UK Student Archery Association

Catch Up: BUTTS and SEAL [02/Mar/16]

This article reviews BUTTS match 4, the BUTTS Division 2 match and SEAL match 4 as well as a brief look at SEAL match 3, shot at Telford.

BUTTS and SEAL dominate the line up at BUTC this year. Reminder that should any team (or teams) need to withdraw from BUTC, please let the organisers know ASAP so a replacement can be organised.

BUTTS has become a two way battle between the West Midlands duo of Warwick and Birmingham. Birmingham took the opening match on golds, but then saw defending champions Warwick gradually work their way into a two point lead. In match 4 however, Birmingham roared back with a 2287 to take first place. Warwick scored 2256, but were pushed down in to third by 2280 from Loughborough. This extra point dropped means Warwick and Birmingham go in to the Indoor Championships level on points - a real winner takes all. Loughborough remain in contention mathematically but would require an unlikely sequence of placings. Nottingham and Trent were 4th and 5th in the leg on 2226 and 2204.

Ashe Morgan (Birmingham) scored a mammoth 589 to take top honours in the leg, whilst Arthur Coveney (Loughborough) scored 585. Tom Hall (Warwick) hit 584 and Rob Gray (Nottingham Trent) got 583, whilst there were 573s for Louis Richardson (Loughborough) and Harry Ives-Keeler (Nottingham), with Jack Masefield (Derby) one behind. There were 560's for Francis Berti, Sam Rees and Christopher Avins (all Birmingham) as well as Adam Wozencroft (Loughborough) and James Jeffs (Warwick).

Remarkably, Tom Hall (Warwick) has shot a minimum of 582 in the four regulation BUTTS legs without top scoring in any.

Birmingham and Loughborough finished first and second in the novice match to cement their holds on the same positions in the novice table. Birmingham have now won 10 consecutive indoor BUTTS novice fixtures and aim to complete a second clean sweep at the Indoor Champs. Nottingham Trent were third in the match. Tim Spankie (Birmingham) top scored on 523. Leo Yang (Loughborough) and Matt Lamacraft (N Trent) were in the 510s.

In BUTTS Division 2, there has been one fixture. The match was hosted and won (both senior and novice team) by De Montfort. De Montfort scored 2015 and are also scheduled to make their BUTC debut. Northampton were second and Leicester were third. Nic Allen (De Montfort) top scored in this match with 544.

SEAL match 3 was extracted from the BUCS scores shot at Telford. Southampton just beat London 2213 to 2208, with Portsmouth just beating Imperial to third 2157 to 2147. Dominic Collis (London), Chris Dunlop (Portsmouth) and Andrew Howe (Southampton) all scored in the 560s. In the equivalent novice fixture Southampton dominated in first, with Surrey second followed by Imperial and Reading in third and fourth. Jon Arnarson (Southampton) hit a massive 558, only a few points short of the All Unis record.

In match 4, Southampton recorded another narrow win over London. This time the margin was 14 points as Southampton scored 2208 to London's 2194. Andrew Howe (Southampton) scored 561 as against a 562 from Dominic Collis (London) although Matthew Sharpe (Surrey) top scored in the match on 575. Portsmouth were third, for the second leg in a row, back on 2113, ahead of a congested midfield. Imperial (2085) were two ahead of Surrey, with Brunel (2061) and Reading (2048) not far behind.

London's lead at the top of the table had been as high as 3 points, but is now down to 1. They do have an aggregate advantage over second placed Southampton. In order for Southampton to deny London their third senior SEAL title in four years, they would need to beat London by either 2 clear places, or by 1 place and 126+ points.

The novice leg was won by London, with Southampton, who had won all three previous legs, dropping down to fifth. Reading were second and cut the gap at the top from 6 down to 3 points. In this match Surrey were third, one ahead of Imperial, although the teams stay the other way around in the overall table. Ye-Sheen Lim (London) hit 539.

See the current BUTTS and SEAL standings.

SEAL match 5 will take place on the weekend of 12th/13th March, spread over five venues. The BUTTS Indoor Champs will take place a weekend later at Nottingham Trent.