UK Student Archery Association

BUCS Outdoor 2023 Champs [29/Jun/22]

BUCS Outdoors 2023 took place at Lilleshall NSC over the weekend of the 10th and 11th June. Results from the WA720/H2H and WA900 were combined to both event contributed equally to determine the overall winners.

Saturday WA720 and H2H

This year the order of the events was the WA720 and H2H on the Saturday. Quarter-finals onwards had to be postponed to the Sunday morning because of stormy conditions. Novices shot in a separate KO bracket. This is the 10th running of the competition, which first ran in 2013. As from 2021, barebows shot at 50m.

In the ladies recurve, Louisa Piper (Nottingham) produced a strong performance, never dropping more than one set in a match to take gold. Piper beat 3rd seed Zoe Harley (Oxford) in the final, taking the first set, sharing the next two before taking the gold medal in the fourth. Piper averaged 27 in the final - and in fact shot four 27s on her way to a 7-1 victory in her semi against 5th seed Charlotte Llewellyn-Smith (Durham). Harley beat 7th seed Hannah Evans (Nottingham) by the same 7-1 margin in the other semi. Piper beat Hannah Burnage (Warwick) in the quarters, whilst Llewellyn-Smith overcame 13th seed Julianna Ostrovska (Royal Holloway) in a tough QF, 6-4 after the pair won alternate ends throughout the match. Ostrovska had ousted 4th seed Natasha Homer (Edinburgh) in the previous round. Hannah Evans (Nottingham) beat 2nd seed Imogen Newby (Surrey) in a shoot off, after their fifth end was also tied. Hollie Murdock (Ulster) upended 6th seeded Ecaterina Pogorenii (Oxford) in the round of 16 before losing to Zoe Harley (Oxford) in the quarters. In the bronze match, Llewellyn-Smith came from 4-2 down to beat Evans 6-4.

In gents recurve Morgan Donaldson (Sunderland) beat Kim Minseok (Southampton). Donaldson was top seed and won the first and third sets to take the match 6-2. Alex Williams (Bristol) defied being seeded 12th to come all the way through the draw and take bronze. In the round of 16 he came back from 4-2 down to beat 5th seed Ben Evans (Loughborough), then whitewashed 4th seed James Gardner (Warwick). He even took the first set in the SF against eventual winner Donaldson, before going down 6-2. Williams went on to beat Adam Bates (Oxford), seeded 7th, in the bronze match. Silver medallist Kim beat Samuel Walby and Adam Bates (both Oxford) 7-3 and 6-2 in his quarter and semi finals. In the QFs Bates had knocked out 2nd seed Christopher Woodgate (Warwick) 6-2. The biggest seeded upset of the day was Finn Middleton-Baird (Leeds) 51st who won his round of 64 match against Philip Taylor (Liverpool) 14th.

In the compound divisions, the top two met in their respective finals in both men's and women's. Jake Walsh (Edinburgh) beat Sam Cartwright (Nottingham) and Layla Annison (East Anglia) beat Jenny Bryan (Birmingham). Walsh won the first end 30-29 and never relinquished the lead. Meanwhile Annison only dropped 1 point in the first 9 arrows and won by 6. In an earlier round, Liam Peake (Liverpool John Moores) won his QF with an All Unis record of 148 out of 150. Peake went on to win bronze, beating XiangKun Kong (Edinburgh) into 4th. Zara Green (Birmingham) beat Faye Balcombe (Leicester) in the ladies compound bronze match.

Top seed Daniel Kilgallon (UCLan) beat 3rd seed Benjamin Young (Nottingham) in the gents barebow final. A competitive match was close until the fifth set, when Kilgallon wrapped up a 6-4 win. Young came through 6-4 against Sam Prettyman (Leicester), who had earlier beaten second seed Eoin Dunne (Huddersfield), also 6-4. Henry Barnett (Exeter) beat Prettyman 6-4 in an entertaining bronze medal match, Barnett having lost to Kilgallon in the other semi-final.

Ladies barebow final saw Rosemary Evans (Nottingham) beat Millie Strickland (Reading) in a close final that ended 6-2 to Evans. The points gap was never higher than 2 in any end. Evans and Strickland were seeded 6th and 5th and in their respective finals they both recorded 6-0 wins over the top two seeds in the field. Strickland beat Natalya Uemlianin-Stone (Liverpool) whilst Evans beat Leah Millington (Newcastle). Millington won the bronze medal match.

Sam Curtis (Warwick) beat Connor Blake Hurley (Swansea) in the gents longbow final. In his semi-final, Blake Hurley came from 0-4 down to beat Henry Cossey (Kings College). Cossey had been bidding for a third consecutive title in this event. Katie Axup (Loughborough) did successfully defend her ladies longbow title, with a 6-0 win in the final against Mathilde Ducroz (Bristol). Ducroz won her semi against eventual bronze medallist Helen Woodcock (Manchester Met). Woodcock previously won this event in 2018 and 2021.

