's BUCS Indoors. Finishing just outisde the medals, despite a high score over the last distance, Matt Dale (Warwick) was fourth on 1161. All of the top ten gents broke 1100, but were reasonably spread out. Matt Cole (Loughborough) was fifth on 1155, Rory Campbell (Sheffield) sixth on 1140. Champion in 2004 and 2005, Andrew Callaway (Bournemouth) was seventh with 1132. Andrew Shreeves (Warwick) made his club the only one with two gents in the top ten with 1119, with SEAL duo Matthew Sharpe (Surrey) and Michael Judd (Essex) rounded out the top ten on 1109 and 1100. In total, 19 gents, from 72 starters broke into four figures.

Jenny Jeppsson (Edinburgh) won her fourth BUCS Outdoor title - her ninth individual BUCS title overall - with 1274 putting six points on her own record set last year. Kyshiea Steele (Edinburgh) added Outdoor silver to her Indoor silver, scoring 1205 to finish clear of Elizabeth Bell (Edinburgh) who claimed bronze with 1160, the same colour she won at BUCS Outdoors '08, when she was Elizabeth Williams and shot for Imperial. Only two more ladies cleared 1000 points. Fourth place and the final BUCS point went to Janesta Smith (Bournemouth) with 1105, with Nicola Turner (Nottingham) fifth on 1036. Just missing out on four figures, Louise Smith (Sheffield), Laura Bell (Nottingham) and Julie Chenery (Reading) all fell agonisingly short in the 990s. In total the ladies senior recurve field numbered only 22. Edinburgh won a clean sweep of individual medals here. This has never been done before, gents or ladies at BUSA/BUCS indoor or outdoor championships - a remarkable display of dominance and a challenge to other clubs to do better.

Gents novice recurve was a three way fight with Rob Umpleby (Nottingham) surviving a charge from Jorge Lindley (Warwick) by the slimmest of margins 1043 to 1042. Lindley had been 23 poinst behind heading in to the last distance, before making up 22 of them. Alan Dawson (Warwick) was third on 1015, over 100 clear of fourth placed Lefei Zhang (Essex) who led the chasing pack on 902. Following on from their 1-2-3 in the senior ladies, Edinburgh were only three points away from repeating the feat with their novice ladies having to settle for 1-2-4. Siobhan Garner (Edinburgh) finished well clear in first place, with 1109 ahead of 1001 from Migle Petruskeviciute (Edinburgh). Sarah Christen (Imperial) prevented another clean sweep with 906, overtaking Hope Greenwood (Edinburgh) in the last distance, Greenwood on 903. Encouragingly, despite a large "gender disparity" at senior recurve level (72 v 22), the battle of the sexes was much more even amongst recurve novices, with 30 gents and 26 ladies.

After there were only seven senior compounds at BUCS Outdoors last year, this year there were nineteen senior starters plus one novice. Both the gents and ladies champions enjoyed broadly similar days, with both Tapani Kalmaru (UWIC) and Lucy O'Sullivan (Nottingham Trent) streaking well clear of their immediate competition, but both falling short of the BUCS records. Kalmaru's winning margin was 63 but a score of 1351 left him 5 short of the gents record. O'Sullivan won by 90 but was 28 off the record. Silver medallists were Jonathan Goodman (Hertfordshire) on 1288 and Naomi Jones (Edinburgh) on 1239, with bronzes to Stefan Gies (Edinburgh) 1247 and Ali Sewell (Edinburgh) on 1199. Edinburgh's ladies were "only" 2-3-4 in ladies compound. There was only one novice compound, Benjamin Jesson (Aberdeen) but his long journey was not wasted as he broke the category record by seven points, with 1144.

The senior barebow competitions were both two way fights with Sebastian Marshall (Lancaster) 762 coming out ahead of James Annal (Bath) on 717, just behind the category record of 768, but several hundred clear of the field. Samantha Moss (Southampton Solent) on 796 [corr.], beat Amyce Smith-Bannister (Bath) 742, both ladies crashing past the previous record of 673 and similarly far ahead. Christopher McLean (Bath) won gents novice barebow by a clear hundred points, taking a new record with 565. Zhenyu Du (Bath) second on 464 and Matt Eccles (Lancaster) on 406 all beat the existing mark of 405. Jovina Chee (Bath) won ladies novice barebow with 639. In total, there were 19 barebows competing.

Loughborough claimed all four longbow titles. Tom Goodwin won gents longbow, scoring 389, whilst Ashleigh McCloud won ladies longbow on 284, three short of the BUCS record. Both novice longbow records were smashed however. Jonathan Ellis with 338 beat the previous record by nearly 100 - second place Matt Evans (Lancaster) also beat the old mark, whilst Holly Halford was the only lady longbow novice, but her total of 177 beat the old record by over 50. In total, there were 10 longbows.

Scotland won the informal home nations match, with Edinburgh's top four up on 4805 against leading four (all gents) from the England, Harding, Bird, Dale and Cole on 4748. England won the novice match with the three novice gent medal winners Umpleby, Lindley and Dawson, 3100 against 3013.

Attendance was up from 169 to 199 starters - certainly an improvement, as clubs adjust to the qualifying score requirements, although still well below pre-qualifying score levels. There were only 14 complete senior sides and 11 complete novice sides. However, there were seven more BUCS records broken (GRE, LRE, LBE, GCN, GBN, GLN, LLN) including the two headliners.

Congratulations to Birmingham on a successful event - this is the first tournament hosted by the Brummies since the Indoors in 2003 that featured Alison Williamson. Thanks to Birmingham's chief organiser Steven Johnson (who also shot, got 1056 and was 13th gents recurve) and to PRISM, the BUTTS Alumni group whose help was invaluable. Finally as always an appeal for next year. Is 2011 the year your club grabs the opportunity to host a BUCS Championship? If you are at all interested - and remember an enquiry email is not legally binding - then contact BUCS SMG Chair, James Cowie j.i.cowie@@hotmail.co.uk. Similarly email UKSAA on studentarchery@@yahoo.co.uk if you are interested in BUTC 2011.