There were decidedly mixed fortunes for the British squad in Vicine with only one individual knock-out victory between the eight team members, but the gents compound team of Andrew Ward, Neil Bowley and Tim Nash beat Russia to take away bronze medals from the FISU Champs in Vinicne.
The qualifying rounds had seen Andy Callaway (316-299) 29th of 46 gent recurves with Emma Downie (312-312) 14th of 40 ladies. Jenny Jeppsson (287-284), shooting for Sweden, became the second person from a British university to represent another country after Atle Wold (Norway in 2000), qualifying 33rd. Gents compounds from a field of 26 were Andy Ward 9th (340-337), Neil Bowley 11th (336-337), Tim Nash 20th (331-327). Ladies compound qualifiers from a field of 18 Becky Gridley 11th (322-328), Nicola Hunt 14th (321-315), Philippa Ascough 15th (307-306).
Andrew Callaway lost in the 1st round (of 64) as did Jenny Jeppsson, whilst although Emma Downie's 14th place meant a bye in round 1, she lost by only 2 points in round 2 to Hiroko Taguma (Japan) who went on to beat Kateryna Ksenofontova (Ukraine) in the final. Lee Jong Young (Korea) beat Kuo Cheng-Wei (Taiwan) in the gents final. There were some surprising results in the recurve teams where Korea failed to win either gents or ladies, winning silvers in each though, losing to Taipei in the gents and Poland in the ladies.
The first round for the gents compound was the "round of 32" and all three British gents were in action. Neil Bowley and Tim Nash fell at this hurdle, but Andy Ward defeated Korean Kim Hyo Sub to go through to the last sixteen. Unfortunately, in this round Tsou Yung-Minh (Taiwan) was the winner 112-110. All 3 ladies compounds avoided having to qualify for the round of 16, but were all eliminated in that round by higher ranked archers. In the compound finals, Braden Gallenthien (USA) beat Sergio Pagni (Italy) and Amandine Buillot (France) beat Kim Hyo Sun (Korea).
There were only 4 ladies and 5 gents compounds teams so both British squads looked in contention. The ladies lost to France in the semis 13-17, but were then unfortunate to be pipped by Korea 18-20 in the 3rd/4th shoot-off. The gents team also lost to France in their semi, this time 16-24, before beating Russia 22-20 to claim bronze medals. The USA beat France for the gents team title and France beat Korea in the ladies.
The mixed teams saw the pairings of Andrew Callaway/Emma Downie and Andy Ward/Becky Gridley representing GB. The compounds were seeded 6th of 6 and lost 10-15 the Russians Alexander Dumanskiy and Albina Loginova. The recurves were up 10th out of 16 and were against the Japan winning 6-4, particularly sweet for Emma Downie who was eliminated by Hiroko Taguma in the individual competition. The Polish team of Piotr Piatek and Justyna Mospinek proved too strong in the last eight, winning 14-6. In the mixed compound final USA beat Slovenia and in the recurve version the Koreans finally won a team event, beating Poland.
In the heat of a packed Lilleshall NSC, Cambridge lifted their first ever BUSA Outdoor Championship senior team title, breaking Edinburgh’s 11 year stranglehold, in one of the tightest races for years, the gap between the top two teams frequently in single figures. Cambridge’s team comprised Ian Caulfield (886), Ric Whalley (870), Helen Markland (842) and Robin Bacon (827) for a total of 3425 and was a welcome success for the light blues after finishing runners-up to Edinburgh in both BUSA Indoors and the BUTC final. Tim Mundon (Edinburgh) with 900 and Jacqui Gould (Greenwich) with 922 were the individual champions at senior level, Denis Johnstone (Edinburgh) 800 and Georgina Porter (York) 832 were individual novice/shield champions.
This was the biggest ever BUSA Outdoors with 260 competitors from 38 institutions in the starting line-up and took place with Napier and ACME as the hosts, the competition held at Lilleshall for a sixth successive year. Hot weather dominated the day with conditions bordering on the uncomfortable, although some cloud cover providing a little respite later in the day.
Cambridge won the senior team event with 3425, having eventually forged 42 points ahead of Edinburgh’s team total of 3383, the Edinburgh side comprising Tim Mundon (900), David Lange (843), Naomi Crouch (840) and novice Denis Johnstone (800). Durham were surprise bronze medallists on 3330 with Pete Clayton (860), Faye Donnelly (848), Laure Bourguignon (818) and Anna Breitbart (804) winning their first BUSA team medals since they won this competition in 1994. Not far behind Exeter fought off Oxford and Imperial for fourth place, their best finish here since 1996, the Exeter team lead home by Andy Tan (866) with support from James Suckling (834), Louise Colville (826) and novice Victoria Offord (748). Oxford’s team comprised Samuel Johnson (831), Katie Hoskin (822), Natalie Merry (816) and Alexander Shutter (791). SEAL champions Imperial, whose strong female section suggested they would contend for gold at this event, never got going, their team score of 3251 coming from Eloise Fowler (856), Leonora Lang (810), Elizabeth Williams (794) and novice Travis Woodward (791). York were seventh on 3224, 200 points behind Cambridge and were led by novice Georgina Porter (832) with Dave Cox (826), Colleen Driscoll (820) and novice Anna Huang (746) and completed the leading group of teams. Sheffield were eighth a further 150 points back, top scorer Victoria Hinchliffe (856), pipping Bradford 3077 to 3064, Hannah Wootton (852) their top score. Southampton rounded off the top 10 and were the final club to break 3000 on 3027 with Tsuyoshi Maeda (782) their top score.
Edinburgh’s novices overcame the disappointment of the seniors winning with impressive scoring from Denis Johnstone (800), Claire Levy (778) and Alexander Lamb (774) for a total of 2352, seventy clear of second placed York who themselves were eighty clear of third placed Cambridge. York’s team was comprised of Georgina Porter (832), Anna Huang (746) and Andrew McArthur (702) for a total of 2280 whilst Cambridge’s team comprised Robert Fryers (772), Thomas Endlein (738) and Tim Craig (691) for a total of 2201. Southampton were a distant fourth led by Elizabeth Richley (768) on 2035 in total, with Imperial sixth just breaking 2000, lead by Travis Woodward (791). Sheffield were sixth with Meghann Mears (746) top score. Oxford squeezed ahead of Exeter in seventh. Bath were ninth with hosts Napier completing the top ten.
