BUTC 2006 Review

Results in full [470kb]

Edinburgh A (Andy Ward, Emma Downie, Jenny Jeppsson) won BUTC 2006 by defeating Cambridge A (Matt Johnson, Ian Caulfield, Rob Dunn) in the final, 16 discs to 14. That after being behind after each of the first two passes. Just prior to that, Warwick A (Tom Kemp, Thom Hutchins, Jon Shaw) had defeated Exeter A (Andy Tan, Louise Colville, James Suckling) in a nail biting bronze medal match that had required a play off after the initial match finished 14 a piece. Warwick won the play-off superbly, 3-1.

In the qualifying round, Edinburgh got off to a good start and slowly eked out a significant lead which almost reached 30 points as Andy Ward topped gents qualifying and Emma Downie and Jenny Jeppsson were 1-2 in ladies qualifying. The score of 822 went easily past the record set last year and immediately established the 2003 champions, whose B team were one of those not present due to tournament oversubscrition, as favourites. Warwick, who just missed out on BUSA medals the week before had too much for the other English unis and finished on 793. Cambridge shot 785 and Exeter were fourth on 779. Loughborough clung on to fifth qualifying spot by a solitary point from Imperial 771 to 770. Surrey were seventh but twelve points adrift and Oxford made up the top eight. Imperial B were the top B qualifiers in ninth on 740 ahead of Sheffield A, 10th on 717. Birmingham A out qualified their B team by only 5 points, but had Warwick B sandwiched in between them. Durham's A team was 15th, actually beaten by their own B team who were 14th. This fate also befell Bath A further down the table. Bradford A narrowly kept Lancaster A out of the top 16.

Last season Edinburgh A edged past Sheffield B in the first round 5-4, but on the bigger 70mm disc the 2006 team produced a very different display to win 18-2. There was little joy for Sheffield's A team either, who, ranked 10th, were the highest profile casualty of round 1, going out to Liverpool A 1-0 in the day's first playoff after both sides had dislodged 6 discs. Bradford A earned the dubious pleasure of Edinburgh A's company in round 2 by edging Lancaster A 9-8. Second seeds Warwick A were made to work by Bath A but emerged on the right side of a 12-7 win - this match was the bronze medal play off last year. Bath B also went out, scoring a credible 6, but getting nowhere near Cambridge A's impressive 17. The Light Blues' B team was too much for Durham A in a tight 8-6 win. Durham B however not content with out qualifying their A team also went a round further by defeating Exeter B 8-7. Both York sides went out in round 1, the A team 7-5 to Warwick B whilst York B lost 9-4 to Imperial A. Birmingham A beat Leeds A to secure a second round meeting with Imperial A. Imperial made it two out of two as their B team beat Nottingham A and so did Birmingham as their B team beat SUS's "other" representative Napier. Oxford A beat Lancaster B 11-6, but the Dark Blues' second string was no match for the defending champions Exeter A who recorded a 14-5 win. Swansea became the first ever Welsh uni to compete at BUTC but their involvement was brief as they were swept aside 14-1 by the extremely yellow t-shirted Surrey. In the round's other tie Loughborough beat Southampton.

Into round 2 and Imperial A beat Birmingham A with an impressive 16 to 11 and Imperial B beat Oxford A 11-6 to put both Imperial sides into the quarter finals. As things turned out Imperial B were the only B team to survive round 2. Birmingham's second team followed their first team out losing 12-7 to Exeter A. Cambridge A ended Durham B's gallant performance with a 13-9 win, whilst Surrey scrambled to a 6-5 win over Liverpool A who, at 23rd, were bidding to become the lowest ranked quarter-finalists in BUTC history. Loughborough progressed to the quarters with a 11 discs to 8 against Warwick B. The two top seeds however were both put through the mill as Cambridge B kept Warwick A constantly within reach before going out 12-15. The tie of the round was the very first match, Edinburgh A against 16th seeded Bradford A. After two passes Edinburgh possessed only a 13-11 lead and the real prospect of a big upset loomed. Edinburgh responded emphatically under this pressure, with seven hits to take the match 20-14, the highest score of the day from any one team or aggregate score for a match.

Being pushed by Bradford A seemed to inspire Edinburgh A further and they notched a 19-9 victory overwhelming Imperial B - the score had been 8-1 after the first pass. Imperial A also had a tough match against Cambridge A and stayed in touch until the very end, losing 13 discs to 17. SEAL interest was ended after Surrey drew with Warwick A 10 all but went down 3-0 in the shoot off. Defending champions Exeter escaped with a 15-14 win over Loughborough.

The semi finals saw a re-run of last year's final between Edinburgh and Exeter and a all-BUTTS affair between Cambridge and Warwick as eventually the top four in qualifying made it through to the last four of the knock out. As last year Edinburgh v Exeter got off to a nervy start and Exeter held a 4-3 lead after one pass. This time it was the Scottish side who seized the initiative winning the second pass 7-4 and although Exeter upped their game with 6 in the final end, it was not enough as Edinburgh ran out 17-14 ahead. The other semi-final got off to a very one-sided start as Cambridge destroyed the hosts 8-1 in the first pass. To their credit Warwick fought back a little but were 15-6 down after two passes and required an unlikely 9-0 win even to force a shoot off. The first four arrows all went Warwick's way but Cambridge closed out the match easily, eventually winning 19-12.

The bronze medal match was a tight affair as Warwick held a one point lead over Exeter first 6-5 then 12-11, but in the final leg Warwick only shot 8 arrows in the time allowed after dropping an arrow earlier on. From 14 all the match went to a shoot off, which Warwick won impressively 3-1 to huge relief and cheers from the home crowd, Warwick repeating their bronze from 2004, Exeter forced to settle for fourth.

Could the final match the bronze medal match for excitement? Edinburgh and Cambridge had produced excellent performances to get this far and did so again as a tight final match ensued. First blood went to Cambridge as they took the first pass 6-5. It was honours even in the second pass 5-5, despite a double refereeing error which led to Edinburgh being wrongly yellow carded for moving forward on to the line and then not yellow carded for an arrow out of the quiver in the box. Fortunately neither side gained any advantage and it was agreed the one card for one foul worked out fairly in the end. However, if Cambridge had hoped that this episode would rattle Edinburgh, they failed to capitalise, scoring only 3 in the last pass for a total of 14. Edinburgh shot well and a couple of comfortable line cutters saw them home 16 to 14 to wrap up a colourful competition.

As ever thanks to Warwick, the host university and Alex Stuart their chief organiser, who ran a magnificent show over the two geographically separated halls - the first time BUTC has been run like this. Thanks also to the judging team led by Andrew Phillips and Matt Nowicki, and also Ian McGibbon and Tim Mundon. Also thanks to Werner Beiter for coming along and being generous both with his sentiments and with his little yellow discs.

Can I additionally thank those magnificent men and their noise-making machines Dave Spinner and Chris Burnett for their great blend of comedy and coverage. Also thanks to the official photographer for the day Ian Jaques. His website is available on photofinale.org/cod/codindex.htm. Some great photos will appear there shortly. Finally thanks to the University of Warwick Archery Club Ceilidh Band - no that's not a typo - who were really rather good.


Quarter Finals

  • Edinburgh A (1) beat Imperial B (9)
  • Exeter A (4) beat Loughborough A (5)
  • Cambridge A (3) beat Imperial A (6)
  • Warwick A (2) beat Surrey (7)

Semi Finals

  • Edinburgh A beat Exeter A
  • Cambridge A beat Warwick A

Third/Fourth place play-off

  • Warwick A beat Exeter A

Final

  • Edinburgh A beat Cambridge A