UK Student Archery Association

Qualifying for BUCS [03/Mar/25]

2025's BUCS Indoor Championship Regional Qualifying was held at Bristol (8th Feb), Manchester Met (15th Feb) and Aberdeen (22nd Feb). A total of 712 scores were entered, slightly down on last year's 734. The scores were also used for NEUAL, SEAL and SWWU matches. BUCS have published the full combined results (currently on ianseo). Subject to confirmation, the minimum scores to qualify for the finals event in Warwick (Sun 16th Mar) break down as follows: for recurve 521/506 (gents/ladies), compound 569/565, barebow 457/412, and for longbow 325/294. 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.

Of the the three qualifier venues, Bristol and MMU are regulars. Aberdeen - the most northerly club in the UK - hosted a BUCS event for only the second time ever, after the Outdoor Championships of 1999.

In total, 133 gents and 121 ladies have been allocated spaces at the National Finals. That means gender and bowstyle have both been allocated according to volume of entries. This year, that is a 52%/48% gender split. That is better than previous years, which have hovered stubbornly around the 55%/45% mark. However, it is still an avoidable inequality and it will be more keenly felt in the women's team event, where fewer clubs are likely to have complete teams of 3 make the cut.

Top individual qualifier was Louisa Piper (Nottingham) who scored 591. Callum Piggott (Coventry) was top gent on 587, with Mykhailo Pavlov (Dundee) ledaing the chasing pack on 583. There were a hat-trick of gents on 581: Will Luddington (Sheffield), Kim Minseok (Southampton) and Bei Nan (Edinburgh). Julianna Ostrovska (Royal Holloway) was second in the ladies standings on 572 - 19 behind Piper - and just 2 ahead of 570s from Imogen Flitter (Anglia Ruskin) and Ecaterina Pogorenii (Oxford). William Addison (Keele) was sixth, with 12 gents breaking 570 in total.

In the other bowstyles, four gent compounds broke the 590 barrier, with Finlay Clarke (Hull) top on 593. Yu Chak Ngai (Coventry) and Liam Peake (Liverpool JM) both shot 591, with Sam Cartwright (Nottingham) one behind. Chloe A'Bear (Gloucestershire) was top of the women's compound standings with 587. Deren Caglayan (Leeds) scored 580, with Zara Green (Wolverhampton) third on 574. Wenze Jiang (Manchester) was top gent barebow on 552, with Marilyn Wong (Plymouth) the top lady on 539. Daniel Kilgallon (UCLan) and Kathryn Morton (Ulster) were in second spot, with 548 and 532. Ewan Kennet (Nottingham) and Neil White (Salford) hit 542s. Top longbows Kieran Rugg (Nottingham) and Alexandra Langdon-Reich (Sheffield) scored 457 and 445 to win their categories by 49 and 37 points.

In the Resources section, the National Historical Performances spreadsheet has been updated with 2025's BUCS Qualifying scores.

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

In the SEAL match, Imperial and Southampton were well clear of the field and it was Southampton who took top spot with 2246. The Imps were second and not far behind on 2222. Surrey were third in the match, but well behind the top two on 2104, with UEA fourth on 2084 and Brunel in fifth on 2065. In the equivalent novice fixture, UEA ran out narrow winners over Surrey 1463 against 1433. Southampton were third.

In the SWWU match, Bristol were actually at home and a solid team effort saw them total 2194. That was enough to see them win the match by 41 points. Bath were second on 2153 a little way ahead of Exeter in third on 2129. Plymouth were fourth, but were 101 behind Exeter. Bristol also won the novice match with 1388 Exeter were in touch in second on 1367, with third placed Bath on 1320. Swansea won the compound match.

In the NEUAL match, a mere 34 points separated the top 5 teams. 20 points separated the top 4. Just at the top by a fraction, Lancaster took maximum league points courtesy of a score of 2187. Sheffield pipped Manchester to second by a single point, 2177 to 2176. Leeds were fourth on 2167, with Keele 5th on 2153, with York in 6th on 2111. Manchester romped away with the NEUAL novice match on 1551, with Liverpool next on 1408, with MMU third. Manchester also romped away with the NEUAL unsighted team match on 1557. UCLan were second on 1447 and MMU were third on 1426.

Updated tables can be seen following the fixtures that have been extracted for SEAL 2024/25, SEAL 2024/25 and NEUAL 2024/25 pages.

SEAL match 4 and the NEUAL Indoor Champs will be reviewed separately, as will match 3 of TOUCAN divisions 1 and 2, plus SSS match 4.