BUCS Outdoors 2019 Review
BUCS Outdoors 2019 took place at Lilleshall NSC, with the competition yet again suffering wet and windy conditions. One All Unis records was broken on the Saturday with another near miss. On the Sunday there were 4 more plus a tie. A 1st class score was required for guaranteed senior qualification, and there were 223 starters.
In the women's team event, the top 3 rapidly went clear of the field. Birmingham were 65 clear of Warwick after the long metric and stretched that lead to nearly 100. Warwick did start to make some inroads during 30m but it was not enough, with Birmingham's women ending on 3389 with Warwick second in 3317. Edinburgh had occupied third spot from start to finish and ended on 3258 - nearly 60 behind Warwick, but 450 ahead of Nottingham who took fourth. Central Lancashire were fifth ahead of Loughborough. Bristol and Plymouth were 7th and 8th out of the 8 complete women's teams present.
In the men's team event, Loughborough and Warwick battled for top spot in the morning. Warwick led initially before Loughborough slowly overtook to lead by only 5 at lunchtime. Exeter were third at this point ahead of Birmingham. Loughborough made a decisive move at 50m moving 70 points clear. The two sides produced virtually identical scores at 30m as Loughborough took top spot. Behind the top two, Exeter were third for most of the day and led Birmingham by 70 with a distance to go. However the Birmingham gents stormed back and slipped ahead of Exeter in the last dozen, landing on 3068 to Exeter's 3059. Another 300 further back, Plymouth took fifth spot, with Oxford, Swansea and Southampton completing the top 8. There were eleven gents teams.
Despite several podium finishes and lots of top 8 placings, Loughborough have only actually won the equivalent of BUCS Outdoors outright once before, way back in 1983. Loughborough's last national title was BUTC 2012. Birmingham have now won the BUCS ladies team titles, both indoors and outdoors, for 3 years in a row. UCLan's ladies matched their best ever finish of 5th from last year, whilst 7th place for Swansea's gents is their highest BUCS Outdoors finish.
Birmingham ran away with the novice team event, finishing on 3032, a full 500 ahead of nearest rivals Cambridge on 2509. Warwick took bronze, a fraction ahead of Loughborough, 2272 against 2259. There were only 6 complete novice teams, a fall from last year which was itself a significant drop on years past. From 2015 onwards the number falls from 17, then 11, then 12, then 8, then 6 - not an ideal trend.
In gents recurve, Arthur Coveney (Loughborough) added individual gold to team gold, winning the title with 1201 and putting 30 points on the rest of the field. Coveney won 90m and 50m outright and became his club's first individual BUCS champion since 1999. By lunchtime Coveney had a 20 point lead over Thomas Braxton (Leeds), Matthew Sharpe (Surrey) and Sherman Ip (Warwick) - who were within 3 of each other. Sherman Ip dropped away by 30-50 points over 50m and although he produced the best recurve 30m of the day, it meant he landed in fourth with 1126. Meanwhile Braxton gradually pulled away to take silver on 1171 as Sharpe finished on 1137. Both Braxton and Sharpe win their clubs' first ever BUCS Outdoors individual medals. Christopher Avins (Birmingham) and Matthew Gardiner (Bradford) were the last two gents over 1100 on 1114 and 1105, with Chris Cooper (Loughborough) and Tom Ledgerwood (Exeter) 7th and 8th on 1096 and 1089. A total of 18 gents broke 1000, roughly half as many as last year as the conditions told.
Eleanor Piper (Birmingham) successfully defended her BUCS Outdoor title, scoring 1235 to win by exactly 50. Emma Davis (Warwick) put some pressure on Piper after 70m, but 60m proved decisive. As Piper went 25 clear, both Davis and third placed Rebekah Tipping (Birmingham) were also overtaken by Ellen Jones (Oxford) by half way. The end of 50m saw the Tipping up into second, but a mere three ahead of Jones and five ahead of Davis. 30m became a three way shoot off and it was Davis who upgraded her bronze from last year in to a silver with 1185. 2016 champion Tipping bronze a mere 2 points behind on 1183 and Jones in fourth on 1176. Johanna Meyer (Edinburgh), runner up in 2017 and 2018, was the last of five ladies to break 1100. Novice champion 12 months ago, Robin Burton (Edinburgh) was 6th on 1095, just 3 ahead of Monique Pascall (Birmingham City), with Hannah Burnage (Warwick) 8th on 1082. In total 12 women broke 1000 as against 18 last year.
In ladies novice category Jessie Yin and Monica Jones (both Edinburgh) were nearly 50 clear of the field by lunchtime, but Ning Yang (Birmingham) won both of the shorter distances and managed to overhaul Jones. Jessie Yin won the title with 945, Yang on 928 and Jones on 917. Gents novice by contrast was a more straightforward affair as Yang Ma (Birmingham) was nearly 60 clear of Pawel Rymarz (Oxford) and Yang Pei (Cambridge) at lunch. Ma ended the day on 1146, with Rymarz and Pei on 1082 and 1067. Zinan Li and Eloise Evans (both Birmingham) were 4th placed novice recurves.
Whilst Stuart Taylor (Keele) led gents compound from wire to wire, ladies compound saw an epic battle between Sarah Moon (Nottingham Trent), Hope Greenwood and Beth Martel (both Edinburgh). Five points covered the trio after 60m, with Moon, three up on Greenwood who in turn led Martel by two. All three archers shot matching scores at 50m. During 30m, Martel fell away, but Greenwood managed to make up the three point deficit on Moon and both archers ended the day on 1369, with Moon taking the title 85 tens to 83. Beth Martel was third on 1358, 100 clear of the field. Stuart Taylor's 1365 was only 3 short of the existing All Unis record. Rhys Harper (Lancaster) pipped James Edmondson (Warwick) to bronze 1328 to 1325. There were 32 compounds, 3 of whom were novices.
There was a compound team category, albeit not one that counted towards BUCS points, with Edinburgh on 2727 in first, Warwick on 2640 and Keele on 2576.
A year ago, Jessica Nilsson (Edinburgh) dominated ladies barebow and broke the All Unis record. This year she repeated the feat, with 1024 enough to win by exactly a point an arrow from Suzannah Boardman (Leeds). Nilsson beat her previous record by 23. Laura Hutchinson (Loughborough) survived a fightback from Malin Schulz (Surrey) to take third spot 751 to 750 - the gap had been 26 points with a distance to go. Paul Cobee (Bath) won gents barebow with 830, regaining the title he won in 2017. Cobee made a decisive move at 70m. James Hayday (Swansea) was second ahead of Lonja Selter (Plymouth) on 736. 2013, 2014 & 2015 BUCS Outdoor barebow champion Huw Vaughan-Jackson (West of England) finished fourth. Top barebow novices were Haydn Hayes and Aubrey Whitish (both Swansea) on 720 and 666. There were 44 barebow, lower than the last couple of years.
Alex Newnes (Aberystwyth) won gents longbow with 706. Newnes fell short of his own All Unis record, but score more than double his nearest competitor. Beth Duthie (Aberystwyth) was top longbow lady on 332. There were 11 longbows for the third year in succession.
There was also a H2H event held on the following day to BUCS, which will be reviewed separately. As ever, massive thanks to the team of organisers lead by Richard Anderson who may or may not have dried out - and to all those who took part.
Archive Summary - updated
All Unis records, see Resources - updated
Return to the main BUCS Outdoor section.
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