UK Student Archery Association

BUTTS teams go Outdoors [30/May/11]

The BUTTS Outdoor Championships took place on 21st May in Loughborough and were won by Warwick, their third win in the four years this event has been running. Oxford and Cambridge were absent however, competing in the 62nd Varsity Match on the same day. BUTTS Outdoors was a St George/Albion/Windsor for GE/GN&LE/LN, whilst the Varsity Match retained its traditional Albion for gents and Windsor for ladies format.

Turning to events at a windy Loughborough first, Warwick came home in first place by around 300 points with 2726. Rachael Hutchison's 723 and Andrew Shreeves' 721 (both Warwick) were top lady and gent respectively. Ellie Dyson (Nottingham Trent) made sure ladies recurve was a competitive affair, with a score of 722. Second placed team were Birmingham on 2428 who beat an understrength Nottingham team into third place on 2379. Zoe Hawken (Birmingham) helped cement her side's second place by scoring 694 and gain an element of revenge for this year's BUTC final.

Hosts Loughborough were clear winners in the novice team (of 4) category with 2171. Top novice, by a clear 70 points was Arthur Coveney (Loughborough) on 680. Final BUTTS tables are now available.

In the Varsity Match, it was the Light Blues of Cambridge who were victorious, away from home, in a relatively tight Varsity match. Cambridge totalled 3320 against Oxford's 3257. Laura Hill (Cambridge) was top lady on 856, whilst David Timmins (Oxford) was top gent on 849. Oxford did however run out comfortable winners in the (team of 4) novice match with 2349 against 1972. Top novice was Richard Morris (Oxford) on 714. Although the BUTTS Champs and Varsity Match novice teams did shoot the same round as one another, the competitions were held in different places, so direct comparisons are tricky but it does like Oxford would have had a shot at novice team gold. Varsity Match results are available in the Other Fixtures section.

Archery for Students will be running BUCS Outdoors this year. This was formed in the panic leading up to the hosting of BUCS Indoors 2011 and it is made up of predominantly former BUTTS archers. After BUTTS clubs took 5 of the top 6 spots in Cardiff, there is little question of which regional league is currently in the best health. AfS can be contacted archeryforstudents@@hotmail.co.uk if you are interested in pitching in - no prior BUTTS connections required! BUTTS clubs will hope to dominate the leader board again at Lilleshall.

Here is a sobering statistic to illustrate the strength of BUTTS this year. 2190 was Cambridge's total at the BUTTS Indoor Champs. An otherwise very healthy Portsmouth team of 4 total, this was enough for 6th place out of 8 teams. Ouch.