UK Student Archery Association

BUCS Indoor 2026 Finals Review [20/Mar/26]

Warwick (open) and Nottingham (women) won the respective 2026 BUCS Indoor recurve team titles. Nottingham's women produced the performance of the day. Their combined tally of 1650 was higher than any of the open teams, enough for a winning margin on the ladies' side of nearly 60 and broke the All Unis record by 7. On the open side, Warwick defended their Indoor Team title from 12 months ago, with a total of 1621. Warwick (open) and Nottingham (womens) have now 6 of the 9 BUCS teams titles post Covid. The open team leaderboard was far more congested. Southampton (who were also runners up in 2025) were second again with 1610 - just 11 behind. Birmingham's open team was third on 1605 - and their womens team was second on 1591. Oxford were third on the womens side, but were best of rest, 110 behind third (but only 1 ahead of fourth) on 1481.

Narrowly missing out on womens team medals were Leicester who scored 1480. If Leicester were disappointed to miss out on medals by a single point, that 4th place finish is (currently) the club's best ever finish at a national studnet event. York were fifth with 1449. Surrey were sixth on 1433, ahead of Imperial's 1424, with Edinburgh taking the last BUCS point with 1411. There were 17 complete ladies teams.

Nottingham were in 4th place in the open team category with 1587. Surrey were 8 points further back, placing 5th on 1579. Surrey were third of three teams to have both their recurve teams in the top 6. Surrey's open ranking of 5th was their best finish at a BUCS Indoors since 2008. Bath's 1568 saw them in 6th place. Nottingham Trent were seventh on 1555 - their best BUCS result since 2017. Trent just squeezed Exeter in to 8th - the last BUCS point winning slot. Exeter amassed 1553. There were 18 open teams. Equal representation had meant that the number of teams has virtually levelled out.

There were 3 compound teams of 2 this year, with Gloucestershire taking top spot with 1142.

Since 2017, BUCS Indoors has used regional qualifying events to whittle down the field. In 2020, the number of regional qualifying events rose from 2 to 3. The National Finals consist of a WA18m ranking round, with a further cut for those qualifying for H2Hs. Men's and women's recurve team titles were determined from the 18m round scores. Once again, places at the finals were allocated proportionally by bowstyle, but 50/50 between open and women, which gave a ensured equal sizes of womens and open H2H fields.

This is the seventh season BUCS Finals have used the WA18m format. Gents barebow record was smashed by Oliver Hicks (Birmingham), who scored 565 to put a full 25 points on the previous record. Recurve and barebow had the top 32 qualify for the H2Hs, with compound and longbow having the top 8 qualify. The WA18 cut off scores for the H2Hs were, by bowstyle, as follows: recurve (open/womens) 513/479, compound (537/560), barebow (410/384), longbow (all)

Individual KO rounds to follow.

William Addison (Keele) beat Jack McKay (Warwick) 6-2 in the open recurve final. Third seed Addison lost the first end with a 26, but followed that with a 30 to get back on level terms. Two more 29s to take the win against top seed McKay, who won silver. Addison was the silver medallist last year and is the second Keele archer to win an individual BUCS recurve gold - the previous one was in 1994. The bronze medal gents match follow the same pattern as defending champion Callum Piggott (Coventry) won the first set against Max Oakley (Bolton), but Oakley went on to win the next 3. All 4 legs here were decided by a single point. Oakley is Bolton's first ever BUCS recurve medallist. In the semi-final, Will Addison beat Max Oakley. Addison never dipped below 28, and that was just enough - the 4th end was tied 28-28, but a 28-27 win in the fifth took Addison over the line. In the other semi-final Jack McKay and Callum Piggott both opened with 30s. McKay took the second to go 3-1 up and then a 30 and a 29 to win. The quarter-finals were mostly tight affairs, with Jack McKay squeezing past Kim Minseok (Southampton) 6-4, McKay hitting two 30s. Will Addison beat Misha Pavlov (Dundee), also 6-4. Pavlov had been 4-2 up in that match. Callum Piggott neeed a shoot-off to beat Myles Hulme (Lancaster) 6-5. Piggott was 4-0 before Hulme got it back to 4-4. The fifth end was 29 apiece but 5th seed Piggott beat 4th seed Hulme 10-9. In the other quarter, Max Oakley whitewashed the 23rd seed Aryan Sharda (Surrey). The real story here was how Sharda came to be in the QF's at all, knocking out two of the top ten seeds on his way to the last 8 and only losing out to an eventual medallist.

