BUTC 2005 Review

Results in full [87kb]

Exeter A (Andy Tan, Louise Colville and James Suckling) won BUTC 2005 in Nottingham, taking a big lead and then surviving a big comeback from Edinburgh B (Jenny Jeppsson, Jo Lymboussis and Gregor Schnuer) who had finished top qualifiers. Bath A (Karen Atkins, Andy Halcrow and Paul Ylioja) overcame Cambridge A (James Keogh, Matt Johnson and Pamela Custance-Baker) to win bronze, both medal matches watched by a crowd of about 150 loudly appreciative supporters.

In qualifying Edinburgh B pulled away from the rest of the pack, including their own A team, Warwick A, Exeter A and Cambridge A. Edinburgh B featured three of the four who had won BUSA Indoors the week before and their score of 813 cruised well past the team record. Warwick A (Tom Kemp, Jon Shaw, Charles Manville) qualified second, also breaking 800 on 802. Exeter A were third on 799. Edinburgh A (Matt Nowicki, David Lange and Emma Downie) eventually qualified fourth with 787 after having recovered from a poor start. Cambridge A completed the leading group fifth on 782. Lancaster A, Cambridge B and Exeter B made up the top eight out of a field of 31 teams. Defending champions York A were 9th, a point ahead of Bath A. Loughborough A were 11th ahead of Birmingham A. Imperial's A team out-qualified their B team by only 5 points, the pair finishing 13th and 14th. The top sixteen was completed by York B and Surrey.

As for the individuals, James Keogh (Cambridge A) won the gents division with 277, three points clear of Andy Tan (Exeter A), who was himself three points clear of Tom Kemp (Warwick A). Matt Nowicki (Edinburgh A) was fourth on 269 and followed by two Shaws, Jon (Warwick A) on 268 and Martin (Lancaster A) on 266. Vince Tse (Southampton) was 8th on 265. In the ladies field Naomi Folkard (Birmingham A) shattered the ladies record with 288, well clear of Jenny Jeppsson and Jo Lymboussis (both Edinburgh B) on 276 and 274, all three exceeding the previous mark of 271. Eloise Fowler (Imperial B) was fourth on 264, one ahead of Louise Colville (Exeter A) one ahead of Shelley Hurst (Bradford A). Alex Lyne (Loughborough) broke the novice gents record with 262, ahead of David Amey (York A) on 258, whilst Dorothee Rodger (Exeter B) destroyed the previous novice ladies record by over 40 points with 252.

With only Edinburgh B securing a bye into round 2, the familiar 40cm faces gave way to the nine yellow dots on the black foam boss that make up a Beiter hit-miss target. Straight away the difference was obvious as arrows and discs went flying into the air - a true spectacle for the onlookers. Edinburgh A laboured to a very unconvincing 5-4 win over Sheffield B, 25 places and 260 points behind them in the qualifying round, but without doubt the result of the first round was Southampton's Olympian effort to beat Birmingham A 11-10. Southampton had looked finished 5-8 down going into the last pass, but faintest of line cutters in the last end gave victory to the south coast side. Both A and B teams from Cambridge, Exeter and Imperial all went through all comfortably except Imperial B who were made to sweat by Warwick B before eventually winning 7-6. There was disappointment for the hosts as they received tough matches, Nottingham A losing to Imperial A and Nottingham B losing to Exeter A. York A held off a spirited Lancaster B 7-5, the first meeting of the Roses at a BUTC. Elsewhere Durham A beat Surrey 8-5 and Loughborough and Lancaster A set up a second round clash, whilst the A teams of Bath, Bradford and Warwick completed comfortable wins, Warwick's 15-3 win over ULU a new record.