There were also separate novice H2H events. The novice gents final was between James O'Donnell and Guy O'Keefe (both Birmingham) who were seeded 1st and 6th respectively. 3-1 up after two ends, O'Keefe shot a 29 in end 3 and went on to win the match 7-1. In one semi-final O'Donnell had squeezed past Thomas Greenwood (also Birmingham) 6-4, having been 4-0 down. O'Keefe breezed past Johnny Chan (Imperial) in the other semi, with one end a 30. Chan - who previously ousted second seed Sergio Maldonado (Warwick) in the QFs - went on to beat Greenwood in the bronze match.

The novice ladies final was Layla Nimmo (Nottingham) against Kelsey Hunt (St Andrews). The pair had qualified 3rd and 4th and shared the first two sets. Nimmo edged the third by a point, then pulled away in set 4 to win 6-2. The bronze medal match was between the 7th and 17th seeds. Sandy Capdepont (Nottingham) qualified 17th out of 26, but, having got through to the round of 16, sensationally beat top seed Amanda Liu (Oxford). Capdepont was 4-2 up, but Liu forced the match to 5-5 and a shoot off, before Capdepont made sure of victory. She then beat 8th seed Jessie Chiu (Warwick) in the QFs and also led Kelsey Hunt 4-2 in the semi, before eventually going down 6-4. Alia Ghosheh (Birmingham) was slated to get as far as the QFs, but then whitewashed second seed Alice Haskell (Leicester). Ghosheh went on to beat Capdepont 6-2 for bronze.

Novice compound winners were Jin Bai and Alexandra Mohn (both Edinburgh). Bai was 15 points clear after 3 ends, but opponent Daniel Hickman (Swansea) closed the gap to 1 by the end. Euan Keith (Coventry) beat Benjamin Pepper (Birmingham) and Bethan Jones (Bristol) beat Tianshu Fang (Edinburgh) in the novice barebow finals - Jones had been 4-0 down against Fang. Oliver Clarke (UCLan) won gents novice longbow.

Sunday WA900

Louisa Piper (Nottingham) won the women's recurve WA900, scoring 831, with Imogen Newby (Surrey) - who had been 8th after the first distance, rising up the field to be second on 812. Zoe Harley (Oxford) similarly rose from 6th to 3rd, ending on 809. Hannah Evans (Nottingham) edged out Ecaterina Pogorenii (Oxford) 795 to 794. Hannah Burnage (Warwick) was 6th with 788, just one ahead of Charlotte Llewellyn-Smith (Durham) who had been second after 60m. Natasha Homer (Edinburgh) completed the leading group of ladies recurve with 783. There was a gap down to Charlotte Chard (Nottingham), 9th on 766, then another gap down to 10th placed Hollie Murdock (Ulster) who led the chasing pack on 742.

Morgan Donaldson (Sunderland) won the gents, winning all 3 distances and totalling a score of 852, a full 28 points clear of the field. Oliver Buckingham (Oxford) was clear in second on 824. The fight for third place in the WA900 was a 5 way scrap between Tom Bertheas (Birmingham), Wills Chiu and James Gardner (both Warwick), Max Harding (Nottingham) and Kim Minseok (Southampton). Gardner was third after 60m but slipped back during 50m as Chiu took over in third. All 5 gents were crammed into a 4 point gap as Bertheas took third on 817, Chiu 4th on 816. Harding (40 tens) and Kim (31 tens) both scored 814, with Gardner just one behind them. 8th down to 10th was similarly close with Samuel Walby and Adam Bates (both Oxford) either side of Jack Wells (Sheffield).

In the other bowstyles, Jake Walsh (Edinburgh) led from wire to wire, dropping only 7 points all shoot for a total of 893. XiangKun Kong (Edinburgh) and Sam Cartwright (Nottingham) were level going in to 40m, and it was Kong who grabbed second spot 881 to 879. In ladies compound, Layla Annison (East Anglia) fought off close competition from Josephine Stewart (St Andrews) and Faye Balcombe (Leicester) to take first place with 878, Stewart pulling ahead of Balcombe over 40m, ending on 873 and 870.

Daniel Kilgallon (UCLan) romped home in gents barebow, scoring 722. Only Henry Barnett (Exeter) kept the winning margin under 100 - just - with 623. Barnett was himself well clear of the rest, with Benajmin Young (Nottingham) in third on 580. No less than 142 points separated the gents barebow podium - a figure that was 14 on the ladies side. Ilia Sediq (Loughborough) and Millie Strickland (Reading) flew over 30 clear after the first distance, but over the next two distances, they were hauled back in by Tia Mulholland (De Montfort) and Natalya Uemlianin-Stone (Liverpool). Sediq just held on with 607, Mulholland on 603 and Uemlianin-Stone on 593.

Gents longbow was a procession behind Henry Cossey (Kings College) who scored 513 to win by 147, whilst on the ladies side Katie Axup (Loughborough) effectively fought a 90 arrow duel with El Green (Plymouth), coming out on top, 378 plays 375.

