UK Student Archery Association

Record Breakers [20/Jul/17]

This article is about the All Unis records and the Best Results tables in the Club Directory.

All Unis records were an addition to the UKSAA in the early days - BUCS records (BUSA at that time) were the starting point with regional leagues and other university fixtures like BUTC contributing scores as applicable. The BUCS Championships are still the most common source of record breaking which makes sense given their time in the season and also the presence of elite archers who might fall outside the league set ups.

The indoor WA 18m round was added as an All Uni record category in March, following BUCS Indoor's re-organisation and its use as the ranking round at BUCS National Finals. Creating a set of All Unis records off the back of one competition is relatively unusual, but because it is such a standard round and will become part of the landscape, its immediate inclusion seems merited. There are 8 new senior individual (R/C/B/L for M & F) plus senior gents and ladies recurve team of 3 categories as a result. Additionally, a compound team section has been added with mixed team of 2 records for Portsmouth, 18m and 1440. A sheet for records broken this season was also added.

Alex Newnes (Aberystwyth) broke 4 All Unis records in 16/17, including a specatcular doubling of the longbow St George record. Becky Martin (Bristol) and Josh Croall (Edinburgh) broke 2 recurve records each, with Ollie Hartfield (Loughborough) broke the barebow Portsmouth record twice. Senior Portsmouth team of 3 records were broken in BUCS qualifying by Edinburgh. Senior 18m team of 3 records were broken at the BUCS finals by Birmingham, whilst at BUTC, Warwick broke the mixed Bray I record and tied the hit/miss match record. Warwick also broke the Metric I/II novice team record at Lilleshall.

On a vaguely related note, the Best Results tables in the Club Directory have now been updated. In the "Last 3 Years" column, results from 2014 have dropped away and are replaced by 2017's. 2014 was the last of the mixed gender team of 4 scores with the move to male and female teams of 3 taking effect in 2015.

Thanks to winning 5 of the 6 possible national team titles (itself a record) in an extraordinary season, Birmingham recorded a clean sweep of their best ever (outright and/or matching) results across the 4 major championships. Birmingham have won 7 national titles ever, 5 of them during the 2016/17 season. Swansea recorded an indoor sweep, whilst Central Lancashire only missed out on a Club best in the E-League. Bristol had their best ever E-League and BUCS Outdoors results and their best BUCS Indoors team result for a minimum of 20 years.

As is customary when mentioning the Club Directory, a plea for information. Contact UKSAA if there any updates that could be made here - and thanks to those clubs who have been in touch.

The All Unis records spreadsheet is in the Resources section, whilst the Best Results tables are located throughout the Club Directory.