Leading the gents field home, there was no match for 2003 champion Tim Mundon (Edinburgh) who scored exactly 900 in the hot conditions, to secure his second BUSA individual double and his second entry in the 900-club, well clear of Ian Caulfield (Cambridge) whose 886 was enough for individual silver, just ahead of Alex Lyne (Loughborough) on 882. Ric Whalley (Cambridge) was a little way behind in fourth with 870 ahead of Andy Tan’s (Exeter) 866 and Pete Clayton’s (Durham) 860. The leading half dozen gents had a dozen point cushion with the archers in seventh through to tenth squashed into a six point gap. Craig Bowley (Nottingham) scored 846, then Alan Pierce (De Montfort) 844, David Lange (Edinburgh) 843 and Sam Perkins (Kent) 840.
In the ladies field Jacqui Gould (Greenwich) eventually finished an astonishing 66 points clear in first place in a dominant display with 922, the third highest ever score recorded on a Windsor. After a poor start Eloise Fowler (Imperial) powered her way through the field to finish level on points with Victoria Hinchcliffe (Sheffield) on 856. Eloise’s total of 64 golds was good enough for second place overall ahead of Victoria’s 61. The NEUAL pair of Hannah Wootton (Bradford) and Faye Donnelly (Durham) were fourth and fifth with 852 and 848. Helen Markland (Cambridge) scored 842 to nudge ahead of Naomi Crouch (Edinburgh) 840. Novice Georgina Porter (York) would have finished eighth, but in the BUSA Championship category Louise Colville (Exeter) 826 and 51 golds was eighth one solitary gold ahead of Rhianna Rawlins (London). Katie Hoskin (Oxford) was tenth in the Championship (11th overall) with 822.
In the gents shield/novice category an emphatic score of exactly 800 was enough for Denis Johnstone (Edinburgh) to win – it would have been enough for 20th overall - but he was pursued all the way by Travis Woodward who finished nine points behind on 791 but crucially with a miss when a gold would have produced a dead heat. Behind the leading pair, the race for third was won by Christopher Butler (Warwick) on 774 who saw off Alexander Lamb (Edinburgh) on golds and Robert Fryers (Cambridge) by 2 points, the leading five 24 points clear of the rest of the field.
Georgina Porter (York) was a convincing winner in the ladies shield/novice with 832 points, over 50 points ahead of Claire Levy (Edinburgh) on 778 with Elizabeth Richley (Southampton) on 768. Victoria Offord (Exeter) narrowly claimed fourth on 748 ahead of Meghann Mears (Sheffield) 746 and 31 golds and Anna Huang (York) 746 and 24 golds. Similarly to gents novices, the leading six lady novices were 49 points clear of the rest of the field.
Robert Gruar (Liverpool) won Gents Compound division on 950, just a colour ahead of Justin Gibbs (UC Northampton) on 948. Chris Bell (Birmingham) kept out David Wright (Northumbria) 944 on 942 in similar circumstances. Robert Turner (Exeter) was the only novice and finished on 800. Ladies Compound had only 2 competitors with no novices and was won by Kirsty Sutton (Bradford) on 796.
Gents barebow produced six entries with Ian Rutter (Durham) easily first on 619, missing out on the BUSA and All Unis record by 5 points. Leon Osborne (Bath) was first novice on 274. Elizabeth York (Bangor) was first lady barebow on 446 while Laura Eden (Reading) 332 first novice, only 4 points away from the BUSA and All Unis record. For the first time at this event there were lady longbow competitors, albeit only three of them, and Saraid Jones (Birmingham) with 354 and novice Zoe Smith (Reading) with 145 created new BUSA (and All Unis) records. Gents longbow was won by Iain Ogilvie (Exeter) on 289 from a field of nine. There were two novice gents longbow archers but they provided an enthralling, if low scoring sub-plot to the proceedings with Ceri Jones (Bangor) finally defeating Matthew Parnell (Reading) 91 points to 90.
With over 300 entries and 260 competitors this was truly a giant competition, smashing the previous mark of 209 competitors set last year. Thanks as usual to ACME for providing a slickly run shoot, to the field party and to Napier Uni AC who have gone from not existing to national tournament hosts in 18 months. Also thanks to Pam Jones and the team of judges (Peter Morris, Dave Page, Pam herself, Dennis Weaver, Tony Goad and Jean Page) and to Lady Paramount Marie Atkinson. Also look out for some photos in Archery UK from Ann Shepherd. On a more personal note..
At the start of the 2002/03 season, York played out the very first NEUAL match, winning against Durham and Bradford. They have continued to win every NEUAL match and championship at senior level, a run that has lasted nearly 4 years and (I think) 21 matches. However, finally that run came to an end with victory for Bradford at NEUAL Outdoor Championships. Bradford's winning side comprised Hannah Wootton, Shelley Hurst, Andy Rogers and Paul Newnham, the latter two 1st and 2nd gents. Georgina Porter (York) finished 1st Lady and 1st Lady Novice.
Unlike York, Edinburgh did complete a fourth unbeaten season at regional level with a routine win at SUS Outdoor Championships, the senior side's winning margin was nearly 1200 points, the novice side the best part of 900. The competition was hosted by Heriot-Watt, physically hosted (in decidedly changeable conditions) in Bathgate. Individual champions were David Lange and Emma Downie (both Edinburgh), novices Denis Johnstone and Claire Levy (both Edinburgh) won the novice categories, the same quartet comprised Edinburgh's winning team.
