UK Student Archery Association

Birmingham's 1 gold win [18/Nov/15]

Birmingham and Warwick produced an astonishing finish to the first BUTTS match of the season, finishing almost - almost - dead level. Both West Midlands clubs had amassed 2247 points with no misses, leaving the match to be decided on golds. Exactly half of the Brummie arrows had landed in the ten (120/240) whilst Warwick's golds total was 119. Thus by the slenderest of possible margins, Birmingham won their first senior BUTTS match/champs since May 2012. Brummie joy was not limited to the senior side, however as their novice team made it a double.

Birmingham's team was anchored by Rebekah Tipping (ex Aberdeen) with 566 and Alice Cotton with 564. For Warwick, Tom Hall thumped in a 584 with James Jeffs on 564.

Oxford, Loughborough and Nottingham were a little way behind the leaders. For Oxford, Charlie Birch hit the highest score of the entire match with a whopping 587 and Sherman Ip (ex London) contributing 575 to the Dark Blues' total of 2206. Arthur Coveney 577 and Louis Richardson on 568 pushed Loughborough to 2201, nine ahead of Nottingham. Jack Masefield (Derby) scored an impressive 585 but could not prevent his side slipping to last place. There were also high 560s from Rob Gray (Nottingham Trent) and Lydia Sinnett-Smith (Cambridge) and low 560s from Harry Ives-Keeler (Nottingham) and Rob Littlechild (Cambridge).

BUTTS novices shoot a team of 4 rather than team of 3, Birmingham's 1736 was just over 100 clear of Cambridge in second and Loughborough in third. Top novice by some way was Antonio Rubino (Cambridge) on 498. Birmingham's team of 3 score would have been 1320. Warwick's novices completed the top half of match 1, ahead of Nottingham.

See the current BUTTS standings. It's still very early in the season, but BUTTS 2015/16 looks set to be a fascinating contest.

Tied matches are relatively unusual at regional league level, because of the number of teams and the 2400 possible senior team of 4 scores - although some of those are more likely than others. Remarkably the most recent indoor BUTTS fixture also included two tied scores, although it was 7th v 8th. Some other notable ties are shown below:

SSS LM - 16/Nov/13 - Aberdeen 2235:240:119 beat Napier 2235:240:115. Another tie break, another win for Rebekah Tipping who top scored and whose golds saw Aberdeen take second place overall in the highest scoring SSS match ever
BUCS IC - 02/Mar/13 - Warwick 2253:240:122 beat Edinburgh 2253:240:120. The highest scoring tie recorded, Warwick took home a set of bronze team medals as a result.
NEUAL LMs - 23 & 24/Feb/08 - York 2131:240:74 beat Sheffield 2131:240:71 followed by Durham 2058:240:46 beat Liverpool 2058:237:60. A razor wire finish to NEUAL in 2008 with two ties on the same weekend. Having lost to York by 3 golds on the Saturday, Sheffield and Durham went in to the final match level and knowing a win would give either side the title. In the end Sheffield beat Durham (and Liverpool) by 61 points.
BUTTS LM - 09/Feb/08 - Oxford 2197:240:93 beat Cambridge 2197:240:89. From the years when BUTTS had 4 way matches, this one is notable because it decided who won the fixture and because it's an Old Firm derby
BUCS IC - 1987 - York 2208:240:107 beat Warwick 2208:240:105. The daddy of them all (not just in terms of age) victory here by 2 golds gave York their only BUCS title to date and wound up costing Warwick a BUCS double.

So call your linecutters, because you never know.