For the second time, BUCS Indoors 2018 used regional qualifying events (two Portsmouths) to whittle down the field, whilst the Finals themselves consisted of a WA18m round, with the top 32 (gent/lady recurves, 16 for barebow, 8 for longbow and compound) moving on to the H2H. The team titles were determined from the 18m round scores. There was a change to the way places at the finals were allocated with a % of each gender and each bowstyle competing. There was a corresponding drop in the number of female athletes present.
In the gents team category, Warwick roared clear to win the gents indoor team title for the third time in four years. Their total of 1672 saw finish the best part of 50 clear of the chasing pack. The race for second was somewhat closer, with just 1 point separating Birmingham's silver medal winning 1625 and Loughborough's bronze medal winning 1624. At BUCS Indoors, Loughborough have only finished outside the top 8 once since 2009, but 3rd is their best finish since 1999. Plymouth stormed in to 4th spot with a total of 1601. This is Plymouth's best ever result at any national student competition by some distance - the previous was 17th. Plymouth finished 4 points ahead of Edinburgh, with Nottingham (1565), Southampton (1540) and Exeter (1508) rounding out the buCS point winning top 8 and also the last clubs over 1500.
Birmingham retained their ladies team title and also bagged a new All Unis record with 1643, 21 ahead of last year's total but 71 ahead of runners up Warwick, a mirror of the gents team result. Edinburgh took third spot on 1539, with Nottingham not far behind on 1522. Fifth place went to Central Lancashire on 1482 which is their best ever result, beating 8th at the Outdoors last year. A full 150 further back came Liverpool and Loughborough on 1335 and 1305, with Exeter matching their men's team in 8th place. There were 17 complete gents teams of 3 and only 10 complete ladies teams of 3, a reflection on the method of allocating places to the Finals. It is noticeable how weakened the ladies teams in this area of the leaderboard. There were at least more teams than BUCS points places.
There were only 3 compound teams of 2 this year, with Edinburgh clear in front on 1154.
This is only the second season in this format, so perhaps unsurprisnigly there are a large number of All Unis records set in qualifying. These principally came in the ladies section. Congratulations to Birmingham's recurve women (Eleanor Piper, Rebekah Tipping, Catherine Jackson). Ladies individual records broken were by Sarah Prieels (Edinburgh) 590, barebow Sarah Shahzad (Bournemouth) 505 and longbow Jessica Nirkko (Edinburgh) 363. Gents compound Andrew Brookes (Staffordshire) matched the existing mark of 573.
8th seed Ben Trudgill (Exeter) sprang a surprise and cut his way through the field to win the gents title. The new Indoor champion is becoming something of a BUCS H2H specialist having done something similar (qual 12th, won silver) at Lilleshall last year. Trudgill won an epic QF against Tom Hall (Warwick), who had out-qualified the whole field by 14 points and Trudgill by 29. He then beat Nick Wilson (Southampton), the 12th seed 7-3 in their semi. Conor Hall (Birmingham) won the first set of the final with a 30, but straight 27s thereafter left the door open and the Exeter man won 6-2. In the round of 16, Wilson beat 5th seed Arthur Coveney (Loughborough), but only after their matching 10s in the shoot off had to be measured. Wilson then beat Enrik Nako (Warwick). In the other QFs, Conor Hall beat Matthew Sharpe (Surrey) and Sherman Ip (Warwick) beat David Shaw (York) all matches 6-0, with Conor Hall in good form to beat Ip in their semi. Ip went on to take bronze to go one step better than last year after he beat Nick Wilson in a shoot off.
Pip Taylor (Derby) won the ladies recurve title. In a titanic QF against Eleanor Brug (Cambridge), Taylor squeezed through 10-9 in a shoot off before beating top seed Eleanor Piper (Birmingham) in another 5 set semi. Having lost her QF last set 27-29, Taylor made no mistake with a 30 to force herself over the line. Piper had beaten last season's runner up Rebecca Martin (Bristol) 7-1, shooting a 118 dozen to do so. In the bottom half of the draw Johanna Meyer (Edinburgh) pulled away in the second half of her match with Margaux Mesle (Liverpool) whilst Rebekah Tipping (Birmingham) had too much for Elizabeth Elmer (Nottingham). Tipping and Meyer drew the first set, but then Tipping won 3 close sets to take the match 7-1. In the final itself, Taylor had more in the tank and became Derby's first ever BUCS individual recurve champion.
In compound only the top 8 qualified for the knock out stages. Compound KO matches are 15 arrow matches rather than sets. Winners were Chris Cassells (Aberystwyth) and Sarah Prieels (Edinburgh). Prieels was utterly dominant in ladies compound, dropping only 5 points in 3 entire matches to win for the third year in a row. Prieels cleaned her QF with 150 and won her SF and the final against Sarah Moon (Nottingham Trent) by 8 points. Izzy Carpenter (Sheffield Hallam) won bronze. Cassells beat 6th seed Pip Tucknott (Edinburgh) 144-139 in the final, having beaten top seed Andrew Brookes (Staffordshire) in the SF.
In longbow (as in compound) the knock-out phase comprised only the top 8 archers. Alex Newnes (Aberystwyth) who also won in 2016 and 2017, dominated the gents competition, qualifying 150 points clear of the field and winning all his matches for the loss of only one set. Newnes beat Alexander Adeyemi (West of Scotland) in the final. Top seed and defending champion Jessica Nirkko (Edinburgh) needed all 5 sets to battle past Lydia Martin (Keele) in the ladies final.
In barebow, 16 gent and lady barebows qualified for the knock-out stages. The top 4 seeds in the gents competition made the semis. Lonja Selter (Plymouth) beat Chris Norwood (De Montfort) 6-0, including and end of 29, whilst David Cunningham (Teesside) beat William Croydon (Loughborough), saving his best score for the fifth set. Selter won the first two set of the final and although Cunningham hit back with the third, Selter took gold. In the ladies, after qualifying results, the smart money would have been on a final between Sarah Shahzad (Bournemouth) and Jessica Nilsson (Edinburgh). However, Nilsson crashed out to 15th seed India Wilson (Birmingham). Wilson lost to clubmate Amelia Elgey who went on to beat Essi Peuhkuri (Nottingham Trent) in their semi. Shahzad moved in to the final with a narrow QF win, but a comfortable semi final against Georgia Thirtle (Portsmouth). The final comprised three competitive sets, but they all went the way of the Bournemouth archer.
As always, many thanks to all those who donated their time and energies to putting on a great competition.
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