Despite home wins in the last two legs for Galway-Mayo IT and Limerick, Dublin IT comfortably won the Irish IVL. Limerick finished second ahead of Galway-Mayo. A mere 16 points behind on aggregate going in to the leg, Limerick took full advantage of being at home to cruise into second place overall. Dublin IT's winning squad over the season comprised Noel Farrell, Keith Colton, Niall Doyle, John Donlan, David Quigley, Ciarain Bolger, Barry Brophy, Karl Delaney and Chris Williams.
Cambridge wrapped up the formalities of their BUTTS championship winning a battle with Warwick by 17 points 2216-2199 at home for the last leg honours, with Birmingham trailing over 100 points behind in third on the day. Amazingly all four Cambridge team archers were within seven points of one another. The result leaves the final table unchanged with Loughborough doing enough to stay clear in second, Warwick third overall.
The race for novice title was much closer with four teams in the hunt going into the final match. Cambridge, last in the first two legs nearly completed an astonishing comeback to win and were only denied by a new BUTTS novice team record from Warwick who claimed the title in style with 2073 for their second leg win of the season. Cambridge finished second in the match and the table whilst Nottingham, despite not attending the leg, clung on to third place overall.
Top individual scorers on the day were Tom Kemp with 562 and novice Julie Chenery (both from Warwick) with 531. Summary of results can be seen in the BUTTS section - link on the left. The full BUTTS site can be seen on www.srcf.ucam.org/butts/. If anyone feels like follow in the excellent footsteps of Diana Wood and running BUTTS next year, then get in touch with her on dsw26@@cam.ac.uk.
The final ELeague results of the season have been published at Edinburgh A have come out on top of division 1 with 39 points out of a possible 40, Cambridge A on 37 hot on their heels all season long. Imperial A were third on 28 points, with York A leading the chasing pack with 20. Many thanks to Matt Johnson and Ian Caulfield of Cambridge who have maintained the site over the course of the season and a total of 105 senior and 84 novice teams. Edinburgh also won novice league with 39 points, well clear of an otherwise tightly congested table. York were second on 27 points, Southampton on 26, Cambridge on 25 and Sheffield on 24. Edinburgh also won the Compound league, never seriously threatened when they fielded a full team.
Alex Lyne (Loughborough) won Gents Recurve on 60 points, just ahead of Ian Caulfield (Cambridge) on 58 and Greg Schnuer (Edinburgh) 56. Matt Johnson (Cambridge) was fourth on 53, before a drop to Chris Eames (Imperial) on 44 points in fifth place. The top three dominated the race for ladies recurve, with Slovakia-bound Emma Downie (Edinburgh) gaining 78 points, including 3 maximums first. Jenny Jeppsson (Edinburgh) will also be in Slovakia for Sweden was second on 75 points, with Lorna Provan (Heriot-Watt) third on 73 points. Chris Bell (Birmingham) 70 points was ahead of Andy Ward (Edinburgh) on 58 in Gents Compound, the latter missing out due to a no score for Dec/Jan. Kirsty Sutton (Bradford) won Ladies Compound. Cihan Altay (Edinburgh) and Meghann Mears (Sheffield) won the individual novice titles respectively.
Full details can be found at the ELeague website on www.srcf.ucam.org/eleague/
The team to represent GB at the World University Archery Championships has been announced. Here is the text of what John Sullivan has submitted to Archery UK anad BUSA for publication:
This year will see the 6th World University Archery Championships taking place close to Bratislava in the Slovak Republic between the 14th and 17th June. The team will consist of Recurve:- Andrew Callaway (Bournemouth) & Emma Downie (Edinburgh) Compound:- Nicky Hunt (Coventry), Becky Gridley [corr.](Edinburgh) & Philippa Ascough (Edinburgh) Andrew Ward (Edinburgh) Tim Nash (St Barts & London) & Neil Bowley (Nottingham Trent) with Justin Gibbs (Northampton) as the non-travelling reserve.
Support staff will be Ken Bearman (coach) and John Sullivan (team manager) – there is also the possibility of TASS funding for a physiotherapist.
As well as individual and team competitions the championships will also feature the introduction of a new team round for the best 8 teams. This will comprise of a team of two in each bow division, one male and one female, shooting at the Hit/Miss target, over 4 ends of 80 seconds, with each archer shooting 2 arrows per end.
A full report will follow after the championships in the next edition of Archery UK, but for full up to date results check out the website on Slovak University Sports Association, and the performance of the team will also appear on the BUSA website as well as on the UKSAA website.
Also Jenny Jeppsson (Edinburgh) will be representing Sweden.
The southern leagues, SEAL and SWWU both had results come out recently. Imperial successfully defended the SEAL championship with an 82 point victory over Southampton who themselves could have taken the title with a win. Imperial also broke through 2200 barrier by a single point - a new record in SEAL matches.
Imperial's team were BUSA Indoors ladies recurve bronze medallist Eloise Fowler with 561 (another SEAL record I think), Chris Eames and Florent Ducellier with 551 and 550, plus Lizzie Williams' 539, were too much for Southampton, despite a 552 from Pete Aldis. Southampton however did win the novice match and with it the novice title by only eight points 1528 to 1520, with no team score on either side below 490.
Further to the west, Exeter won the second SWWU leg with Bath second and Swansea third in a repeat of the first leg team order and with similar large gaps between the teams. This leg was hosted by Bath and was contested over a FITA 25. Andy Tan top scored for Exeter with a formidable 552 (converts to a Portsmouth score of 575), the team score converting to roughly 2168. Bath were a distant second, Stavros Zachariades scoring 496 (equivalent to a Portsmouth 534) their top score.
It looks like Swansea, who became the first Welsh club at BUTC this year, may not be on the only Welsh side in this league next year, as there were a few Aberystwyth archers present and they will hopefully join SWWU in 2006/07. There is one more SWWU leg scheduled to be held, but Exeter look overwhelming favourites to claim their second consecutive SWWU title.
