BUTC 2022 Review

Tournament Results ianseo link | PDF


Warwick A (Wills Chiu, James Woodgate, Chris Woodgate) won BUTC 2022 with a score of 13-12 in the final against Sheffield A (Kian Eshraghi-Yazdi, Sum Hin Moses Cheung, Jack Wells). Nottingham A (Hannah Evans, Louisa Piper, Amelia Thompson) beat Leeds A (Tom Braxton, Henry Tien, Samson Wang) 14-11 in the bronze medal match.

In total 21 different universities were represented, with two clubs, Royal Holloway and Worcester, making their first ever appearance at a BUTC.

With two late withdrawals, the top two in Bray I would secure a bye to the Round of 16. During the ranking round, Warwick A moved clear of the field to end on 817. A pack of six clubs chased that second guaranteed spot in round 2. Hosts hosts Loughborough A got their noses in front and took it with 801. They narrowly pipped Nottingham A (797), Leeds A (795) and Oxford B (792) - who outqualified their A team by 24. Birmingham A (788) were sixth and Sheffield A (783) were close behind, making it two NEUAL teams in the top seven. Lagging behind their B team, Oxford A placed eighth on 768, a ranking that put them on a collision course with Warwick in a possible QF. Debutantes Royal Holloway secured ninth spot with 760 just two ahead of Bristol A. RHU were the top ranked SEAL team, whilst Bristol headed a run of three SWWU clubs. Bath (750) were next, followed by Plymouth (739) in twelfth. The top 16 was completed by Surrey A, the only Scottish side in attendance Dundee A, Coventry A and Reading B - who outqualified their own A team by 27 points and 4 places.

James Woodgate (Warwick A) and Louisa Piper (Nottingham A) were the top individuals in qualifying by significant margins. James Woodgate beat the existing BUTC record by 1 point with 289. This score matches the Gents All Unis record and the Ladies BUTC & All Unis records. Louisa Piper was top lady qualifier this year on 287. The runners up for both genders all congregated on 276: Matthew Likely (Durham A), Ben Evans, Ffion Edgeley (both Loughborough A) and Samson Wang (Leeds A).

The format of the knock-out matches was same as it has been since 2007, with the teams of three each shooting four ends of two arrows each at 60mm discs.

Warwick A and Loughborough A (qual 1st and 2nd) got byes into the Round of 16. In the first half of the last 32, Royal Holloway (qual 9th) got their first ever BUTC KO match off to a good start, but 24th seeds Liverpool made sure they stayed in touch, even winning the 3rd pass 2-1. A 3-2 win in the last saw Royal Holloway make the second round on debut 11-9. Liverpool were unlucky - their tally of 9 would have seen them win (or in a shoot-off) in 9 of the 14 first round matches. Oxford (B qual 5th, A qual 8th) performed a double KO of De Montfort (A qual 25th, B qual 28th). Oxford B were 8-2 winners over DMU B, whilst Oxford A shook off their qualifying struggles with a massive win, 18 hits to 1. That score of 18 proved the highest individual match total of the day. Leeds A had a similarly emphatic 16-2 win over Keele B - Keele B were a late entrant to the competition, having responded to an appeal for teams in the 48 hours prior to competition. Bath B beat Reading B 6-3, whilst Plymouth A survived a fightback in the fourth end to win 7-6 against Sheffield B. Reading A (qual 20th) knocked out Surrey A (qual 13th), taking a 3-1 lead after the first pass and holding out for an 8-5 win - the biggest seeding upset in the round.

