UK Student Archery Association

Two lots of TOUCAN match 3s [04/Mar/25]

Reminders to all clubs that there are some upcoming deadlines for the E-League and BUTC. Scores for Round 4, February, must have been submitted by 7th March. Round 5 March is using a WA18 round - it's worth noting that the BUCS National Finals are a WA18 held in March. As for BUTC, the entry form is live and deadlines are Wed 12th Mar (if you want to be eligible for a B team space) and Wed 19th Mar (final deadline). All roads lead to Exeter on Sun 30th Mar.

To TOUCAN business and match 3 of TOUCAN div 1 and div 2 were standalone matches, not derived from BUCS qualifying. All of div 1 match 3 was held on Sat 22nd Feb, with the conclusion of TOUCAN div 2 match 3 happening on the same day - the first half of that match was on Sun 9th Feb. See TOUCAN 2024/25 page for up to date tables.

In the div 1 match, 50 points covered the top 4 teams and it was league leaders Warwick who took maximum points with a score of 9.5 points per arrow - or 2280. Birmingham's 2262 pushed Warwick all the way and was enough for second as Oxford just pipped Nottingham to third place, 2238-2231. Leicester led the chasing pack on 2155. Fifth down to seventh were themselves only 30 points apart. The division 2 match was also close, with Northampton just 3 points below 2000, but, more importantly, 5 points above Cambridge. The Light Blues were only 20 ahead of De Montfort on 1972.

Callum Piggot (Coventry) was the top scorer in the match but it was very close. Piggot scored 585, with Wills Chiu (Warwick) leading his side home on 584. In the 570s and top scoring for their respective sides were Emily Nichols (Birmingham) on 577, 574 from Emma Howes (Oxford) and Tristan Mok (Nottingham) on 571. Supporting Howes and Mok, Ecaterina Pogorenii (Oxford) and Hannah Evans (Nottingham) shot matching 569s. Elsewhere there were mid 560s for Jiaxuan Zhou, Shane Pothunnah and Jack McKay (the rest of Warwick's team) plus Jake O'Reilly and Kian Watkins (both Birmingham).

Warwick are in a good - but far from inpregnable - position, as they attempt to win a 10th TOUCAN senior league title. They have 22 league points and lead Birmingham by 2, with an aggregate advantage of 33. Second place in the Champs would guarantee Warwick the title. Birmingham need to beat Warwick by either 3 places or by 2 places and at least 33 points. Whoever comes out on top between Oxford and Nottingham (both on 15 league points) is most likely to claim third place.

Northampton are in a similar position to Warwick in div 2. They lead by 2 points from De Montfort, although their aggregate advantage is smaller - just 8. Cambridge are too far behind for a realistic tilt at the div 2 title themselves, but could yet be involved in some "calculators out" last day drama.

Loughborough took the honours in the TOUCAN novice match with their third win from three matches. They scored 2036, though the top 4 teams were all within touching distance. Nottingham scored 2007, with Warwick and Birmingham in the high 1900s. De Montfort took the div 2 honours. Top individual novice was Wiebke von Abel (Birmingham) with 536, but there were also high 520s from Joshua Cook, Daniel Leonard (both Loughborough) and Chun Fai Jeffrey Yao (Oxford). Loughborough last won the TOUCAN novice title in 2017 and are massive favourites, with a 5 league point lead. De Montfort won their third div 2 novice match to keep their clean sweep hopes alive.

The only remaining fixture that counts towards the TOUCAN tables is the Indoor Champs, in Loughborough on Sat 8th Mar, which will see the whole TOUCAN flock shoot together. It will generate two parallel sets of results and resolve the issue of promotion/relegation between the TOUCAN divisions. Clubs discard their lowest aggregate total of the season and are then sorted by match averages (or totals) over the other 3 fixtures. The top 8 go into div 1 next season and the bottom 6 into div 2 and there are no limits on how many teams swap divisions. This season, barring an improbably large points swing at the TOUCAN Indoor Champs, (or a DNS/incomplete team) one of Northampton, De Montfort and Cambridge will move up from div 2 to div 1, with Nottingham Trent heading the other way. Discarding the worst score already shot by each team leaves Northampton on 3982, 48 ahead of De Montfort (3934), who are a further 13 ahead of Cambridge (3921). A div 2 team could be promoted ahead of a rival who had accrued more league points over the season.