UK Student Archery Association

BUCS Outdoor 2021 Review [25/Jun/21]

BUCS Outdoors 2021 took place at Lilleshall NSC. Usually thanking the organisers comes at the end of a report, but nothing is as it usually is at the moment. The sun even shone on Lilleshall.

Saturday WA900

Imogen Sullivan-Bell (Winchester) won the women's recurve WA900. She led by 5 after one distance, stretching it to 12 after two. Eleanor Brug (Cambridge) and Charlotte Llewellyn-Smith (Durham) tried to reel her in at 40m, but they were too late. Sullivan-Bell was top with 808, Brug second on 800 and Llewellyn-Smith was third on 795. Behind the leading trio came Rebekah Tipping (Birmingham), Hannah Evans (Nottingham) and Ffion Edgeley (De Montfort) all in the 770s, ahead of Jodie Green and Hannah Burnage (both Warwick) in the 750s.

In gents recurve, 4 gents fought it out for top spot, Christopher Woodgate (Warwick), Arthur Coveney (Loughborough), Yang Pei (Oxford) and Tom Braxton (Leeds). After one distance, the quartet were 9 clear of the field, but only 8 points separated them, Pei taking the early lead. Woodgate moved 5 clear after 50m and top scored at 40m to win with 825. The battle for places 2-4 was astonishingly tight across the final distance, with final tallies being Coveney 813, Pei 812 and Braxton 811. Ben Evans (Loughborough) was fifth on 794. Behind him Christopher Cooper (Loughborough) and Christopher Avins (Birmingham) shot 786 each, with Cooper taking 6th spot on tens. Samuel Walby (Oxford) was 8th on exactly 780.

Zoe Harley (Oxford) and Dominic Kelsey (Nottingham) dominated novice proceedings, with 83 and 62 point leads. Behind Kelsey's 711 there was an almighty scramble for second in the gents novice. Wade Suen (Cambridge) took second on 10s from Benjamin Ashton (Surrey), both on 649 with Logan Baxter (Liverpool) on 648 and Micah Lee (Oxford) on 644. Suen had been 9th after the first distance. Behind Harley's 640, Leanne Fitz (Surrey) saw off Charlotte Chard (Nottingham) 557 to 544.

Kai Thomas-Prause (Warwick) and Elizabeth Martel (Edinburgh) led the compounds home, both leading from wire to wire. Thomas-Prause scored 885 (out of 900 remember). Connor Rides (Wolverhampton) was only 1 behind after 60m but could not apply that pressure thereafter, ending on 874. Ben Hutchinson (Bristol) did similar with gents barebow. Kimberley Callaghan (Cambridge) was third after 60m, with Laura Hutchinson (Loughborough) leading. Callaghan cut Hutchinson's lead to 3 points after 50m as Francesca Perocheau (Newcastle) faded. During 40m Callaghan cruised clear as Perocheau came back to nick second. There were only 3 senior longbows, with Callum Anderson (Southampton) top on 458.

Sunday WA720 and H2H

Whereas the Saturday event was using an unusual round, the H2H stuck with its usual 720/H2H format, albeit with novices shooting in a separate KO bracket. This is the 8th running of the competition, which first ran in 2013. Barebows shot at 50m.

In ladies recurve, Rebekah Tipping (Birmingham) signed off from her highly decorated BUCS career with a win, beating Jodie Green (Warwick) in four sets in the final. Tipping, seeded 4th, never dropped below a 24 and her consistency saw her win this event for a 3rd time - a joint record across all bowstyles. Tipping's previous 3 rounds were all tough 6-4 wins. She was 4-2 down against Ffion Edgeley (De Montfort) in the QF and 4-0 down against 9th seed Katie Roadknight (Lancaster) in the SF. Roadknight had beaten 16th seed Bethany Dexter (Central Lancashire) after Dexter had upended top seed Eleanor Brug (Cambridge) in the round of 16. Jodie Green beat Monique Pascall (Birmingham City) in her QF before edging past Saturday's top lady and Sunday's 2nd seed Imogen Sullivan-Bell (Winchester) in that semi-final. Sullivan-Bell overcame Joanna Meyer (Bath) in the quarters and went on to win the bronze match against Roadknight.

Gents recurve was won by Chris Cooper (Loughborough) who overwhelmed Zinan Ni (Birmingham) in the final. Cooper was seeded 6th and Ni was 13th. In an echo of the ladies H2H, the top seed went out in the round of 16. Alex Goldsack (Oxford) beat Tom Braxton (Leeds) in an epic fixture. Braxton was 4-0, then 5-1 down, before fighting back only to lose the resultant shoot off. James Gardner (Warwick) seeded 9th was up next in the QF, cue another Goldsack win via shoot off, before he lost to Ni 6-4 in the semi. Chris Cooper beat third seed Chris Avins (Birmingham) in the QF and 10th seed Yang Pei (Oxford) in the SF, 6-2 in both. Pei had earlier upset 2nd seed Ben Evans (Loughborough) in his QF and went on to win the all Dark Blue bronze match.