In the second half of the last 32, Dundee (qual 14th) and Leeds B (qual 19th) fought out a 5-5 draw to go into what would prove to be the only tie break of the day. Dundee were the only SSS side represented, having hosted part of (and won) a SSS match the day before and only arriving in Loughborough after midnight on competition day. Two successive shoot-offs finished disc-less as both sides struggled to find a killer touch. Nerves gripped both teams, but in the third extra end Leeds B triumphed 1-0. Dundee had not shot at a BUTC since the very first edition back in 2003. It was a memorable first fixture for 19 years. Worcester (qual 30th) had their first taste of the discs, but although they were only 2-1 down to Nottingham A after the first end, that was as good as it got and they slipped out of the competition 10-1. Sheffield A (qual 7th) overwhelmed Warwick B 15-5. Birmingham A beat Keele A 9-2, whilst there were matching 9-4 wins for Bristol A over Loughborough B and Durham A (qual 18th) over Coventry A. Bath (qual 11th) managed to squeeze past Queen Mary (qual 22nd), but it was very close, with the pair level after three ends, Bath eventually going through 6-4.

In the round of 16, Oxford A continued their excellent form against Royal Holloway. The Dark Blues were 7-4 ahead at half-way, before hitting the after-burners and cleaning the third pass. Royal Holloway couldn't keep pace and their maiden BUTC ended in the second round with a 16-7 defeat. Oxford B, despite outqualifying their A team, couldn't make it two in the last eight as they lost to Plymouth (qual 12th). After a slow start, Plymouth hit 5 to lead 6-4 at half-way, then 8-6, before another burst took them through 12-8. Leeds A got off to the best possible start against Reading A - the lowest ranked remaining team. Leeds A's perfect end saw them go 6-0 up, and they closed the match out 15-4 to make the QFs for the first time. Like Oxford, Leeds B couldn't join their A team in the last 8. Nottigham A led 2-1 after the first end, but pulled away to win 11-2. Bath A trailed Birmingham A 3-4 after one end, but the BUTTS side pulled away in the middle section of the match to rack up a 13-6 win. This round also saw the top two seeds Warwick A and Loughborough A in action. Warwick A got better and better over the course of their match against Bath B, winning 15-4. Loughborough A started with a perfect 6 out of 6 to effectively snuff out Durham A's challenge at source, final score 13-6. The highest scoring match of the round however was Sheffield A against Bristol A. Sheffield won the first pass 3-1 but then Bristol reduced the deficit to 6-5 down at half way. In the second half, Sheffield responded with a pair of 4s and Bristol couldn't quite keep up, losing 14-10.

The quarter-final line up looked mouth-watering and arguably no match was tastier that Warwick A against Oxford A. This match wouldn't have looked out of place as the final and it delivered 29 hits - the highest match aggregate of the day. Warwick A took a 5-2 lead, but Oxford A were not to be blown away and hit back with 9 out of 12 hits in the next two ends, to leave the match poised at 11-11. In the last end Warwick A nudged in front and eventually closed out an epic 15-14 win. Sheffield (qual 7th) were in their first BUTC since 2012 and had matched their best result from 2011 in getting to the QFs. They pinched their first end 3-2 against hosts and second seeds Loughborough A. In the second end, Sheffield banged in a perfect 6, to lead 9-5. On the ropes, hosts Loughborough hit back in pass 3 to reduced the arrears to 10-9, but in pass 4, the bright yellow shirts of Sheffield were on top form again with 5 to cause the upset 15 discs to 11. Nottingham A against Birmingham A was an altogether cagier affair, with Nottingham teasing out a 6-3 lead at half way. Birmingham did win both the last two passes 3-2 but it was not quite enough and the final score was 10-9. In the quarter finals for the first time, NEUAL side Leeds A slowly turned the screw on SWWU's Plymouth A - bronze medallists in 2019 - winning the first three ends to lead by 4. In the final end, Plymouth did get 4 but so did Leeds, to make it through to the semis 14-10.

