UK Student Archery Association

Feedback due for new BUCS [28/Jul/15]

Very occasionally, UKSAA editorials are important must-reads. This is one of those.

This week (31st July) is the deadline to provide some feedback for proposed changes to the future format of BUCS Indoor Championships. The proposal from the SAG (which, if accepted, would kick in for 2017) essentially involves a geographically based qualifying round (North and South) from which the top archers and clubs would progress to a finals event. More precise details are available in the BUCS Indoor section. Whilst the qualifying round would remain a Portsmouth, the finals round would be a WA 18m with H2Hs.

Note that the proposed change "is by no means finalised and is for discussion only". That's where your feedback comes in.

The competition is already too big for all but a handful of halls round the UK - BUCS Indoors has effectively set up shop in Telford since 2012. Faced with an ever-rising tide of new clubs and bigger squads, the numbers have exploded to levels that now require squads to be restricted to ever decreasing levels.

Some sort of reform of the BUCS championships was therefore always likely. What sort of changes should there be? A 2 day event? Higher qualifying scores? Unquestionably, something will be lost when a student archer cannot simply attend the traditional end of year BUCS championships. However, perhaps this line of argument is less valid once you factor in regional league matches (and BUTC) - BUCS events make up a relatively small fraction of the competitive student calendar. Transforming BUCS Indoors to a 2 stage event, with mass-participation in stage 1 and an end-of-year finals is actually more in line with some other mass-participation sports in the BUCS stable.

Do the changes go far enough? Some sports have a full divisional strucuture with a UK wide Premier Division and Regionalised Divisions underneath that. BUCS backing would certainly help "officialise" the regional leagues, but it would likely mean re-shuffling the leagues to align with BUCS' existing 12 region structure.

Regardless of what your opinion is, make sure that it is heard - and share with your clubs/leagues. Email comments and feedback should go to info@@bucs.org.uk by the end of July.