UK Student Archery Association

BUTC May go ahead [16/Feb/21]

Is there some light at the end of the tunnel? Hopefully that light will turn out to be a 60mm yellow disc rather than an oncoming train.

Bristol will be the hosts of BUTC 2021. The competition is scheduled to take place on Saturday 1st May in the Coombe Dingle Sport Complex.

The discs were originally slated to tumble on the weekend of 27th/28th March. In order to give the event a better chance of actually going ahead, organisers attempted to secure a post-Easter alternative. That date is now confirmed, although the risk of Covid-cancellation is obviously still very real.

Latest updates, including the Entry Form, will appear on the BUTC Tournament Info page in due course.

Coronavirus has played particular havoc with events at the Coombe Dingle. At the point they bid for BUTC 2021, Bristol were supposed to be hosting Southern Qualifying for BUCS Indoors. Later that was scrapped and they were allocated BUCS Finals, before that too had to be cancelled. Bristol were also the intended hosts of BUTC 2020, but it's worth noting that the 2021 BUTC bidding process was independent of the 2020 one.

This will be only the second BUTC ever to be held in SWWU - and the first in its English half - after Swansea in 2009.

Competitively speaking, Bristol have been to the two most recently held BUTCs, 2018 and 2019. They formed part of a SWWU surge in 2018, with fellow debutantes Cardiff and Plymouth. However Bristol's best result came the following year in Reading. In the 2019 first round, Jamie Diep, Phoebe Noble and Will Black breezed through 12 discs to 6 against London. In the round of 16, they put in another double digit display, but this time it was not quite enough. They were eliminated in a creditable 15-10 defeat to top seeds and eventual winners Warwick.