UK Student Archery Association

Catching up with TOUCAN [20/Jan/26]

The catch up train pulls in to the Midlands now, with a look at match number 1 from both of the TOUCAN divisions, from late November.

Held across three venues and two weekends, the TOUCAN div 1 opener was a closely contested one, with the top 4 teams separated by only 43 points. In the first slice of this fixture, Warwick and Nottingham could barely be separated at all, with Warwick's 2223 just nudging two points ahead of the 2221 scored by Nottingham. Hosts Loughborough scored 2157. The rest of the fixture followed a week later with Birmingham and Leicester the leading teams here. Birmingham racked up 2254 to win outright, whilst Leicester's 2211 was comfortably enough for fourth. Oxford scored 2116 but were sixth out of eight.

This appears to Birmingham's first match win in TOUCAN since May 2018, although they have won 6 UK-wide student titles in that time.

In the parallel TOUCAN div 2 fixture, Nottingham Trent - who were relegated from div 1 last year, with an average of around 1830 - scored 2151 to top the div 2 standings by more than 100 points. Cambridge (2035) pipped De Montfort (2027) for second. This makes Trent the early favourites to bounce straight back. A single TOUCAN table would have had Trent closely contesting fifth place with Loughborough.

Jack McKay (Warwick) shot a score of 586 to top score in the match and help his side pinch second place in the match. There were two archers in the 570s, Oliver Hicks and Sophie Roberts (both Birmingham) who scored 577 and 571. However, Hicks' score was shot with a barebow, not so much breaking as smashing the previous All Unis record of 558, shot by Lonja Selter (Plymouth) in BUCS qualifying in February 2020. Remarkably Hicks wasn't even the only Birmingham barebow to break an All Unis record that had stood since 2020. Novice barebow Heather Li (Birmingham) scored 511 beating the record of Simran Panesar (Nottingham) by 8. The keen eyed may have seen that Hicks has been at it again in the part of TOUCAN match 2 that has already been completed.

Returning to this November fixture, Conor Nolan (Loughborough) shot 568, with the Leicester duo Abdullah Zaman and Alia Fallouh adding 566 and 564. Alessio Cocciolo (Warwick) scored 563. All four of Nottingham's team shot between 550 and 560, with Benson Wong top of the pile on 560.

This match was the TOUCAN debut of Harper Adams, located a mere 15 minute drive from Lilleshall. HAU scored 1731 on their debut, enough to see them place 5th in the div 2 fixture. Joe Lindsey was their top scorer. Their novice team did particularly well, finishing second in the novice div 2 fixture. However, in contrast to Harper Adams' arrival, the club at Worcester seems to have disappeared altogether.

In the novice match, Birmingham and Loughborough were clear at the top, with Birmingham on 2004 and Loughborough on 1979. Leicester were third. Cambridge won the div 2 fixture. Top individual was Ed Daniell (Loughborough) with 531, with William Threlfall (Birmingham) on 520 and barebow Heather Li (Birmingham) on 511.

TOUCAN resumes with a div 1 fixture on 17th and 24th January and a div 2 fixture on 1st and 8th February. See TOUCAN 2025/26 page for tables as they stand after 1 match.