UK Student Archery Association

Preston and Crawley [02/Mar/18]

The list of those archers who have qualified for the National Finals event in Bristol has now been published, see the BUCS Indoors section.

BUCS' methodology for how many archers progressed to the finals was to allow a certain % to go through, with a minimum number, 8, for small categories. Clearly the logic was to allow the most competitive archers to compete and certainly not to deliberately produce a gender imbalance. (Apologies if I gave that impression - Ed.) Nevertheless a consequence of the change is a significant gender imbalance with 53 lady recurves (scoring 508 and above) and 83 gents (scoring 531 and above).

The debate has produced some heat but mostly light and hopefully the issues raised will continue to be discussed by a wide audience. Female participation levels and the structure of a blue ribbon competition like BUCS Indoors (which has undergone huge changes over the last few years) are both extremely important.

As for the arrows themselves, there were a large number of strong performances. Eleanor Piper and Rebekah Tipping (both Birmingham) were first and third on 585 and 577 respectively. 2012 Outdoor Champion Margaux Mesle (Liverpool) was in between them on exactly 580. Three more archers broke 570. With 3 of the top 6, perhaps unsurprisingly, Birmingham won the ladies team event on 1733, breaking the BUCS/All Unis record by no less than 36 points.

Gents recurve was dominated by a massive 597 from Tom Hall (Warwick). This included a perfect 300 first half. The score is a BUCS record and is behind only Ashe Morgan's 598 in the All Unis standings. Sherman Ip and Enrik Nako (both Warwick) were third and fifth on 581 and 577. Warwick scored 1755 to match Edinburgh's All Unis record. Conor Hall (Birmingham) was in second on 587, with 580 seeing Guy Matzkin (Edinburgh) land fourth. Ben Evans (Loughborough) scored 576 and there a further eight gents cleared 570.

Sarah Prieels (Edinburgh) broke her own All Unis record for the second time this season, scoring 595 to win ladies compound. Chris Cassells (Aberystwyth) shot 581 to lead an incredibly tight gents compound, which saw 5 points cover the top 8 places. Another All Unis record to fall was in gents longbow. The old record of 501 was set back in 2003, one of the oldest records still on the books. Alex Newnes (Aberystwyth) sailed past it, scoring 522 to finish over 100 clear of all his rivals. Jessica Nirkko (Edinburgh) was top lady on 429. Top barebow was Jessica Nilsson (Edinburgh) on 559, with top gent was William Croydon (Loughborough) on 509.

SEAL match 4 was also extracted from these scores. Southampton won the leg, just clearing 2200 on 2204. London were exactly 30 behind in second. Having waxed lyrical in a previous editorial about the three-way bun fight at the top of the table, Sussex promptly broke the pattern with 2161 in third and Imperial seeing their title chances recede sharply with 4th spot and 2147. Southampton now lead the table by 1 from London and will the title unless London beat them by either 2 places or over 33 points. Imperial's novices won again to extend their lead over Portsmouth (who were second) to 8 points with one match to play.

Reviews of unreviewed matches will follow ASAP. If you are travelling for fixtures this weekend, please take heed of weather forecasts and exercise appropriate caution.