UK Student Archery Association

Birmingham top TOUCAN 30 [11/Apr/26]

Nottingham won the TOUCAN Indoor Championships, but, by finishing as runners up, Birmingham claimed the overall TOUCAN league title. Nottingham were second overall. Birmingham won the novice Indoor Champs and overall title. This is the 30th competitive season of the Midlands league.

Heading in to the final round, in order for Nottingham to overhaul Birmingham at the summit, they would need to beat them by 2 clear places. Second place for Birmingham would guarantee them the title. Nottingham did their part, scoring 2274 to win the Indoor Championships themselves. However Birmingham also did theirs, with 2230 to ensure second on the day, but top spot in the TOUCAN table. Leicester scored exactly 2200 to take third spot on the day, with Warwick fourth on 2167. Nottingham Trent's score of 2161 was technically part of the div 2 fixture but was fifth on the day, beating half of div 1. Sixth ot eighth were in the lower 2100s. Loughborough (2127) were just ahead of Cambridge (2119) and Oxford (2111), with Cambridge in div 2.

Individually, Louisa Piper (Nottingham) top scored in the match with 584 and team-mate Hannah Evans (Nottingham) was next on 572. Behind Piper and Evans, there were scores - all high to mid 560s - for Tristan Mok (Nottingham), Oliver Hicks, Sophie Roberts (both Birmingham), Alia Fallouh (Leicester), Konstantinos Perikleous (N Trent) and Conor Nolan (Loughborough). Oliver Hicks shot barebow, but once again, shot a score on a par with the leading recurves.

In the novice match, Birmingham were winners on 2069, with Leicester their closest challengers, 30 behind on 2039. There were plenty of high scores with William Threlfall (Birmingham) on 544 top of the pile. Baldip Singh Chohan (Birmingham) scored 537, with Skyler Airei and Serra Toman (both Leicester) both scoring 536. Cambridge's novices, in the div 2 fixture, were third overall on 1977, with Loughborough in fourth.

Earlier in February, div 2 match 2 saw Nottingham Trent (2166) win, just ahead of Cambridge (2134) who were second and won the novice match. De Montfort were third overall and second novice team.

Those results meant that Birmingham won the senior and novice TOUCAN titles. Fittingly for TOUCAN's 30th season, the Birmingham senior team collected 30 points out of a possible 32, never finishing lower than second in any of the 4 legs. They won the TOUCAN title for the fourth time overall and first time since 2017. Birmingham were also the winners in the first ever season of TOUCAN (then known as BUTTS) in 1995/96.

Nottingham were just pipped on 29 league points and actually recorded a slightly higher 4 match aggregate. A 3rd place in match 1 (by only 2 points) proved costly. Nottingham have now finished 2nd in TOUCAN in three of the last four seasons. Warwick (23) stayed just ahead of Leicester (22) - the pair finished with almost identical 4 match aggregates as Leicster recorded their best ever TOUCAN league finish.

In the novice standings, Birmingham finished on 31 points - just one off the maximum. Loughborough kept pace in the early part of the season, but faded slightly to end on 26. Leicester were third, another club best. This is the 11th TOUCAN novice title for Birmingham - more than double their nearest rivals Cambridge and Nottingham who have won 5 times each.

In terms of div 2, the results for div 2 match 3 have not yet been fully confirmed - the match was held as a postal. However, Nottingham Trent have 3 firsts for 21 points and Cambridge have 3 seconds for 18. Those two look like they will be promoted to the main division next season at the expense of Northampton and Coventry. Cambridge top the div 2 novice standings.

Elsewhere in the league, Harper Adams are sitting 5th out of 6 competing teams in division 2. They have taken a full part in TOUCAN matches and actually have a better match average than 3 of the 5 teams they will face in div 2 next season. Worcester, who have had a presence in TOUCAN in the previous two seasons did not enter any matches this time and the club itself may well be in limbo.

See TOUCAN 2025/26 page.