Elizabeth Martel (Edinburgh) beat Zara Green (Birmingham) with a 141 in the ladies compound final, with Kai Thomas-Prause (Warwick) beating Callum Platt (Birmingham) 145-139. Connor Rides (Wolverhampton) beat Alexander Herman (Birmingham) in the bronze match. Thomas-Prause hit a 146 in his QF, 1 short of his own All Unis record.

Laura Hutchison (Loughborough) won the ladies barebow, beating Francesca Perocheau (Newcastle) 6-2, the top two seeds producing a very close final. The first and third ends were tied and the second there was only a 1 point difference. Hutchison came through a tough semi against Pam Quilang (Birmingham), whilst Perocheau eased past Kimberley Callaghan (Cambridge). In the gents, top seed Matt Waters (Nottingham) beat 3rd seed Elliot Shaw (Cardiff). As with the ladies barebow, the final ended 6-2, but the match was much more topsy-turvy. Shaw reached the final after a tumultuous match against Tom Underhill (Surrey) that went all the way to a shoot-off. Waters came through a very close match against Ben Hutchinson (Bristol) 6-2, although no single end was decided by more than two points. Hutchinson went on to beat Underhill for bronze.

Henry Cossey (King's) and Helen Woodcock (Manchester Met) won the longbow events, although there were only 5 entries combined.

There were also separate novice H2H events. Dominic Kelsey (Nottingham) put in a dominant display to win novice gents recurve. Kelsey didn't drop a single set, with four consecutive 6-0 wins, although in the final he was pushed by Micah Lee (Oxford). Louis Huygens (Bath) beat Lok Hay Lay (Imperial) for bronze. Second seed Leanne Fitz (Surrey) beat 4th seed Charlotte Chard (Nottingham) in the ladies novice final. Zoe Harley (Oxford) beat Paula Ionita (Bristol) for bronze. Novice barebow winners were Joseph Teckman (Bath) and Simran Panesar (Nottingham), who beat Elisavetha Sergeev and Saif Haider (both Surrey) respectively.

Results

For 2021 no BUCS points were awarded, across all sports. Instead of separate men's and women's teams, there was a mixed team of 3 event for this year, with overall results being combined across the two days. Defending men's champions from 2019, Loughborough came out on top, with Cambridge second and Birmingham third. Behind the leading trio were Bristol, Warwick, Bath, Nottingham and Oxford rounding out the top 8 that would normally get BUCS points. The result is Bristol's best ever at a BUCS Outdoors, whilst for Cambridge and Bath it is their best Lilleshall placing since 2015.

Novice teams were also mixed team of 3, with Nottingham winning the event, ahead of second placed Surrey, with Bath third.

Chris Cooper, Ben Evans and Arthur Coveney (all Loughborough) were 1st, 2nd and 4th gent recurve in a dominant display, with only Tom Braxton (Leeds) interrupting in third. Yang Pei (Oxford) was fifth, with Chris Avins (Birmingham) completing the leading group.

Imogen Sullivan-Bell (Winchester) won the ladies competition, the first BUCS archery medal of any colour for her university. Rebekah Tipping (Birmingham) was second, with Eleanor Brug (Cambridge) completing the virtual podium. Jodie Green (Warwick) was fourth, followed by Charlotte Llewellyn-Smith (Durham) and Ffion Edgeley (De Montfort).

In compound Kai Thomas-Prause (Warwick) and Elizabeth Martel (Edinburgh) completed clean sweeps. In barebow Matt Waters (Nottingham) and Laura Hutchinson (Loughborough) came out on top, with Ben Hutchinson (Bristol) and Francesca Perocheau (Newcastle) second. Elliot Shaw (Cardiff) and Kimberley Callaghan (Cambridge) were third. Henry Cossey (Kings) and Helen Woodcock (Manchester Met.) were top longbows.

In the novice categories, Dominic Kelsey (Nottingham) was the overall recurve gent winner ahead of Micah Lee (Oxford) and Louis Huygens (Bath). Zoe Harley (Oxford) was top lady, with Leanne Fitz (Surrey) and Charlotte Chard (Nottingham) in second and third. Saif Haider (Surrey) and Simran Panesar (Nottingham) were top novice barebows.

See results in BUCS Outdoors section.