UK Student Archery Association

BUCS Outdoors Entry Info [01/Apr/09]

Just to be clear, this article was published after midday.

Important info for BUCS Outdoors - read BUCS Outdoor Championships Entry Criteria, [corr.] introducing a minimum standard on those attending the Outdoor Championships. It isn't designed to exclude competitors but to ensure everyone shooting is properly prepared for the competition, particularly to deal with the distances involved. Scores are Second Class for Trophy (Senior) section and Second Class U18 for Shield (Novice).

If you have questions, or wish to discuss alternative rounds to submit scores for, then contact the SMG on smg-list@@matthew.ath.cx or Aaron Campbell on aaron.campbell@@bucs.org.uk, but you MUST do this in advance, bearing in mind the BUCS entry forms normally have to be in about 4 weeks before the competition itself. Regional leagues with Outdoor Championships may wish to consider changing their rounds in order to supply the qualification scores.

Qualifying scores can have been shot as far back as, and including, BUSA Outdoors 2008 - those who were novices last year can carry their score forward to this year. See the document for details of what scores are needed in a variety of rounds - the senior gents recurve requirement on a Gents FITA is 716 and the senior ladies recurve requirement on a Ladies FITA is 602. If you are a lady novice longbow though and you are brave enough shoot a York, you need to score 5 (five) - or 48 out of 1440 for the Metric II which you will actually be shooting. The document points out that many archers will have already qualified, but from BUSA '08 scores, 30% of senior gents and 40% of senior ladies would have missed the cut.

It is not hard to imagine that, with novices unable to contribute towards team scores, smaller clubs could conceivably find themselves with fewer than four eligible senior archers, ruling them out of contention. Also in disciplines with relatively few competitors, cutting competitors could force numbers under 4, effectively denying competitors BUCS points. Many of the lowest scores are shot by novice barebows and longbows so the fact that their qualification scores are so low, will mean that the archers who are doing the missing will still get in.

That said, BUSA Outdoors '08 was a rain sodden 11 hour marathon that ended in the late evening gloom - the prize giving took place in the dark. Oddly the document claims that it is the large number of entries rather than the switch from a 9 to a 12 dozen format that has caused the late running. The largest BUSA Outdoors was actually in 2006, when the round was still an Albion/Windsor. Clearly the event is not without problems in it current form and some kind of action was needed. Have you got the answer? Then get in contact!