UK Student Archery Association

BUCS Indoor 2020 Finals [20/Mar/20]

Successfully defending their respective titles, Warwick's men (1686) and Birmingham's women (1592) were crowned as champions. The same pairing won at Lilleshall in the summer and 12 months ago in Leeds - and 24 months ago in Bristol. Warwick added women's silver to men's gold with 1569, with Nottingham in third on 1541. The ladies podium was identical to its equivalent from 12 months previously. Loughborough are reigning BUCS Outdoors men's team champions and picked up silver medals here with 1643 - their best result at this event since they won the (mixed) team title back in 1998. Plymouth's gents scored 1633 to win medals for the second year in a row.

In the gents team results, Birmingham made it 3 BUTTS clubs in the top 4 with 1604. East Anglia were 5th on 1552 - to put that in perspective, their best ever finish at any of the "nationals" prior to this season is 14th. Bath (1534), Nottingham (1526) and Exeter (1520) were the last three teams to make it in to the top 8 BUCS-point winning places. BUTTS had 4 of those 8 against 3 from SWWU, however SWWU clubs did occupy the next 3 spots - Aberystwyth, Swansea and Bristol - to make it 6 of the top 11. There were 19 complete teams.

On the ladies team side, there was a significant drop after the top 3. As they were last year, Edinburgh were 4th, but they finished on 1481, a full 60 points off bronze. Central Lancashire (1468) were 5th. This matches the club's best ever national position, which they have now achieved four times in the last 3 years, following Indoor 2018 and Outdoor 2018 and 2019. Loughborough (1448), Cambridge (1412) and De Montfort (1358) were 6th, 7th and 8th, to make it 6 BUTTS clubs winning ladies team points. Once again however, the lower reaches of the ladies team rankings reflect the fact that fewer women than men are allocated spaces if fewer enter the qualification process. There were 12 complete teams.

There were only 3 compound teams of 2 this year, with Edinburgh top of the, admittedly small, pile on 1160.

Since 2017, BUCS Indoors has used regional qualifying events to whittle down the field. In 2020, the number of regional qualifying events rose from 2 to 3. The National Finals consist of a WA18m ranking round, with a further cut for those qualifying for H2Hs. Men's and women's recurve team titles were determined from the 18m round scores. Once again, places at the finals were allocated proportionally by bowstyle, but also proportionally by gender, onca again giving a roughly 60/40 male/female split and meaning that women's H2H field was smaller in some bowstyles.

This is the fourth season BUCS Finals have used the WA18m format, and it is maturing as an All Uni record. None of the team records and "only" two of the individual records were broken - although in both cases they were broken by multiple individuals. Lonja Selter (Plymouth) scored 513 as one of 5 gents barebows to break the record set last season (of 495) by Paul Cobee (Bath). Cobee himself was one of the other 4. The other record to fall was in gents compound, where Kai Thomas-Prause (Warwick) scored 588 to beat his own record by 4, again set last year. Jake Walsh (Edinburgh) was a point behind. Top recurve William Pike (Warwick) shot 579 - 3 short of the All Unis record, but 14 clear of the field. Eleanor Piper (Birmingham) was top lady on 563, a lead of 7.

Top seed William Pike (Warwick) won the gents recurve title. With gents recurve up to 64 making the KO cut, Pike needed to win 6 matches to do so, and he did so in spectacular fashion, with four 6-0s and two 7-1s (not in that order) to win without losing a set. Warwick's overall domination of the gents recurve field was such that they contributed half of the quarter-final line up. Pike defeated Arthur Coveney (Loughborough) in the round of 16, team-mate Sherman Ip in the QF and team-mate James Gardner in the SF. This took 10 sets, all competitive ones, but Pike won 9 of them, Sherman Ip grabbing a point at the start of his match. Gardner can feel particularly hard done by, losing his 3 sets 27-28, 28-29, and 29-30, having beaten 20th seed Joe Becker (Staffordshire) 7-3 in that QF. Pike's opponent in the final was Jonas Skackauskas (Brunel), a bronze medallist at this event last year. Skackauskas was seeded 11th and upset 6th seed Ben Evans (Loughborough) in the round of 16 and then 3rd seed Tom Braxton (Leeds) 6-2 in the QFs. Christopher Woodgate (Warwick) qualified 7th and unexpectedly whitewashed 2nd seed Alex Rowe (Plymouth) in their QF to set up that semi. Woodgate was 4-2 up, but Skackauskas forced a shoot-off which he then won 10-9. Woodgate beat Gardner 7-3 in an all-Warwick bronze shoot off. The final itself was a tale of contrasts. Pike won the first set 30-28. Thereafter, Skackauskas' final, shot on borrowed kit, unravelled and Pike cruised home with another 30 and a 28. William Pike won his first individual BUCS title. An unfortunate ending shouldn't mask a successful day and second consecutive podium for Jonas Skackauskas. These are the first such medals for Brunel since 2005. Biggest upset of the bracket was 29th seed Petr Manas (Edinburgh) beating 4th seed Joe Tripp (Plymouth) 6-4 in the round of 32.