The first semi-final pitched three time winners, defending champions and top seeds Warwick A against fourth seeds Leeds A, who were past the Round of 16 for the first time. Leeds however had already recorded top 4 (gents) team finishes at BUCS Indoor and Outdoor 2022 as well as coming close to the NEUAL title last year. As in their QF, Warwick A stormed in to a 5-2 lead and looked on top. As in their QF, Warwick's opponents hit back with 4 hits, but this time Warwick matched it and led 9-6 at half way. The pace of the match slowed after that and two more ends of 2-2 meant the first end was decisive and Warwick would advance, 13-10. In the second semi, Sheffield took on Nottingham. Sheffield were in the BUTC semis for the first time and had won NEUAL in 2022 (just ahead of Leeds) and had also won NUTC just a few weeks before this event. Nottingham were twice winners of this event (2009 and 2011) but hadn't been to the last four since 2015. The match could hardly have been closer, with scores reaching 6-6 after 2 ends and 9-9 after 3. Finally, in the fourth pass, with a shoot-off looming, Sheffield dug deep produced their second upset of the day to win 13-12.

The bronze medal match saw both Leeds A and Nottingham start strongly. Nottingham took a slight 5-4 lead after the first end, with the second end shared 3-3. With the match in the balance it was Nottingham who struck in end 3, winning that 4-2 to lead 12-9 with an end to go. Leeds weren't able to force the issue and in the end Nottingham claimed bronze 14-11. In some respects, the third seeded team winning bronze and fourth ranked team finishing fourth ought to be unsurprising. Dig a little deeper into the narrative and there were other stories. In 8 previous attempts, Leeds had only ever got to the second round once in 2008 - on that occasion, it was their B team filled in for a team who couldn't make it on the morning of the competition. Nottingham A may be past champions, but their performance in 2022 was record breaking for a different reason, as they became the first all female team to get to the semi-finals and to win medals.

So the BUTC 2022 final took place between Warwick v Sheffield. At 7th, Sheffield were the lowest ranked team to make the final since 2011. Sheffield were also returning to BUTC after an absence of 10 years, but they were in good form, having won NUTC event a few weeks previously. Even if they lost it would be Sheffield's best national result for 40 years. Warwick meanwhile have won BUTC 3 times and been runners up 4 more and as top seeds, they had outqualified Sheffield by 34 points. Warwick were undoubtedly favourites although both clubs had posted similar hit-miss totals in earlier rounds. Sheffield needed a good start and they got one. Despite a timing issue, they took the lead 3-2 after the first pass. The second end however was a different story. Suddenly Warwick began to get into a groove and Sheffield's form deserted them completely. Warwick won the pass 4-0 to turn the match around and go 6-3 in front. In pass 3, Warwick again hit 4, but on this occasion Sheffield hit 4 as well, to keep themselves in the match at 10-7. Needing a swift turn around, Sheffield produced 5 hits with their first 5 arrows, getting ahead for the first time since the opening pass. Crucially, Sheffield ran out of time and had to leave an arrow unshot for the second time in the match. The door had been left ajar for Warwick and a hit with the final regulation arrow of the match secured a 13-12 win and the Werner Beiter trophy. Warwick became BUTC champions for the 4th time, all in the last 6 tournaments.

As always, BUTC could not go ahead with the support of its two key long-term sponsors, Clickers and Beiter, who were once again critical to the success of the day. Clickers supplied some of the bosses, timing equipment, with Beiter supplying the foam inserts hit/miss apparatus. Thanks are also due to the many people who worked very hard in the months and days leading up to the tournament and across the weekend itself. Particular thanks to Ben Evans and Loughborough's field crew who stepped up when the BUTC was without a venue and did an excellent job. Thanks also to the judging, IT/scoring, broadcasting/commentary teams and absent friends.

We say goodbye to the noise that those little yellow discs can whip up. BUTC 2022 has been and gone, the last outpost of the 2021/22 season. Could your club help to put together a competition like that? Expressions of interest in hosting BUTC 2023 are welcome at any time - and don't commit you to anything. Not straight away, anyway. Contact UKSAA for more.


Quarter Finals

  • Warwick A (1) beat Oxford A (8)
  • Leeds A (4) beat Plymouth (12)
  • Nottingham (3) beat Birmingham (6)
  • Sheffield A (7) beat Loughborough A (2)

Semi Finals

  • Warwick A beat Leeds A
  • Sheffield A beat Nottingham

Third/Fourth place play-off

  • Nottingham beat Leeds A

Final

  • Warwick A beat Sheffield A