In the novice standings, Merlin Dillingham (Bath) overtook Sergio Maldonado (Warwick) during the last distance to take gold. Dillingham ended on 751 and Maldonado on 748. Guy O'Keefe (Birmingham) had led after 60m, with Mark Garbutt (Nottingham Trent) second - they ended 3rd and 4th. On the ladies side, Amanda Liu (Oxford) stormed into a near 40 point lead after two distances and despite shooting less at 40m than at 50m, she won comfortably on 714. Layla Nimmo (Nottingham) was second on 685. Charlotte Williams (East Anglia) and Alice Haskell (Leicester) were next, at either end of the 660s. Euan Keith (Coventry) and Carine Cavalheiro (Warwick) were the novice barebow winners.

Results

Team scores were calculated across all non-compound archers and across the WA720, H2H and WA900.

Warwick won the men's team event and Nottingham won the women's team event. Both clubs retained the same titles they won 12 months ago. Oxford were second in both categories. Birmingham's gents and Loughborough's ladies teams won bronze, with Nottingham (gents) and Edinburgh (ladies) in fourth. Winning BUCS points, from 5th down to 8th on the gents side were Southampton, Sheffield, Bath and Bristol. 5th to 8th women's teams were Warwick, Leeds, Ulster and Portsmouth. There were 16 gents teams of 3, but only 9 ladies teams - the value of simply getting a team of 3 on to the shooting line once again in evidence. Ulster and Portsmouth win BUCS points for a top 8 finish at a BUCS championship for the first time. Sheffield and Leicester both recorded their best ever BUCS Outdoor finish (6th & 15th respectively), with Brunel (11th) their best since 2004. Oxford's double silver completes a season in which they never finished lower than second at any of the 6 national student team events. It's the Dark Blues' best result at BUCS Outdoors since their women's team took gold in 2015.

In the novice team category, Oxford were the winners, with Birmingham in second and Warwick in third. Coventry and Nottingham made it a BUTTS top 5. St Andrews were the leading non-BUTTS club in 6th, out of 16 novice teams in total.

Top compound team was Edinburgh, with Birmingham second. There were 6 compound teams in total.

Morgan Donaldson (Sunderland) won the BUCS Outdoors gents recurve title with a clean sweep of WA70, H2H and WA900. Donaldson becomes the first Sunderland archer to win a BUCS medal of any colour. Kim Minseok (Southampton) was second, winning Southampton's first individual BUCS medal for 10 years in the process. Third place was incredibly close, with Samuel Walby (Oxford) pipping James Gardner (Warwick). Both had the same points tally, meaning the H2H was the tie breaker - both men were quarter-finalists, but Walby's "better" defeat meant he took overall bronze, whilst Gardner had to be satisfied with the last BUCS point. Wills Chiu (Warwick) and Adam Bates (Oxford) led the chasing pack.

Louisa Piper (Nottingham) won the BUCS Outdoors ladies recurve title with a clean sweep of WA70, H2H and WA900. Piper wins her third individual BUCS title, following Outdoors 2022 and Indoors 2023. Zoe Harley (Oxford) added individual silver to her team silver, whilst Imogen Newby (Surrey) was third. Charlotte Llewellyn-Smith (Durham) took the last spot ahead of Hannah Evans (Nottingham). Llewellyn-Smith and Evans could only be split on respective their H2H result, where, remarkably the pair actually shot against each other in the bronze medal match. Ecaterina Pogorenii (Oxford) was sixth.

In compound, Jake Walsh (Edinburgh) and Layla Annison (East Anglia) were the weekend's winners. Sam Cartwright (Nottingham) was second on the gents side - Cartwright and Walsh had been level on points, heading into the WA900. XiangKun Kong (Edinburgh) was third on the gents side. Annison swept the ladies compound events, with Jenny Bryan (Biringham) and Josephine Stewart (St Andrews) second and third. Daniel Kilgallon (UCLan) clean swept with gents barebow events - breaking two All Unis records in the process, whilst Natalya Uemlianin-Stone (Liverpool) was top lady barebow. Benjamin Young (Nottingham) and Tia Mulholland (De Montfort) were barebow runners up. Henry Barnett (Exeter) and Millie Strickland (Reading) were third. Strickland led a 3 way tie for third. Henry Cossey (Kings) and Katie Axup (Loughborough) were longbow champions, both defending their titles from a year ago.

Novice gents recurve was settled between club mates James O'Donnell and Guy O'Keefe (both Birmingham), with O'Donnell just a point head. Layla Nimmo (Nottingham) nipped in ahead of Amanda Liu (Oxford) to take the novice recurve ladies prize. Liu won both the WA900 and WA60m ranking phases, but an early exit in the H2H cost her top spot. Alice Haskell (Leicester) and Sergio Maldonado (Warwick) were third. Daniel Hickman (Swansea) and Alexandra Mohn (Edinburgh). Euan Keith (Coventry) dominated the novice gent barebow standings, with Tianshu Fang (Edinburgh) winning on the ladies side. Oliver Clarke (UCLan) was top novice gent longbow.

In total, 10 All Unis records were broken across the weekend.

See results in BUCS Outdoors section.