Every so often this column takes a quick look across the Irish Sea to, well, Ireland and the Irish Inter-Varsity League. After five out of the seven legs that (look as though they) will be held, Dublin IT have seemingly a stranglehold, having won all five. However the potential exists for a rapid turn around since the leage positions are based on total points aggregate. DIT are on 12268, at the moment comfortably clear of the chasing pack. That chasing pack consists of Limerick, Galway-Mayo IT and UC Dublin on 10689, 10631 and 10549 respectively. The other clubs in the league are NUI Maynooth, Dublin City Uni, NUI Galway, Carlow IT and occasionally Athlone IT.
It's worth explaining how team scores are calculated again. It's mixed team of 5 and all archers shoot at 40cm faces, except for beginners who shoot at a 60cm face, until they break 400 points, when the move to the smaller face. The record team score in this format was shot by DIT this season. Their score of 2573 included a formidable top score of 550 from Noel Farrell. The most recent leg, held on 18th February saw a winning DIT score of 2498, team comprising Noel Farrell, Keith Conlan, Niall Doyle, John Donlan and David Quigley, who all shot on 40cm faces. Galway-Mayo IT were second on 2280, team comprising James Donnellan, Joe Duggan, Bartek Wozniak (on 60cm face), Jason Campbell and Thomas Breen.
BUSA Indoors and BUTC hot on each others heels mean that some of you may have been archeryed out, but in fact over the last week there have been the British target championships in Lilleshall and also the European Indoor Archery Championships, taking place in Spain.
Turning first to the Europeans, two students were there representing the senior GB team, Emma Downie (Edinburgh) and Naomi Folkard (Birmingham). Emma finished as top British qualifier in 15th with a score of 568 on a FITA 18, Naomi 2 points behind in 18th. Unfortunately, this pitched the two of them against one another in the 1st round (of 32), Naomi winning the encounter 173-160. She went on to beat the Spaniard Almudena Gallardo (Spain) in the semi-final, before losing to Berengere Schuh (France) to claim silver and an article on the BBC Sport site. The British ladies team featuring Emma and Naomi lost to France in the ladies team quarter finals. In the mens Simon Terry finished 4th after losing the bronze medal play off to Olympic champion Marco Galiazzo (Italy) in a shoot off after the match finished 117-117. Terry had previously beaten no less a person than Michele Frangili (Italy) in the quarters before losing to eventual winner Alessandro Rivolta (Italy again) in the semis 116-119. Full results on www.jaen2006.com/results.html.
Back home in Lilleshall there were several students and hangers-on alike who qualified in the top 32 and earned themselves a place in the knock-out phase. In the ladies draw the best performance came from BUSA Indoor champion Jenny Jeppsson (Edinburgh) who reached the quarter finals after qualifying in fifth place. Jenny won her first and second round matches easily before going down 107-109 to bronze medallist Josie Chandler. Helen Markland (Cambridge) also made the cut, but was a first round casualty. In gents recurve Colin Geenes (Coventry) lost in the first round after qualifying 17th. In ladies compound Becky Gridley (Edinburgh) got through to the second round before losing to an eventual semi-finallist. In the gents Neil Bowley (Nottingham Trent) went out in round 1 by a single point, but Andrew Ward (Edinburgh) progressed all the way to the semi-finals and was only dislodged by Chris White in a shoot off. Ward then won the bronze medal match with a 118. Full results available on the GNAS website - there were too many hangers on to go through here.
Also, tune in to Channel 4 on Thursday 22nd at 21:00 where some quasi-celebrities will be having a go at archery, live on the telly. Sadly this is about as much terrestrial airtime as archery got the Olympics. However apparently the celebrities were trained by Peter Suk, the British team coach and also there is a student connection, since Sheffield Uni AC stood in the place of the celebrities to help the TV crew set up cameras and such like.
Edinburgh A (Andy Ward, Emma Downie, Jenny Jeppsson) won BUTC 2006 by defeating Cambridge A (Matt Johnson, Ian Caulfield, Rob Dunn) in the final, 16 discs to 14. That after being behind after each of the first two passes. Just prior to that, Warwick A (Tom Kemp, Thom Hutchins, Jon Shaw) had defeated Exeter A (Andy Tan, Louise Colville, James Suckling) in a nail biting bronze medal match that had required a play off after the initial match finished 14 a piece. Warwick won the play-off superbly, 3-1.
In the qualifying round, Edinburgh got off to a good start and slowly eked out a significant lead which almost reached 30 points as Andy Ward topped gents qualifying and Emma Downie and Jenny Jeppsson were 1-2 in ladies qualifying. The score of 822 went easily past the record set last year and immediately established the 2003 champions, whose B team were one of those not present due to tournament oversubscrition, as favourites. Warwick, who just missed out on BUSA medals the week before had too much for the other English unis and finished on 793. Cambridge shot 785 and Exeter were fourth on 779. Loughborough clung on to fifth qualifying spot by a solitary point from Imperial 771 to 770. Surrey were seventh but twelve points adrift and Oxford made up the top eight. Imperial B were the top B qualifiers in ninth on 740 ahead of Sheffield A, 10th on 717. Birmingham A out qualified their B team by only 5 points, but had Warwick B sandwiched in between them. Durham's A team was 15th, actually beaten by their own B team who were 14th. This fate also befell Bath A further down the table. Bradford A narrowly kept Lancaster A out of the top 16.
Last season Edinburgh A edged past Sheffield B in the first round 5-4, but on the bigger 70mm disc the 2006 team produced a very different display to win 18-2. There was little joy for Sheffield's A team either, who, ranked 10th, were the highest profile casualty of round 1, going out to Liverpool A 1-0 in the day's first playoff after both sides had dislodged 6 discs. Bradford A earned the dubious pleasure of Edinburgh A's company in round 2 by edging Lancaster A 9-8. Second seeds Warwick A were made to work by Bath A but emerged on the right side of a 12-7 win - this match was the bronze medal play off last year. Bath B also went out, scoring a credible 6, but getting nowhere near Cambridge A's impressive 17. The Light Blues' B team was too much for Durham A in a tight 8-6 win. Durham B however not content with out qualifying their A team also went a round further by defeating Exeter B 8-7. Both York sides went out in round 1, the A team 7-5 to Warwick B whilst York B lost 9-4 to Imperial A. Birmingham A beat Leeds A to secure a second round meeting with Imperial A. Imperial made it two out of two as their B team beat Nottingham A and so did Birmingham as their B team beat SUS's "other" representative Napier. Oxford A beat Lancaster B 11-6, but the Dark Blues' second string was no match for the defending champions Exeter A who recorded a 14-5 win. Swansea became the first ever Welsh uni to compete at BUTC but their involvement was brief as they were swept aside 14-1 by the extremely yellow t-shirted Surrey. In the round's other tie Loughborough beat Southampton.
