UK Student Archery Association

Qualifying for BUCS [05/Mar/24]

2024's BUCS Indoor Championship Regional Qualifying was held at Manchester Met (17th Feb), Bristol (24th Feb) and UCLan (25th Feb). A total of 734 scores were entered, up on last year's 715 and the scores were also used for NEUAL, SEAL and SWWU matches. BUCS have published the full combined results and the minimum scores to qualify for the finals event in Warwick (16th Mar) break down as follows (gents/ladies): for recurve 521/502, compound 570/565, barebow 423/416, and for longbow 238/261. Full details of the National Finals are on the BUCS website and combined results are on the ianseo pages. For the links, see the BUCS Indoor section of this site.

Paragraph added 9th March: In total, 139 gents and 113 ladies have been allocated spaces, roughly a 55%/45% split - gender inequality which, even by itself would not be ideal. The implications will be most profoundly felt in the ladies team event as fewer clubs will have 3 women (as opposed to 3 men) who make the cut. Happy International Women's Day everyone!

The top two recurve qualifiers were both on the women's side, with Natasha Homer (Edinburgh) top of the pile on 588. Megan Costall (Birmingham) was only 1 behind on 587. The top three gents were similarly split by a single point. Konstantinos Charalambous (Lancaster) scored 580, with Wills Chiu (Warwick) and Alex Lai (Dundee) on 579. Daniel Clarke (Bath) hit 577 ahead of Chris Woodgate (Warwick) and Yin Chan (Imperial) both 575 and Dominic Kelsey (Nottingham) on 574. On the women's side, Roisin Mooney (Bristol) notched 578, with Imogen Flitter (East Anglia) on 577. Ecaterina Pogorenii (Oxford) was fifth on 572.

In the other bowstyles, Sam Cartwright (Nottingham) was top gents compound with 595, breaking the old BUCS record by a point, but missing out on a share of the All Unis record by the same margin. Jake Walsh (Edinburgh) scored 590. Four women broke 590 in ladies compound, with Layla Annison (East Anglia) top on 592. Grace Chappell (Arts Bournemouth) and Josephine Stewart (St Andrews) got 591, with Chloe A'Bear (Gloucestershire) fourth, despite 590. In barebow, Joe Maskell (Bath) and Marilyn Wong (Plymouth) both scored 543 to be top qualifier by a distance. Leon Cao (Warwick) and Freya Rennie (West of Scotland) were second on 524 and 513 respectively. Top longbows were Trystan Rhoden (East Anglia) with 448 and Xinrui Chen (Edinburgh) with 434. Rhoden was top qualifier by a whopping 144 points, whist Chen, who is a novice, broke the All Unis novice lady Portsmouth record by 38.

Nottingham also broke the compound team of 2 Portsmouth All Unis record. Their score of 1178 beat the previous mark of 1175.

SEAL, SWWU and NEUAL all used these scores as a match round.

In the SEAL match, the top 3 teams were all close together in the low 2200s. East Anglia became the fourth different winner from the four SEAL matches so far this season with 2218 - they continue their climb back up the table to 5th overall. Southampton scored 2209 and gained a point on leeaders Imperial, who were just a shade behind on 2206. Surrey lost a point on Imperial as they were fourth on 2170. Imperial now have 55 points and lead by 2 from both Southampton and Surrey. Second place would see Imperial claim a record extending 8th senior SEAL title. A top two finish will see Imperial home for a record extending 8th SEAL title and their first post-Covid. If Southampton or Surrey finish exactly two places ahead of Imperial, it may well be a "calculators out" finish as both would have to overcome an aggregate deficit: 77 for Southampton or 88 for Surrey. Southampton's novices leapt to the top of the novice table with a narrow win in this match, 1517 to Surrey's 1513, which lifted them into second overall. Brunel - who were top - were 5th in this match. Southampton's novices have 55 points, Surrey 53, Brunel 52 and London have 51. All four clubs still have a realistic path to win.

In the NEUAL match, the top 3 teams were also all close together in the low 2200s. Sheffield took top spot with 2219, but Leeds were in close pursuit on 2207, as were Lancaster on 2200. Sheffield and Leeds were also a close 1-2 in the only other NEUAL match to have declared full results, so Sheffield sit top on 40 points, with Leeds on 38. Behind them, however, the league table is a little chaotic. Lancaster, who were 3rd in this match with 2200, were 11th in match 1 after a 1751. Liverpool, who were 4th in this match on 2114 (and 6th in match 1) are actually 3rd overall, with 32 league points. MMU took full advantage of a "home" fixture, 5th on 2064, their best ever finish in an all NEUAL fixture.

This is the third NEUAL Novice and Unsighted fixture. Sheffield won the novice fixture very comfortably on 1448 and they are top on 59 points. Liverpool were second in the fixture on 1313 and are now clear in second in the overall table, with 56. Durham are third in the match, whilst Newcastle are third in the table, but slipped well behind the top two. In the Unsighted league, UCLan were also big winners, with 1458 and with 58 points, they lead that table by 7. Keele were second in the match, ahead of MMU, but MMU overtook Sheffield to go second in the overall table.

The SWWU fixture has not yet been extracted. Updated tables can be seen on the SEAL 2023/24 and NEUAL 2022/23 pages.