In round 2, defending champions York A slipped out of the competition going down to Exeter B 7-3, whilst Exeter's A team won against Imperial B. There was double trouble for Imperial as Imperial A lost 10-6 to Edinburgh A who appeared to be finding some rhythm at last. Edinburgh B edged through 8-5 over Durham A. Southampton, at 21, were the lowest ranked team left in could not repeat their previous heroics and went down 13-6 to Cambridge A. Tie of the round was sixth seeded Lancaster A against eleventh seeded Loughborough which finished 6-6 and went to a tie break. Underdogs Loughborough were cool under pressure as the whole hall stopped to watch the three arrow shoot off which Loughborough won 2-0. Form teams Bath A and Warwick A set up a quarter-final meeting with wins over Cambridge B 12-6 and Bradford A 10-5 respectively.

In the quarter-finals there was the possibility of an all-Edinburgh semi-final but this was brutally swept aside by Cambridge A who opened up a 7-1 lead after the first pass. The experienced Edinburgh A team closed the gap significantly but were left with too much to do, the final score 13-11. Second seeds Warwick A were simply blown away by a stunning performance from tenth seeds Bath A, 15-9. Exeter A also hit 15 times to put an emphatic end to Loughborough's good run 15-7. Edinburgh B faced the other remaining B team, Exeter B and simply had too much for their opponents winning 14-9.

The first semi-final was Cambridge A against Edinburgh B. Last year York A had to beat both Edinburgh sides to secure the title and Cambridge A needed to do the same here. However even Cambridge A's third consecutive score of 13 was not nearly enough as Edinburgh B thumped down 17 hits, claiming a new record in the process - BUTC 2005 another chapter in the great rivalry between these two clubs. Then followed the second semi-final between Bath A and Exeter A. The two teams are (at time of writing) locked together at the top of the SWWU league and both had been in imperious form all day, Bath A looking to defeat their third higher ranked opponent after Cambridge B and Warwick A. Exeter A proved a step too far however as the BUSA Indoor bronze medallists closed out a tight match 11-9. In the bronze medal match Bath A re-found their touch and crushed Cambridge A 16-10.

The BUTC 2005 final pitted Edinburgh B against Exeter A in front of a noisy crowd that numbered about 150. Both teams got off to a nervous start, Exeter 3-2 up after the first pass. It seemed that the first side to get over their nerves would go on to win and it was Exeter who struck that decisive blow in the second pass, winning that 7-3. At 10-5 down with nine arrows to fire, most sides would have been dead and buried, but not Edinburgh B who produced a thrilling come back to put Exeter under serious pressure. Exeter were not to be denied however and closed out the match to win BUTC 2005, their first national student title, 14-11.

Once again BUTC has shown itself to be the most spectacular and colourful event on the student archer calendar. With 31 teams it was also the largest BUTC so far and featured very high quality shooting with records falling in most categories. The competition was also special because it was the debut of Werner Beiter's hit/miss targets and the great man himself was present to witness the display and act as Lord Paramount, taking time to talk to many people over the course of the day and to the medal winners at the presentation. He was, by all accounts delighted by what he saw, both in terms of his targets (several people grabbing a 60mm yellow souvenir from the day) and the competition and the atmosphere. Such compliments carry more weight when you consider the amount of top level archery Werner Beiter has seen and is involved with.

Thanks are as ever due to a large number of individuals for getting this impressive show up and running, notably Tim Mundon, Chris Goodman and the army of Nottingham blueshirts and Ian McGibbon and the smaller army ACME blackshirts. Also many thanks to the insightful commentary and inimitable comedy of Dave Spinner and Chris "Warwick" Burnett. Both have commentated at BUTC before but this was first year together. Don't forget, if you think that ACME can help your university can host a magnificent tournament like BUTC get in touch with the UKSAA today.


Quarter Finals

  • Edinburgh B (1) beat Exeter B (8)
  • Cambridge A (5) beat Edinburgh A (4)
  • Exeter A (3) beat Loughborough (11)
  • Bath A (10) beat Warwick A (2)

Semi Finals

  • Edinburgh B beat Cambridge A
  • Exeter A beat Bath A

Third/Fourth place play-off

  • Bath A beat Cambridge A

Final

  • Exeter A beat Edinburgh B