BUTC 2010 Review

Results [348kb]

Edinburgh A (Jenny Jeppsson, Kyshiea Steele and Erik Rowbotham) beat Nottingham A (George Harding, David Middleton-Gear and Laura Bell) in a see-saw final winning 17-14. Loughborough (Matt Cole, James Cowie and Mike Furlong) beat Reading (Julie Chenery, Tom Castle, Graeme Anderson) in the bronze medals match, both sides in their first semi-finals, Reading in their first BUTC.

BUTC 2010 saw no less than 25 different clubs compete - a new record for the competition. The ranking round was hotly contested with the leading clubs swapping places until the leading trio of Edinburgh, Loughborough and Nottingham emerged with a slight lead - at one point all three dead level in first place. A strong finish saw Edinburgh A score 818 and just miss out on their own record, as Loughborough pipped Nottingham A to second place 801 to 800. Imperial were all their own in fourth on 781, but fifth, sixth and seventh were all sandwiched together. Oxford recorded a 765, with Essex on 764 and 90 hits, Warwick on the same score, but with a miss. Birmingham qualified in eighth with 759, keeping last year's bronze medalists Lancaster, out of the top eight by a point. Edinburgh B were the leading B side in tenth place on 748 narrowly ahead of Southampton, Surrey and Reading. The top half of the draw was rounded off by Warwick B on 731 in 14th, York on 728 in 15th and Liverpool on 726 in 16th.

Individually, Matt Cole (Loughborough) and George Harding (Nottingham A) both scored 282, but Cole's had more golds to claim first, with Brad Keogh (Southampton) the nearest challenger on 276. Jenny Jeppsson (Edinburgh A) was top lady qualifier on 281, ahead of teammate Kyshiea Steele (Edinburgh A) on 272. Top novice was Andrew Johnson (Essex A) 250.

The format of the knock-out matches was identical to the last three years as the teams of three each shot four ends of two arrows each at 60mm discs, the only slight difference being that in the practice round this year, some of the discs were pink (for Valentines) and a souvenir for the archers

The first knock-out round reduces the field from 32 to 16 teams with 16 matches and the top four seeds had little trouble in the first round, all recording easy wins. Loughborough beat the event's co-hosts Nottingham Trent 14-3 whilst Edinburgh A beat Kent B 15-2. Nottingham A and Imperial A also registered double figure scores, encountering little resistance eliminating the SWWU presence, Bath and Exeter.

Seeded fifth, Oxford should have had little difficulty putting away 28th ranked St Andrews, whom they had outqualified by over 200 points. The Dark Blues never settled in the match however and the Scottish side stayed with them to the end to force a shoot off. In the shoot off, St Andrews even seemed to take the lead and Oxford had only a possible line cutter to save themselves. Oxford were running out of time to shoot the third arrow and when it came it was a miss. However it was shot fractionally after the buzzer, so the line cutter (which was a hit) no longer counted, handing the match directly to St Andrews and causing the biggest upset in terms of seedings in BUTC history. Not shooting that last arrow at all would have meant another shoot off - it was a cruel way to go out and it showed.

There was another shoot off in the first round, after the 15th and 18th seeds, York and Nottingham B finished on 7 discs apiece. In the shoot off, York were facing imminent elimination with 0/1 against 2/2 for Nottingham B, but fought back with two hits against a miss to force a second shoot off which they won 2-1 in an electric atmosphere. Imperial B were seeded down in 21st, but pulled off a 7-6 shock win against 12st seeds Surrey - in another year, this might have been the shock of the tournament.Both Warwick teams got through the round of 32, Warwick A beating Surrey B 9-4, whilst Warwick B ended Cambridge's tournament 8-7. Another A team losing 8-7 to a B team were Napier who qualified 23rd, against Edinburgh B who qualified 10th. Napier took their city rivals right to the edge of a shoot off, losing with the last shot of the match. Southampton, in their first BUTC for four years, got back into the groove with a 11-7 win over Sheffield. Elsewhere in the first round, two all NEUAL matches saw Keele and Lancaster beat Liverpool and Bradford 6-4 and 9-4. In an all SEAL encounter, Reading beat Kent A 9-7. Essex saw their A team go through, but their B team go out. Essex A struggled to a 6-3 win over lowly Durham, but Essex B went out 11-2 to Birmingham.

In the second round, giant killers Imperial B and St Andrews were paired together, Imperial B winning a match that was slow to get started, by 8 hits to 4. Imperial A could have set up a quarter-final against them, but the fourth seeds eventually went down 10-9 to 13th seeds Reading in a match which swung this way and that. Edinburgh A were never in troubling as they beat Keele 14-7. Lancaster also scored 14 to oust Birmingham. Nottingham A eventually got past Warwick 13-8 to set up a quarter final with Southampton who beat beat Essex A 14-7 to make the last eight for the first time. Warwick A beat Edinburgh B 12-9 and faced the winners of York v Loughborough, who contested what turned out to be the tie of the round. Fresh from a double shoot-off in round 1, 15th seeds York immediately set about making things uncomfortable for Loughborough, the second seeds eventually just about having enough to go through 16-12 - only the final itself had a higher number of discs dislodged.