Top seed Eleanor Piper (Birmingham) won the ladies recurve title. Ladies recurve cut fell at the top 32, rather than the gents' 64. She beat namesake and second seed Eleanor Brug (Cambridge) in three straight, albeit well contested sets. Perhaps the bigger story came in the semis, where Piper faced 4th seed Lauren Bann (Essex) and Brug shot against 3rd seed Rachel Moon (Keele). Both were blockbusters. Lauren Bann opened with a maximum 30 to take the first and halved the second to go 3-1 up. Piper fired back with a 30 and 29 against two 28s to take the momentum and a 5-3 lead. Bann hit back though 29-28 to force a shoot off in which both women scored 10s, with Piper's nearer the middle. Meanwhile Rachel Moon came back from 3-1 and 5-3 to force another shoot off, before Brug came through 10 v 9. Brug also took a shoot off to be Rebekah Tipping (Birmingham) in the round of 16. Bann beat Moon 6-2 in the bronze shoot off, dropping only 4 points in 4 ends. Bann's bronze is the first individual recurve BUCS medal for Essex for nearly 30 years - 1991. In the women's quarter-finals, Eleanor Piper beat Ffion Edgeley (De Montfort) and Lauren Bann beat Megan Tinker (York St John) - both matches ended 6-2, with 2 draw and 2 narrow wins each. Rachel Moon and Eleanor Brug both saw off much lower ranked opponents, Robin Burton (Edinburgh) 27th and Jodie Green (Warwick) 26th. Burton knocked out 6th seed Johanna Meyer (Bath) and Green beat 7th ranked Emma Davis (Warwick). Green also won a shoot off in the round of 16, with a closer 10 than Rhian Costall (Keele). Green and Davis are Warwick team-mates now, whilst Burton and Meyer overlapped at Edinburgh in 2017/18.

In compound only the top 8 gents and top 4 ladies qualified for the knock out stages. Compound KO matches are 15 arrow matches rather than sets. In the gents compound second seed Jake Walsh (Edinburgh) upset top seed Kai Thomas-Prause (Warwick). Both men had shot matches of 148/150, but crucially Walsh shot his in the final. Connor Rides (Wolverhampton) won bronze. In the ladies event, third seed Elizabeth Martel (Edinburgh) scored the highest of the day with 147 to win the final against top seed Izzy Carpenter (Sheffield Hallam). Martel beat out club-mate Hope Greenwood in the semi, with Greenwood going on to take bronze.

In longbow the knock-out phase comprised only the last 4 archers for both gents and ladies. Henry Cossey (Kings College) and Emma King (Plymouth) were top seeds and both ran out very comfortable winners in their finals. Both Alexander Kippax (Chester) and Keely Pringle (Swansea) performed much better in their semi-final wins.

In barebow the top 16 women and the top 32 men qualified for the knock-out stages - both up from last year. Cameron Krulewski (Cambridge), seeded 6th, won the women's barebow title, whilst second seed Paul Cobee (Bath) took the men's. Krulewski beat 3rd seed Hannah Blackman (Reading) in the QF before overcoming surpise semi-finalist Elizabeth Roberts (Queen Mary). Roberts qualified 15th (only narrowly making the cut) had earlier KO-ed the 2nd seed Suzannah Boardman (Leeds) from 0-2 down to a 6-2 win in that match. Roberts then beat 10th seed Kimberley Callaghan (Cambridge) before running in to Krulewski. In the other half of teh draw top seed Eloise Hepburn (Plymouth) beat 9th seeded novice Simran Pansear (Nottingham) 6-2 before accounting for 5th seed Tia Mulholland (De Montfort) 7-3. In the final however Hepburn had no answer to Krulewski who raced away to the title. Tia Mulholland beat Elizabeth Roberts to bronze. Paul Cobee (Bath) beat Thomas Walker (Birmingham) and then 6th seed James Hayday (Swansea). Hayday previously ousted 3rd seed Tobias Johnson (Aberystwyth) in that QF. Top seed Lonja Selter (Plymouth) was knocked out by a strong display from Matt Waters (Nottingham), 6-2. In the final, Cobee scored 28, 29 and 26 to overpower Waters in straight sets. James Hayday beat Lonja Selter for bronze.

As always, many thanks to all those who donate their time and energies to putting on a such great competition, including the teams at Warwick and the three qualifiers, Napier, Manchester and Bristol. These kind of tournaments could not happen without so many willing and able volunteers.

The spectre of the coronavirus, Covid 19, hung over this tournament which could easily have been cancelled. Less than 48 hours after the trophies were lifted, team and individual champions crowned, BUCS suspended fixtures across all sports. BUTC 2020, scheduled for after Easter after its own unrelated scheduling problems, has been cancelled altogether as have several regional fixtures. Many clubs have suspended practice sessions. UKSAA will bring news of cancellations as and when they occur. Hopefully before too long, it will also carry news about the resumption of competition.