Louisa Piper (Nottingham) beat 11th seed Emma Howes (Oxford) 6-2 in the womens recurve final. Piper opened with a maximum to take the first end 30-28. Given the near 50 point gulf bewteen them in qualifying, it was essential for Howes to get on the board in the second and she did just that, with a 28-28 tied end, followed by another 28-28 tied end. Piper was not to be denied however, and ended the match with a another 30. Piper has now won 6 individual BUCS titles - 3 indoors and 3 outdoors. The bronze match was an all Birmingham affair with 5th seed Sophie Roberts beating 15th seed Lamya Majeed (Birmingham) 6-0. Roberts had ends of 27, 29 and 28 - exactly the same scores (albeit in a different order) that she shot in her semi-final against Louisa Piper. Piper only dropped 2 point in 9 arrows to win 6-0. Emma Howes' tournament had already seen her oust 6th seed Hannah Evans (Nottingham) and third seed Gabrielle Micallef (De Montfort) before beating Majeed 7-1. Louisa Piper's QF opponent was Eliza Tully (Reading) but although Tully grabbed a point with a 29-29 second end, tha match went 7-1. Sophie Roberts beat Emily Summers (Oxford) 6-4 in a see-saw match that went all the way to a decisive fifth set. The lowest seed in the womens recurve QF wasn't 15th seed Lamya Majeed however, it was Majeed's opponent, 23rd seed Harriet Crook (Southampton). Crook accounted for two top 10 seeds before running into Majeed in the quarters. The match between the two proved an epic, with a little bit of everything and leading to a shoot off, won 10-9 by Majeed.

Compound KO matches are 15 arrow matches rather than sets. Sam Cartwight (Nottingham) beat Kai Thomas-Prause (Leicester) 147-145 in the gents final. Cartwright eased 1 point ahead in each of the first 3 passes and although Thomas-Prause got one back in the fifth, it was not quite enough. In his semi-final Thomas-Prause shot 149 to match the All Unis record. In the ladies compound, Bayley Sargeant (Kent) beat defending champion Chloe A'Bear (Gloucestershire) 148-144 in their final. Sargeant only dropped points in the third pass and A'Bear couldn't exert enough pressure. Finlay Clark (Hull) and Hallie Boulton (UCLan) won the compound bronze medals.

Myfanwy Fflur (Manchester) won the open barebow title, with a 6-2 win in the final against Oliver Hicks (Birmingham). Fflur was the second seed, so this shouldn't count as an upset - but Hicks had finished 30 points clear in qualifying, broke the All Unis record by 25 and has generally rewritten the barebow record books this season. This match got better and better as it went on, with the winning score for each leg being 26, 27, 28 and then 29. Fflur struck first with Hicks equalising. It was Fflur however who won both of the last two sets by a single point to take the title. Ends of 27 had taken Fflur past Luka Gillingham (Surrey) in their semi. Hicks beat Joshua Rigby (Newcastle) 6-2, finishing with a maximum 30. Rigby started with a 30 in the bronze medal match and went on to win 6-2.

Eva Jessen (Nottingham), the top seed, won the womens barebow title. Jessen beat Rose Mouat (Strathclyde) 6-4 in a close final. Mouat led 2-0 and 4-2, Jessen equalising both times, before finding a 28 in the last to win. Mouat, who was seeded 3rd, came through 6-2 against 2nd seed Danni Chambers (Ulster) 6-2, whilst Eva Jessen was beating 5th seed Sienna Ritzen (East Anglia) 6-0. Chambers took bronze back to Northern Ireland with a 7-1 in the bronze match, the first end being 28 all and Chambers never dipping below 25.

In the open longbow final, Toby Perks (Warwick) beat Segh Gilham (Bristol). 5th seed Gilham took the first end, but lost the second by a point and faded thereafter, 2nd seed Perks winning the last two sets comfortably to take the title. Gilham had upset top seed Alex Adeyemi (Aberdeen) in a tense tie break. From 5-3 down, Gilham won the 5th set by a point and then won the shoot off - also by a point 3-2 to squeeze though. Toby Perks beat Jago Elliott (Nottingham) 6-2 in their semi. Elliott beat Adeyemi for bronze, going 4-0 up before the last two were shared.

As always, many thanks to all those who donate their time and energies to putting on a such great competition, including the teams at Warwick and the three Regional Qualifiers, Aberdeen, Manchester/MMU and Bristol. BUCS Indoors is very much an undertaking at scale and it could not happen without so many volunteers.