Into round 2 and Imperial A beat Birmingham A with an impressive 16 to 11 and Imperial B beat Oxford A 11-6 to put both Imperial sides into the quarter finals. As things turned out Imperial B were the only B team to survive round 2. Birmingham's second team followed their first team out losing 12-7 to Exeter A. Cambridge A ended Durham B's gallant performance with a 13-9 win, whilst Surrey scrambled to a 6-5 win over Liverpool A who, at 23rd, were bidding to become the lowest ranked quarter-finalists in BUTC history. Loughborough progressed to the quarters with a 11 discs to 8 against Warwick B. The two top seeds however were both put through the mill as Cambridge B kept Warwick A constantly within reach before going out 12-15. The tie of the round was the very first match, Edinburgh A against 16th seeded Bradford A. After two passes Edinburgh possessed only a 13-11 lead and the real prospect of a big upset loomed. Edinburgh responded emphatically under this pressure, with seven hits to take the match 20-14, the highest score of the day from any one team or aggregate score for a match.
Being pushed by Bradford A seemed to inspire Edinburgh A further and they notched a 19-9 victory overwhelming Imperial B - the score had been 8-1 after the first pass. Imperial A also had a tough match against Cambridge A and stayed in touch until the very end, losing 13 discs to 17. SEAL interest was ended after Surrey drew with Warwick A 10 all but went down 3-0 in the shoot off. Defending champions Exeter escaped with a 15-14 win over Loughborough.
The semi finals saw a re-run of last year's final between Edinburgh and Exeter and a all-BUTTS affair between Cambridge and Warwick as eventually the top four in qualifying made it through to the last four of the knock out. As last year Edinburgh v Exeter got off to a nervy start and Exeter held a 4-3 lead after one pass. This time it was the Scottish side who seized the initiative winning the second pass 7-4 and although Exeter upped their game with 6 in the final end, it was not enough as Edinburgh ran out 17-14 ahead. The other semi-final got off to a very one-sided start as Cambridge destroyed the hosts 8-1 in the first pass. To their credit Warwick fought back a little but were 15-6 down after two passes and required an unlikely 9-0 win even to force a shoot off. The first four arrows all went Warwick's way but Cambridge closed out the match easily, eventually winning 19-12.
The bronze medal match was a tight affair as Warwick held a one point lead over Exeter first 6-5 then 12-11, but in the final leg Warwick only shot 8 arrows in the time allowed after dropping an arrow earlier on. From 14 all the match went to a shoot off, which Warwick won impressively 3-1 to huge relief and cheers from the home crowd, Warwick repeating their bronze from 2004, Exeter forced to settle for fourth.
Could the final match the bronze medal match for excitement? Edinburgh and Cambridge had produced excellent performances to get this far and did so again as a tight final match ensued. First blood went to Cambridge as they took the first pass 6-5. It was honours even in the second pass 5-5, despite a double refereeing error which led to Edinburgh being wrongly yellow carded for moving forward on to the line and then not yellow carded for an arrow out of the quiver in the box. Fortunately neither side gained any advantage and it was agreed the one card for one foul worked out fairly in the end. However, if Cambridge had hoped that this episode would rattle Edinburgh, they failed to capitalise, scoring only 3 in the last pass for a total of 14. Edinburgh shot well and a couple of comfortable line cutters saw them home 16 to 14 to wrap up a colourful competition.
As ever thanks to Warwick, the host university and Alex Stuart their chief organiser, who ran a magnificent show over the two geographically separated halls - the first time BUTC has been run like this. Thanks also to the judging team led by Andrew Phillips and Matt Nowicki, and also Ian McGibbon and Tim Mundon. Also thanks to Werner Beiter for coming along and being generous both with his sentiments and with his little yellow discs.
Can I additionally thank those magnificent men and their noise-making machines Dave Spinner and Chris Burnett for their great blend of comedy and coverage. Also thanks to the official photographer for the day Ian Jaques. His website is available on photofinale.org/cod/codindex.htm. Some great photos will appear there shortly. Finally thanks to the University of Warwick Archery Club Ceilidh Band - no that's not a typo - who were really rather good.
Quarter Finals
Semi Finals
Third/Fourth place play-off
Final
Exeter's Tennis Centre was the venue for BUSA Indoors 2006, back on the south coast for the first time since 1999. It was Edinburgh, however, who made the long journey home with their fourth consecutive triumph in this competition. Their team total of 2274, a new BUSA record (team Tim Mundon 588, Jenny Jeppsson 576, Emma Downie 570, Denis Johnstone 540) breaks the exsiting record of 2270 set back in 1998 by Loughborough. Cambridge posted the highest ever score to come second at BUSA with 2258 (team Matthew Johnson 579, Ian Caulfield 571, Robert Dunn 557, Rich Whalley 551). The hosts Exeter came third with 2227 (team Andy Tan 571, James Suckling 559, Steven Wan 549, Louise Colville 548) to replicate the team medal places from last year. These three held a 40 point advantage over the rest of the field. Loughborough led home the chasing pack on 2183 with Alex Lyne 575 their top score, but only held off their BUTTS rivals Oxford by a single point. Samuel Johnson top scored for the Dark Blues with 571. BUTTS made it 4 of the top 6 as Warwick's 2174 in 6th kept Imperial in 7th with 2165. Thomas Kemp scored 567 for Warwick. Keele upset York to finish top NEUAL club, Keele 2153 ahead of York's 2130. Surrey denied Durham 10th place 2117 to 2114. There were 32 clubs with recurves of which 26 had complete teams of four.