In last year's quarter final Lancaster had dumped Edinburgh out 14-11. This year however, Edinburgh A turned up the heat, the Red Roses crashing out 17-4 with an end to spare. Also out with an end to spare were Warwick A, last year's finalists outclassed by 15-7 by Loughborough, who finally won a BUTC quarter final at the sixth time of asking. Making their BUTC bow, Reading knocked out Imperial B with an 11-4 win as the 13th seeeds became semi-finalists. Southampton were in their first ever BUTC quarter finals, but Nottingham A ended the south coast side's run 13-8. In the end none of the four quarter finals were particularly closely fought.

The semi-finals were held concurrently this year as the hall lights were dimmed, except those on the archers, and spotlights dramatically lit up the targets. Despite a topsy turvy tournament, three of the top four sides made it through to the semis. Edinburgh got off to a very good start with 5 hits out of 6, but Reading's 3 kept them only two discs behind. As the match progressed however, Reading were not able to prevent Edinburgh slowly increasing their lead to three (9-6), five (12-7), and finally seven (16-9). Nottingham took a 4-2 lead over Loughborough initially, but Loughborough hit back with a 4-1 win in the second pass to snatch the lead 6-5 at the half way stage. The advantage swung back to Nottingham in the second half of the match as they turned the match around, winning the second half 7-3 for a 12-9 win.

The bronze medal match was delayed by a problem with the timing boards and both Loughborough and Reading struggled to get going in the first few ends, Loughborough grinding out a lead. In the last end of shooting and in trouble, Reading virtually needed a maximum, but it was Loughborough who racked up 6 out of 6 to wrap up the match and bronze medals 15 hits to 5. Reading's tournament may not have ended in a blaze of glory, they can be proud of an excellent BUTC debut. Loughborough meanwhile can celebrate ending their BUTC quarter-final jinx with bronze medals. Surprisingly these are Loughborough first national level medals since BUSA Indoors 1999.

The final pitched Nottingham A, the club being defending champions and co-hosts, against Edinburgh A, former winners, no less than four times. As the teams came out Edinburgh had hit 15, 14, 17 and 16 against Nottingham's 12, 13, 13 and 12, placing Edinburgh as slight favourites. As the match began however, Edinburgh threatened to blow Nottingham completely away as they opened up a 5-1 lead after the first pass. Nottingham had a lot of exceptionally vocal support from a partisan crowd, but if anything the atmosphere was inspiring Edinburgh even more. If Edinburgh were not to run away with the match it was essential that Nottingham reduced the gap immediately and they managed to slow the Edinburgh charge, winning 4-3 to bring the match total to 8-5. In the third pass, perhaps Nottingham sensed there was still a way to win the match and defend their title. Whatever it was, Nottingham A scored a maximum 6 to defeaning roars. Edinburgh kept their noses in front with 4 hits, to leave the match poised at 12-11 to Edinburgh with just the last end to go. Nottingham shot first in the last end and actually, if briefly, overtook Edinburgh with two hits, before Edinburgh promptly took the lead back again. In the last half of the last end of an exhilerating final, Nottingham finally could no longer match their opponents and Edinburgh crossed the line, winners for the fifth time, the final score 17-14.

Thank to everyone who make this remarkable event what it is, in particular the sponsors Clickers and Werner Beiter, who attended the event once again. With Tim Mundon in the US, Ian McGibbon performed front of house duties with ACME performing their usual role in the background together with a huge supporting cast from Nottingham and Nottingham Trent, headed by Rhys Rhodes, joined by wife Emma and 4 month old daughter Paige, perhaps the person most likely to be at BUTC in 20 years time. Thanks also to the judges and commentators. Once again the event was streamed online and video footage of some of the event is already available through Facebook.

So this remarkable tournament came to a close, with upsets all over the place, but a familiar look to the final. Immediate attention turns to BUCS Indoor Champs in Sheffield on Sat 13th Mar, but this event is already looking to 2011. Can your club host such a prestigious event? It is certainly a lot of work, but if the end results look as amazing as this year, then it will be a tremendous achievement.


Quarter Finals

  • Edinburgh A (1) beat Lancaster (9)
  • Reading (13) beat Imperial B (21)
  • Nottingham A (3) beat Southampton (11)
  • Loughborough (2) beat Warwick A (7)

Semi Finals

  • Edinburgh A beat Reading
  • Nottingham A beat Loughborough

Third/Fourth place play-off

  • Loughborough beat Reading

Final

  • Edinburgh A beat Nottingham A