BUCS Indoor 2015 Review [13/Feb/15]

BUCS Indoors 2015 took place on Saturday 7th February in Telford, and yet again there were a record breaking number of entrants. Even Telford's mighty hall was not quite big enough to entertain everyone. The BUCS Indoors attendance record has now been broken in the last four consecutive years, increasing from 523 to 571 to 619 to a mind bending 690 starters. This year, for the first time, the senior team event was split into separate men's and women's teams of three, rather than a mixed team of four event, meaning two.

Warwick are the new gents team champions, narrowly seeing off Oxford with 1728 against 1725. Nottingham took third with 1702. Outside the medals, Edinburgh were fourth on 1693, one place and one point ahead of Birmingham. Bath were sixth on 1671, whilst on 1666, Southampton took seventh spot ahead of Loughborough on golds, 84 plays 79. Derby, London and Cambridge were 9th, 10th and 11th, all above the 1650 barrier, Sheffield Hallam were 12th on 1639. There were a full 49 complete gents teams of three.

Oxford are the new ladies team champions. The Dark Blues added ladies gold to gents silver with a total of 1683 to produce a convincing winning margin of 47. Scottish sides picked up the other ladies team medals, with Aberdeen seeing off Edinburgh 1636 to 1633. Nottingham Trent were fourth out on their own with 1612 whilst fifth down to ninth were separated by only 12 points. Leading the pack Birmingham were fifth on 1597, just ahead of Warwick's 1593, Loughborough's 1590, London's 1587 and Cambridge's 1585. The ladies top ten was completed by Exeter and there were 42 complete ladies teams of three.

Direct comparison with previous years' results (in particular with the ladies results) is difficult since mixed teams of 4 perform differently from separate gender teams of 3. Warwick have only ever won the equivalent of BUCS Indoors once before, way back in 1988, although they did finish second in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Oxford have never won BUCS Indoors before, finishing runners up the last two years. The Dark Blues currently hold the BUCS Indoors ladies team and the 2014 BUTC and BUCS Outdoors (mixed team) titles. Aberdeen have never won BUCS Indoors medals before, but match their 1998 Outdoors result.

Novice teams were mixed teams of 3 as before, but with the championships taking place a few weeks earlier in the year than usual, there were only five teams over the 1500 barrier, compared to 10 in 2013 and 2014. One of those teams, and convincing winners were Edinburgh. Edinburgh's total of 1567 was nearly thirty points clear of second placed Birmingham who took silver on 1539. Loughborough took bronze with 1536, with Cambridge fourth on 1528 and Southampton fifth on 1517. Warwick and Derby both finished on 1487, with Warwick taking sixth spot 35-28 on golds. Liverpool were next, with Portsmouth and Hull completing the top ten. There were 45 complete novice teams.

Having won bronze and joint silver at this event in the last two years, Ashe Morgan (Birmingham) went one better with a gold medal winning - and record setting - score of 594. This score was effectively comprised of (no 8s), half dozen's worth of 9s and the rest 10s. It also breaks the BUCS and All Unis record of 593. Alexander Smith (Oxford) shot an impressive 591 to claim silver and the first gents individual medal for Oxford at BUCS for 12 years. Tom Hall (Warwick) added an Indoor bronze to his Outdoor one, with a 586. Harrison Waterworth (Bangor) took fourth spot just ahead of Ciprian Zahan (Oxford) 581 to 580. Keith Robertson (Northumbria) and current Outdoor champion Kieran Slater (Leicester) both got 578, Robertson a gold ahead. Not even golds could be used to split 8th, 9th and 10th with Erik Rowbotham (MMU Cheshire), Alex Hickson (Bath) and Andrew Howe (Southampton) all on 576/60/40. In total 14 gents broke 570, with 22 over 560.

Charlie Birch (Oxford) won ladies recurve gold with a score of exactly 570. She finished six clear of her rivals and brings the ladies recurve trophy back to Oxford after only 2 years. Sarah Warner (Loughborough) and Johanna Meyer (Edinburgh) both scored 564. Warner took silver by the margin of a single gold, winning Loughborough first ladies individual BUCS medal since 1999. Defending champion Gerda Pociunaite (Exeter) was fourth on 562. Amaryllis Barton (Oxford) and Sophie Cole (Anglia Ruskin) were the last women over 560, on 561 and 560 respectively. Amy Curnock (Nottingham Trent) was seventh on 558, whilst Rebekah Tipping (Aberdeen) led the chasing pack on 555.

