UK Student Archery Association

BUTTS 4, BUTC line up [24/Feb/17]

Last weekend saw BUTTS match 4, whilst on Thursday the BUTC B team draw took place.

With 26 A teams having entered and the BUTC hosts always given first option on a B team space, there were 5 "winners" of the 2017 B team lottery. Edinburgh, Huddersfield, Southampton, Warwick and St Andrews were pulled out of the hat first whilst Surrey's B team sit top of the waiting list. Assuming all 26 attend, this will tie the BUTC record set in 2013 in Lancaster.

Although NEUAL has 9 institutions in the BUTC field against BUTTS' 8, it is worth considering that there only are 8 teams in BUTTS. In contrast, Swansea will be the only SWWU team to line up in Lancaster and make their first appearance for 8 years. NEUAL trio Central Lancashire, Newcastle and Salford will experience the BUTC cauldron for the first time. Birmingham, Edinburgh and Nottingham will be the only unis to have attended all 15 BUTCs.

The scoring in BUTTS match 4 suggests that BUTTS clubs may well dominate the top end of another BUTC. Birmingham won again and broke 2300 again on 2316. Warwick were second again, 36 behind despite averaging exactly 570 per person on 2280. Loughborough were third again, this time on 2251. Trent edged out Nottingham 2223 to 2212 to claim fourth in the match and go 3 points clear of Nottingham in the overall table. Derby were sixth in the match, missing out on a 2200 by eight.

Because they have finished 1-2-3 4 times in a row, Birmingham lead Warwick by 4 league points, who in turn lead Loughborough by 4 points. The same three teams lead the E-League in the same order, albeit with different numbers of points.

Loughborough were BUTTS Novice League champions most recently in 2012, but a win in the match 4 coupled with Birmingham's second place means that the pair are level on points, making the BUTTS Indoor Championships (Sat 11th Mar at Warwick) a straight shoot off. Warwick were third, just ahead of Cambridge and now hold a 1 point advantage over the Light Blues, albeit with an inferior aggregate.

Ashe Morgan, Francis Berti (both Birmingham) and Tom Hall (Warwick) were the top three scorers and clear of the chasing pack. Morgan hit 595, with club-mate Berti on 590, two ahead of Hall. Sherman Ip (Warwick) and Jack Masefield (Derby) both scored 581 with further two point gaps back to Rob Gray (Nottingham Trent) 579, Arthur Coveney (Loughborough) 577 and Philippa Taylor (Derby) 575. As with most BUTTS matches, there were too many archers over 560 to mention everyone - nine more recurves exceeded that total. As for the novices Toby Beasley (Loughborough) top scored on 531.

This the busy time of the season and next weekend (25th/26th Feb) is no execption. The BUCS Southern Qualifier will take place, so remember your ArcheryGB card and student ID. Results from this will been combined with the results from the Northern Qualifer, held 3 weeks previously, to determine the list of names who will line up for the Finals in Bristol.

Also this weekend are the SSS Indoor Champs in Strathclyde and the seventh batch of NEUAL fixtures, matches E7, W7 and N4, which will bring all 16 sides up to 3 matches each. Both SSS (match 5) and NEUAL (sixth batch E6 and W6) have unpublished results outstanding.