BUTC

BUTC 2025 Review

Tournament Results ianseo link

Sheffield A (Will Luddington, Kian Eshraghi-Yazdi, Jack Wells) won BUTC 2025 in a see-sawing final 12-11 against Birmingham A (Jake O'Reilly, Emily Nichols, Kian Watkins). Sheffield win BUTC for the first time after medalling twice in the previous three BUTCs. Warwick A (Shane Pothunnah, Jason Zhou, Rohit Ravichandran) overcame Oxford A (Emma Howes, Ecaterina Pogorenii, Yanyijie Zhou) 13-9 in the bronze medal match.

In total 14 different universities were represented, with Manchester and Northampton making their first ever appearances at a BUTC. They become the 56th and 57th universities to have shot at BUTC.

Top individual qualifier was very close with 5 archers within 3 points. Out in front was Will Luddington (Sheffield A) on 276, with Alex Williams (Bristol A) on 274. There were a trio of archers on 273 - Shane Pothunnah (Warwick A), Freddie Crosby (Southampton A) and top lady Ecaterina Pogorenii (Oxford A). The top three ladies were all Oxford A. Top novice was Jonathan Jackson (Bath B) on 246.

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.

For the second year in a row, BUTC was not full - in fact the 25 teams in 2025 is the third lowest tally ever. BUTC 2025 was Easter break-adjacent and came after last year's event happened during the Easter holidays. On top of that, some clubs have been absent since the Covid hiatus. After withdrawals there were 7 spaces in the draw, which meant 7 round 1 byes. This also complicated the trial of the repechage round and made the promise of all teams shooting 2 matches impossible to honour, although organisers did re-jig the plans as much as possible.

In the ranking round, Oxford A slowly pulled clear of the chasing pack, leading by 15 points after the Bray I and the only side over 800 on 806. Sheffield A were second with 791. The newly minted TOUCAN and SEAL champions could hardly be separated, just a point apart, ranking third and fourth. Warwick A scored 781, with Southampton A on 780. Warwick's B team were an impressive 5th on 764 - but they were not the only B team in the top 8. Leeds A were sixth on 756, with hosts Exeter A in seventh on 752. Southampton B were 8th on 747. Bristol occupied both 9th and 10th places, with their A team on 744, only 6 points ahead of their B's, with Bath A meaning that the 5 teams in positions 7 to 11 were all SWWU. Birmingham A only outqualified their own B team by 26 in 12th and 14th, sandwiching debutantes Manchester A. Surrey A and Oxford B rounded off the top 16.

The round of 32 was spread over 2 sessions. In the first half, 13th seeds Manchester A took their first step into the discs with a 10-5 win over the hosts Exeter's B team. The NEUAL club gradually moved in front 7-5 after three ends and kept the pressure on with another 3 in the fourth. There were very similar scores as Bristol A and Birmingham A won 10-5 against Sheffield B and 10-4 against Reading A, with both matches seeing the higher seeded team get through with a level of comfort. Southampton B very nearly whitewashed Plymouth B, but a hit in the last end spared the bottom seeds blushes, with the final margin being 8-1. Southampton were making their first appearance at a BUTC since 2019. In the match between 16th and 17th, Oxford B slugged it out against Bath B in the lowest scoring match of the day. Bath B led 2-1 at half way, but Oxford B booked a meeting with their own A team in the second round, winning the second half of the match 3-0 for 4-2 overall.

The second half of the round of 32 saw the other new club to BUTC, Northampton who qualified 19th, begin their KO campaign against Birmingham B. The match was very close throughout with neither side able to get more than a disc in front. 3-3 at half way, became 4-4 after three ends, which became 5-5 after four and the match headed to a shoot-off. It was Birmingham B who emerged from the shoot off victorious, booking a TOUCAN derby against Warwick A in the second round. Bristol B beat Leeds B 7-1, although Leeds B had been 1-0 up after the first end. Meanwhile Bath A raced to an 11-3 win over Surrey B. Bath secured the match with an end to spare - 10-1 up after three passes - but Surrey B did manage a consolation 2-1 win in the fourth. Surrey A (q15th) against Plymouth A (q18th) was a close one. Surrey won the first and second pass 2-1. Plymouth threatened a comeback in the fourth pass, but they just failed to force a shoot off and the SEAL side went through 6-5.