Edinburgh also carried off novice team category with a typically excellent 1594 (team Denis Johnstone 540, Allan Love and Alexander Lamb both 527). Oxford lead the chasing pack on 1554 (team Rachel Abbott 536, Marcos Karavias 515, Darren Strange 503) with Warwick third on 1538 (team Mark Henderson 535, Julie Chenery 515, Chris Butler 488). Warwick kept 4th placed York out of the medals by only 5 points, whilst Cambridge held 5th place on 1521 by the same margin over Napier who were 6th. Imperial finished 7th despite going over 1500 on 1512. Southampton's 1494 secured them 8th place and the back of the leading scores. In total there were 27 clubs with novices including 21 complete teams of three.
Gents recurve was dominated by the astonishing score of 588 from Tim Mundon who shot 4 dozen tens and 1 dozen nines - not in that order - to equal the BUSA record set by Matt Gray (who was part of the Loughbrough 2270) back in 1996 and win his fourth individual BUSA title. In second place was Matt Johnson who despite also keeping all his arrows in the yellow and scoring 579, was a full nine points adrift in second, ironically the same scores with which Mundon finished second to Gray ten years ago. Alex Lyne (Loughborough) was clear in third with 575. Just behind the medal placings were Andy Tan (Exeter), Ian Caulfield (Cambridge) and Samuel Johnson (Oxford) who all shot 571 points and could only be separated on golds, Tan with 38, Caulfield with 37 and Johnson with 36 deciding positions four, five and six. Thomas Kemp (Warwick) was alone in 7th with 567, ahead of Colin Geenes (Coventry) and Tim Fox (Surrey) who tied on 560 and 30 golds. The top ten was completed by James Suckling (Exeter) on 559. Suckling was a point ahead of Dan Parnham (York) who was himself a point ahead of Robert Dunn (Cambridge). Andrew O'Connor (Keele) shot 555.
Ladies recurve rapidly became a straight shoot out between Edinburgh club mates Jenny Jeppsson and Emma Downie. In the end, Jenny won gold with a score of 576, Emma comfortably second with 570. A distant third was Eloise Fowler (Imperial) whose 553, secured a first individual BUSA medal for Imperial. Eloise was chased by Louise Colville (Exeter) on 548. Fifth place was Laura Vallius (Dundee) on 538, two points clear of the rest of the top 10 all five of whom finished on 536 and having shot one gold more than the other. Hannah Wootton (Bradford) emerged on top with 536 and 18 golds, Kate Hoskin (Oxford) on 17, Eilidh Marshall (Dundee) on 16, Helen Markland (Cambridge) on 15 and top lady novice Rachel Abbott (Oxford) on 14.
Novice recurve produced excellent scores with no less than 22 novices going over 500 - as far as I can establish the most ever before was 12. Denis Johnstone (Edinburgh) won the gents "Shield" event with 540 (29th overall), securing a place on Edinburgh's winning senior team and three gold medals in the process. Mark Henderson (Warwick) on 535 was second (35th overall), five points behind the leader and five points ahead of Ross Cranford (Napier) whose 530 secured the club's first ever medal at this level (41st overall) - only just though as Chris Lees (Southampton) was only a single point behind. Edinburgh novices occupied the next three places as Allan Love 527 and 13 golds was 5th ahead of Alexander Lamb 527 and 10 golds. Cihan Altay was 7th on 520. Travis Woodward (Imperial) was 8th on 519, but it could have been a very different story for him as two costly misses forced him down the leader board. The leading novice lady was Rachel Abbott (Oxford) who won comfortably with an excellent 536 (10th overall). Meghann Mears (Sheffield) was second on 518 (16th overall), narrowly leaving bronze to Georgina Porter (York) on 517 (17th= overall). Julie Chenery (Warwick) with 515 just missed out on a medal in 4th, whilst Sarah Piddock (Loughborough) completed the leading group on 510.
Top gents compound was current BUSA Outdoors champion Justin Gibbs (UC Northampton) on 585, with Andrew Ward (Edinburgh) 583 in second and defending BUSA Indoor champion Colin Geenes (Coventry) was third with 581, Geenes fresh from finishing 8th= in recurve. David Wright (Northumbria) was just outside the medals on 578. There were 24 gents compounds in total with Rory McCullagh (Leeds) the only novice on 517 and the three Nottingham Trent compounds in fetching lurid pink. Only two ladies compounds finished the day with Becky Gridley (Edinburgh) the winner on 559.
In gents barebow, Jim Smyth (Plymouth) was top with 470 [corr.], with Dafydd Ceri (Bangor) top novice with 415. In ladies barebow Sarah Gascoigne (Southampton) broke the BUSA and All Unis record with 480. Catherine Looser (Bradford) first novice with 283. Longbow saw Iain Ogilvie (Exeter) win with 336, Matthew Parnell (Reading) 161 best novice and a BUSA record. Louise Smith's (Sheffield) 321 claimed first lady longbow and the 199 from novice Zoe Smith (Reading) was enough for a BUSA and All Unis record. There were also a few non-BUSA scores from recurves Kevin Sheppard, Stuart Watson and compound Tim Nash.
All in all Exeter put on a great show for everyone in their Tennis centre which made a very nice venue indeed. The local organisational team won high praise from the (is grizzled too strong a word?) veterans of ACME, who put together a silkily run competition despite long delays in the first session. No less a personage than Olympic semi-finalist and world number 4 Larry Godfrey was Lord Paramount, and by all accounts was impressed by the Exeter team and competition as a whole. Barely has the dust of this competition settled than hostilities will be renewed in Warwick for BUTC and those 70mm hit/miss discs, where Werner Beiter will be the Lord Paramount.
Larry Godfrey and Werner Beiter as Lords Paramount. Cool.