Gents novice was won by Michael Sessions (Southampton). Sessions' score of 540 gave him a 10 point winning margin over Alex Johnstone (Hull) on 530 and Alex Chen (Cambridge) on 529. Ziqiang Gao (Birmingham) was fourth on 524. Franz Huber (Edinburgh) led the rest of the field on 517. In contrast to the gents, ladies novice was incredibly close. Top of the pile was Neringa Siugzdinyte (Edinburgh) on 526, with team mate Ariana Quisenberry (Edinburgh) in fourth, despite being only 2 points adrift on 524. In between, Indigo Griffith (Warwick) and Farah Rizal (London) both shot 525, Griffith getting silver (and Rizal bronze) 17 golds to 16. The total number of recurve novices shooting a number starting with a 5 was 26, the early scheduling of the tournament doubtless playing a role. No novice records were broken at the event.

Fraser Chape (Robert Gordon) won gents compound with 580, ahead of Alex Bradley (Cardiff) on 575. There was a three way tie for third with Pip Tucknott (Edinburgh), Thomas Taylor (Coventry) and William Shackley (Swansea) all on 573/60/33. In the ladies event, Stephanie Clason beat Hope Greenwood (both Edinburgh) 574 to 573, well clear of Erin Prior (Coventry). Anson Chen (Newcastle) was the top novice compound on 553.

With 155 entrants, barebow's participation levels continue to rise. Craig McCreery (Queen's Belfast) and Elizabeth Rees (Bath) won the senior barebow events with room to spare. McCreery's 525, was 42 ahead of defending champion Huw Vaughan-Jackson (Edinburgh) on 483, who was one ahead of Harry Dean Lofthouse (Loughborough). Jacob Bellamy (Warwick) was fourth. Rees defended her 2014 title by 28 points with 540, beating Jennifer Mankin (Sussex) on 512, before a further drop down to 459 for third placed Alix Snell (Bath) who led the chasing pack. Top gents and ladies novice barebows were Karl Wilson (Essex) on 492 and Victoria Orr (Liverpool) on 449.

Both senior BUCS longbow records were broken in 2015. Ashay Alok (Bath) scored 464, to beat the previous mark of 449 set last year. Emily Williams (South Wales) shot 439 to break/unify the BUCS and All Unis records which have stood for 11 and 10 years respectively. Jack Skitt (Aberystwyth) was the top novice longbow on 254.

The increase in the size of BUCS Indoors is extraordinary. Up until four BUCS Indoors ago, the attendance record was 446. Now it is 690 - up by 55% in the lifetime of one generation of students. Hosting this beast involves a lot of behind the scenes work, so, as ever many thanks are due to the organising crew from AFS and also from Loughborough, as marshalled by Adam Peers and the team of judges. SEAL, SWWU and NEUAL will all extract a set of league match results from the Telford totals. The split in to gents and ladies teams is a positive step, reflective of archery outside the student bubble and a bonus all round as there are BUCS points for gents and ladies top 8 senior teams.

Keeping the team of three theme, BUTC takes place in East Anglia on 21st February, whilst the BUCS Outdoors weekend of the 13th/14th June needs some hosts, so get in touch with the SAG.

News and Editorials 2014/2015

  • The best a Uni can get [04/Aug/15]
  • Feedback due for new BUCS [28/Jul/15]
  • Gwangju Quick Review [13/Jul/15]
  • Lilleshall Head to Heads [24/Jun/15]
  • BUCS Outdoor 2015 Review [19/Jun/15]
  • BUTTS plus fours [19/May/15]
  • Red Roses in NEUAL bloom [07/May/15]
  • Warwick regain E-title [30/Apr/15]
  • Inside and Outside SWWU [17/Apr/15]
  • SEAL title swap [26/Mar/15]
  • BUTTS XX [17/Mar/15]
  • Lancaster leapfrog Liverpool [11/Mar/15]
  • BUTC 2015 Review [28/Feb/15]
  • Results Round Up [18/Feb/15]
  • BUCS Indoor 2015 Review [13/Feb/15]
  • Entries all over the place [03/Feb/15]
  • Enter the E-League [15/Jan/15]
  • London lead SEAL [05/Jan/15]
  • Northern Leagues' Round 2 [23/Dec/14]
  • Southern Expansion [05/Dec/14]
  • Liverpool lead, Warwick win [26/Nov/14]
  • BUTC goes East [21/Nov/14]
  • And they're off [12/Nov/14]
  • Gwangju for you [04/Nov/14]
  • BUCS Indoors & SAG News [17/Oct/14]
  • New season ready to go [17/Sep/14]

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