The round of 16 saw an unusual double header between Warwick and Birmingham as Warwick A v Birmingham B and Birmingham A against Warwick B happened simultaneously. The two universities have won the last 8 BUTCs between them. Both A teams got through, though Birmingham A caused a seeding upset (12th v 5th) against Warwick B. Birmingham A took a 4-0 lead in the first pass and shared the second 3-3. A 4-1 win for Warwick B in pass three got the match back to 8-7 and a stirring comeback looked on. In the fourth, Birmingham A hit the gas again and ran out 12-9 winners. Warwick A defeated Birmingham B (3rd v 14th) although it was a tough match. Like Warwick B, Warwick A also won their third set 4-1, but in this case it turned a 4-2 deficit into a 6-5 advantage and ultimately a 10-8 win. Fourth seeds Southampton A squeezed past Manchester A 10-9 in a very even match, where both teams scored at least 2 in every end. 2024/25 has been a breakthrough season for Manchester and they were close to a QF spot in their first appearance on the discs. Another very tight match was Bath A (q11th) who nudged through against Leeds A (q6th). Leeds A came back from 3-1 down in the first end to 7-6 down, but couldn't force a shoot off, losing 9-8. Also losing 9-8 were hosts Exeter A as they went down to SWWU rivals Bristol B. Exeter A were 2-1 up early on, but slipped 7-5 down with one end to go. They applied some pressure on Bristol B, but 9-8 was the final score. There were very comfortable wins for the top two seeds, who shot matching scores of 16, with one clean pass each. Sheffield A (q2nd) simply swept away Surrey A. Sheffield opened with a perfect pass of 6 and won all 4 passes in a 16-4 win. Oxford A (q1st) had to wait until their second end to bang in a perfect end, but followed it up with 5 to blow away their own B team 16-6. Both matches were done with an end to spare. There was a surprisingly straightforward win for Southampton B (q8th) over Bristol A (q9th). The pair were split by only 3 points in the Bray I, but Southampton B opened up a 4-0 lead after the first pass and Bristol A (who had scored 10 the previous round) stumbled to a 10-3 loss. After a gap of 6 years since their last BUTC, Southampton now had 2 teams into the last 8.

Before the QFs were held, there was a new feature added to the BUTC landscape, a repechage round which was intended to give all the first round losers a second crack at the discs and decide who would finish in the third and fourth quarter of the results. The fact that BUTC 2025 was not full made it impossible for organiers' plans to be fully realised - and all clubs didn't get two matches. However a repechage round did still take place. The highest scoring match was Northampton A beating Plymouth A 7-6. Reading A beat Bath B 5-4, and in a couple of all B team matches, Plymouth B beat Sheffield B 5-1, whilst Surrey B beat Leeds B 3-2. Exeter B did not have an opponent.

The quarter-final line up saw a mix of teams. Bristol B had already gone further than their A team - and in fact further than any Bristol team before them. This was Bristol's 5th BUTC and they lined up in last 8 for the first time. Bath and Southampton were returning to this stage of a BUTC for the first time since 2012 and 2015 respectively. Sheffield A laid down something of a marker in this round, thumping in 18 discs and never scoring less than 4 in an end. Bristol B could never get close enough, although they scored a healthy 11 in response - the highest score to be eliminated in this round. Southampton B briefly threatened a big upset against top seeds Oxford A. Southampton B led 5-4 at half way, but couldn't maintain the pressure and Oxford A slipped away with an 11-7 win. That left 4th seeds Southampton A (q4th) trying to the first SEAL team since Southampton in 2013 to reach the BUTC last 4. However, it was Birmingham A (q12th) who nudged 7-5 ahead before Southampton drew a crucial blank in pass 3, Birmingham A eventually winning 14-8. Warwick A (q3rd) began comfortably enough, scoring a 4-2 win the first pass against Bath A, but Bath A won the second pass by the same score. The next two passes were shared, with 6-6 becoming 8-8 and then 9-9 as nerves will have kicked in. The match went to a shoot off, with Warwick A squeaking through.