BUTC in Warwick is almost full up with teams. The entry deadline is Friday 3rd March, the day before BUSA Indoor championships, which will provide a fascinating guide to form. However, BUTC tournament policy is to make sure that every university who enters gets at least one team into the main competition, so there is still time - get entering! Entry form in BUTC section, send it to a.g.m.stuart@@warwick.ac.uk. There will also be a reserve list in operation on the day, in case of any last minute withdrawals.
Also the target list for the qualifying round looks as though it will be determined by a complex seeding procedure which will see teams of roughly equal standards shooting next one another, just to ramp up the tension a little earlier. I can't wait.
Continuing in the vein of national competitions that are not the BUSA Championships, the ELeague is back up and running thanks to Matt Johnson and Ian Caulfield (and presumably a lot of data entry) in Cambridge who are administering things. The UKSAA has kept the ELeague well stocked with results from the regional league matches, but it is up to you, if you know there are scores out there for you, just waiting to be counted.
Perhaps inevitably, Cambridge and Edinburgh are locked together at the top of Division 1, Imperial are third. For full details of where your club is and an explanation of the rules, check out the ELeague website.
As always, February is a very busy month in the student archery world and also for UKSAA. Southampton overwhelmed Surrey and Brunel in the senior SEAL match and produced a dazzling performance from their novices, in particular Chris Shillitoe with 542 and Chris Lees with 532 forming the bedrock of the senior team as well. Fascinatingly, the final SEAL match pitches Imperial against Southampton into a straight shoot out this Saturday. Both clubs have unblemished team records this season. Sussex have the unenviable task of being the third team in the match, but the novice table is so tightly packed, that even though the Brighton based club lie 5th out of 6, they have a mathematical chance of snatching the title.
Further north in NEUAL York beat Bradford to make it four wins out of four in the league, with the NEUAL Championships also on this Saturday. York will be looking to maintain their astonishing unbeaten run at senior team level in NEUAL, but a late season run of form from Durham means they will have their work cut out. Keele also secured a fine win over Liverpool going over 2100, with Andy O'Connor 550 and Matt Walker 548.
There were also a few corrections to be made to particularly NEUAL match results. There were also a few BUTTS league score changes but these did not affect match results.
The BUSA target list has been published and an astonishing 397 entries (counting double bowers twice!). The list is available on the BUSA's archery pages. I would put it on here but the file size is over 1MB and I'm pretty sure Geocities' bandwidth wouldn't last 5 minutes.
Cambridge won their third consecutive senior BUTTS leg to go four league points clear at the top of the table. A team score of 2175 is slightly less than the Light Blues have been used to but mid-550's scores from Robert Dunn and Ian Caulfield were enough despite a booming 570 from Loughborough's Alex Lyne. This was just enough for Loughborough to hold off Warwick, 2121 to 2117. The senior BUTTS table remained in the same order Cambridge now four points clear of Loughborough and seven clear of defending champions Warwick.
In the novice BUTTS leg Cambridge won, and whilst they remain fifth, they ahve caught up to the teams in the leading group despite opening with two 6th places. Nottingham claimed second place in the leg ahead of Warwick and have a two point lead at the top of this table ahead of Warwick.
In SUS Heriot-Watt hosted two matches on successive weekends, one on behalf of Napier and one for themselves. Not even a 570 from Lorna Provan could prevent Napier from grabbing all three points from the first match by a hundred points, Vincent Bille 545 their top score. Strathclyde were a distant third, the novice teams finished in the same order. Seven days later Heriot-Watt claimed maximum points at home against Aberdeen second and St Andrews third. Without Lorna Provan, they were led home by novice Arran Curran's 513.
The results mean that if Napier win against Dundee and St Andrews this weekend, then they will claim second place in the league (behind Edinburgh) in their debut season - quite an achievement if I do say so myself. If Dundee win, then they will be in pole position to be "best of the rest". St Andrews need to avoid coming last in the match or they will finish with their second wooden spoon in three seasons.
A wave of NEUAL match results have all just been published. A result from before Christmas was that Durham beat Lancaster (and Liverpool DNS). Faye Donnelly and Pete Clayton with 551 and 540 ensuring Durham cleared 2100 easily well aheda of Lancaster who missed 1800. [Addition] Sheffield beat Lancaster by a hundred points in a postal match, scoring 2069 with no team score under 510.
York got their campaign off to a belated winning start with a comfortable win over Sheffield 2119 to 2002 ahead of Liverpool as Leeds beat Keele who beat Lancaster. This was Keele's first win in the competition. A week later, Bradford beat a below par Durham and York put an end to Leeds 6 points out of six, Dan Parnham's 565 impressive and novice Anna Huang shooting 520+ for the second time.
Moving into February York beat Durham by 50 points, 2166 to 2116, Keele trailing in third sending York back to the top of the table. Dave Cox's 559 and Dan Parnham's 555 the White Rose team's highlihts. Durham re-took the league lead with a win at home to Leeds (in what amounts to a battle for second place). For Durham Faye Donnelly shot 565 and Pete Clayton 552 to see Durham home by just over 100 points. Sheffield were third.
With the results from three matches still to come in, York are favourites with a 9 points of 9 so far. However Bradford, despite having lost to a Leeds side that have improved a lot this season, can still overhaul them, if record a 118 point win over York this weekend (or win the match also against Lancaster and hope York come third.
Edinburgh wrapped up their fourth consecutive Scottish league title with a routine win against Strathclyde and St Andrews, and having won all three of their league matches are now also assured of the league title. Edinburgh, yet again, were never extended and did not even use their full strength squad. Gregor Schnuer top scored again with 559, no archer from Strathclyde or St Andrews broke 500.
In a sense getting Edinburgh's almost inevitable league win out of the way means that the rest of the league can now battle it out for second place. Dundee have staked their claim by edging out Heriot-Watt back in November, but Heriot-Watt could get right back in the hunt this weekend with a home win over league new boys Napier. Heriot-Watt will physically host as Napier has no access to 18m facilities. Strathclyde are the third team in the match which takes place on Saturday 11th. Heriot-Watt are at home again a week later against Aberdeen and St Andrews.
