UK Student Archery Association

Cardifficulties for BUCS [03/Mar/11]

In the last week, significant problems with BUCS Indoors in Cardiff this Saturday have surfaced. Cardiff University, with assistance from the Welsh Archery Association had put together a joint proposal to host the event. In essence the University would supply the venue and the Welsh Archery Association would supply the bits and pieces (bosses, judges etc.) which is a plausible enough arrangement, although it does miss out the central plank of an archery club at the university in question.

BUCS have confirmed that the relationship between Cardiff University and the Welsh Archery Association has/had, deteriorated. The knock on effect is that the number of bosses (and judges) and therefore capacity of the event has been reduced. Double bow-ers were the first to be pared down to one style. After that all clubs have been cut back to a maximum of around 14 archers. If you are an archer who has been chopped, there may yet be a chance for you to shoot, via the reserve list, as with a competition the size of BUCS Indoors, there are always a lot of no shows.

It is deeply regrettable that the clubs who are the biggest supports of the Championship are the ones to be penalised, particularly with so little notice and travel plans already made. It is tempting to criticise BUCS for choosing a university with no archery club, but it is worth remembering that Cardiff's was the only bid available (after Aberdeen Sports Village forced Aberdeeen to withdraw from hosting) and the arrangement between the University and Welsh Archery was proposing a venue with a capacity of around 550. Even now, with 37 bosses, the capacity is still a respectable 444.

Steven Johnson (Birmingham & BUCS Archery SMG) has been parachuted in this week to help organise and has put together a target list. Owing to the last minute disruption, swaps CAN be made, but only with people who were on the original entry form. These must be submitted by email to ste_j_@@hotmail.com by 10am on Friday. More info in BUCS Indoor section.

Best of luck to everyone going to Cardiff.

There will be another editorial article to follow shortly, catching up on all the regional league action that has been going on, that can sometimes getted missed out around this hectic time of year.