2025's set of 4 semi-finalists was an exact repeat of the 2023 event. In fact, one semi-final (Oxford A v Birmingham A) was a repeat of the 2023 final, whilst the other (Sheffield A v Warwick A) was a repeat of the 2022 final & the 2023 bronze medal match. Birmigham had qualified 12th, but had already dumped out the 5th and 4th seeds. Oxford had outqualified Birmingham by 11 places and 73 points, but would painful memories of 2023 resurface. Birmingham started well with 4, but Oxford's 3 kept them in touch and the match stayed close, 3-3 in end two, making it 7-6. Birmingham made a move in the third end, winning that 4-2 to stretch their lead to 11-8. In end four, although Birmingham left the door open (with 2 hits), Oxford could not capitalise and it was Birmingham who went through 13-10. In contrast to their earlier higher scores, Sheffield opened their semi-final with only 1 hit from 6. Warwick led, but it was only 2-1. The next pass was 3-3, and Sheffield won the third 4-3 to level up at 8-8. With the momentum on their side, NEUAL's Sheffield won through 12 hits to 9.

In the bronze medal match, Warwick took the early lead 3-2 against Oxford, but it was the second set of discs that decided where the bronze medals would end up. Warwick rattled in 5, with the Dark Blues stuck on 1 to make it 8-3. Oxford immediately set to work cutting the deficit, but a 4-3 win the third left them four discs adrift and a level fourth end meant that was how the match finished, with Warwick taking the bronze medals 13-9. Warwick may not have added to their joint record 5 BUTC titles at this event, but they won team BUTC medals for the 14th time, extending their own outright record here. Warwick have made the at least the semis in the last 10 consecutive BUTCs. Oxford - twice former champions and in their own third consecutive BUTC semi-final - matched their result from a year ago. The Dark Blues have now finished 4th four times at BUTC - no other team has finished 4th more than twice.

The BUTC 2025 final pitted second seeds Sheffield A against 12th seeds Birmingham A. They might have been 12th seeds, but Birmingham's team looked stronger than that coming through the field - one of their team had been part of the winning Warwick trio a year ago. Two of Sheffield's team were part of the team that won silver in 2022 and bronze in 2023. Birmingham were contesting their fifth all time BUTC final and Sheffield their second. Prior to the 2025 final, Birmingham had hit 49 discs hit in 4 matches, as against Sheffield's 46 - however that was from 3 matches. The first end of the final saw relatively few discs dislodged, although Sheffield did take a 2-1 lead. Birmingham, however, exploded into life in the second pass, with 5 hits, but Sheffield were right behind them with 4 and the match was evenly poised at 6-6. The third end went Birmingham's way 3-2 and now they led 9-8, with just 6 arrows to go. Sheffield would need to dig deep - and they did, winning the final pass 4-2 and overhauling Birmingham right on the line to win the BUTC 2025 title, and hold the Werner Beiter trophy aloft, 12 discs to 11. Sheffield's win here brings to an end a run of 8 consecutive BUTCs won by either Warwick or Birmingham. They are the first non BUTTS/TOUCAN side to win since since Edinburgh in 2010 and the second NEUAL champions after York, all the way back in 2004.

As always, BUTC could not go ahead with the support of Clickers who were once again critical to the success of the day. 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. Kian Eshraghi-Yazdi has taken over the running of BUTC's central organising team and had a very busy day all round. Particular thanks to Luke Burch and Exeter, who stepped to host BUTC in the SWWU region for only the second time ever and did an excellent job. Thanks also to the judging, IT/scoring and broadcasting/commentary teams and those who stayed around to watch the later rounds.

As BUTC 2025 is packed away, thoughts must turn to next year. Could your club host BUTC 2026? Do you fancy the shortest possible journey home? A preferred date for BUTC 2026 will have to wait until BUCS Indoor 2026 dates are confirmed, but

Quarter Finals