Cambridge stretched their advantage in the BUTTS league to three points with a season's best of 2222. The Light Blues' lead is built on a consistancy which has yet to see them dip below 2200. Loughborough lead the chasing pack with 2190, whilst early pace setters Warwick lie third in the table. The Light Blues' 2222 also included a magnificent 540 from novice Thomas Endlein as well as top scorer Robert Dunn's 565. Alex Lyne for Loughborough and Samual Johnson for Oxford both top scored with 562. The top of the BUTTS novice table is very congested with Nottingham only one point clear of both Warwick and Birmingham.
Between them Edinburgh and Cambridge have won BUSA Indoors every year from 1999 and it is hard to see past these two doing battle for the gold again and leaving the rest of the field to fight for bronze.
Matt Johnson, the current captain of Cambridge is bringing back the ELeague with the launch of the new British Universities Archery E-League (but non-BUSA) website available at www.srcf.ucam.org/eleague/. Below is what Matt himself has to say. This is also available on various message boards.
Sorry for there not being any activity on the eleague front for a while - we've been having various technical problems. We're now launching the new eleague website, with automatic submissions and scoring. All clubs in the old eleague should have been emailed, but if not the URL is http://www.srcf.ucam.org/eleague/. If your university is interested in competing in the league, please go there, have a look at the details and register.
We'd really like the eleague to pick up again this year and be as stiff a competition as BUSA is.
So register away folks.
Some of you may have noticed that this season there haven't been any interviews. There's no sinister reason for this. Doing an interview takes me quite a long time and this season I am attempting to balance writing an MSc dissertation, a full time job, this website and maybe even some archery. So I had a cunning idea. Instead of me doing a lot of (well some) research into one of you guys and writing a load of questions and htmling them once the replies filter their way back, I thought, why don't you guys ask me some questions and I'll write my replies. Self-indulgent? Yes. Lazy? Perhaps, but then it is my website.
So here's how it works. Think of a question(s) and email it together with your name and uni (if applicable) to me to the usual address, studentarchery@@yahoo.co.uk. Please have the subject of the email as "interview question" or something similar to enable me to keep track of them. I'll only answer the questions if I know who you are from your email - although I will withhold names if you prefer.
In case this wasn't enough navelgazing for you, I have been having a look at the UKSAA website visitor statistics as provided for me by the folks at Nedstat, now Webstats4U. The site broke the 15000 hits barrier as a total of 15045 came through the front door in 2005, up nearly 19% on 2004. February was the busiest month with 2255 hits - that's 80 per day, aided by a new record of exactly 300 hits on 28th February. It seems you kerrazy kidz can't get enough of results published promptly.
The University of Warwick has been awarded the hosting of BUTC 2006. The tournament will take place on Saturday 11th March and will have the same format as last year's event in Nottingham with an academic rond (Beiter hit/miss targets) for the knock-out stages. Full tournament information, including the entry form, will be made available as soon as possible.
Warwick have a good record in the competition, bronze medallists in 2004 and quarter-finalists last year. BUTC 2006 will be the climax of the university's Sports Week, which generates awareness of sport and a big publicity campaign is being run up to and including this week. 'Have A Go' archery sessions wil also be taking place at the university in the week leading up to BUTC to further promote the sport.
Also commiserations to Edinburgh whose bid missed out this time. Both bids were of high quality and it took a long time and a lot of emails to separate them.
The NEUAL league match in Bradford saw local rivals Leeds derail Bradford's attempt to pull four points clear at the top of NEUAL. A strong team performance from Leeds, with all four scores over 510, gave Leeds a total of 2082, 34 ahead of table toppers Bradford. Liverpool were third on 1887. I don't currently have any results from the match which (should have) happened last week, Durham v Lancaster v Liverpool.
The result is the first time Leeds have won a full match of three NEUAL teams and is a blow for Bradford, who were impressive in a victory two weeks before and were set to challenge York's NEUAL dominance. York have not played yet as a result of ongoing repairs to their Sports Centre. Bradford's novices won the novice match to go top of the novice table, having played a game more.
And on the subject of novices, Edinburgh won the SUS Novice Championships with 1531, Allan Love 530 and Cihan Altay 520 particularly impressive. Napier were comfortably second on 1385 with Alastair MacDonald's 505 the top score and the only individual medallist not from Edinburgh. Hosts Dundee were third. Apart from the leading three universities however, the remaining four SUS clubs provided only five novices between them, both Aberdeen and Strathclyde completely absent. Better inter-club communication was once again high on the agenda at the SUS captain's meeting.
Both Aberystwyth and Plymouth have both separately withdrawn from SWWU. Coupled with Southampton moving to SEAL, this has left Roxanna Snooke with only three clubs left - Exeter, Bath and Swansea. Having initially said they would take part, Aberystwyth have not provided an explanation as to exactly why they have withdrawn. Plymouth meanwhile feel they are not yet organised enough to compete. Whilst the clubs may have legitimate reasons for bailing out, it has left SWWU painfully short on numbers and shows poor communication. How suddenly do you decide not to compete in a regional league?
Exeter were comfortable winners of the 3 team leg on 2155, Andy Tan and Gregor Kaden going well over 540. Bath were 181 points behind and Swansea a further 332 points behind Bath. The Novice teams finished in the same order and with equivalent wide margins between the teams.
In BUTTS, Cambridge again went over 2200 and have a two point lead at the top of the table from Loughborough (second in the leg and also now in the league) and Warwick, who were fourth in the leg losing 2142 2139 [corr.] behind Oxford. Birmingham won the novice leg, but Nottingham remain top, on aggregate. NEUAL results from Durham v Liverpool v Lancaster will be published as soon as they become available. This weekend sees Bradford v Liverpool v Leeds, the all-London derby, Imperial v Brunel v London and the SUS Novice Championships in Dundee.
Edinburgh have won back to back SUS matches and sit four points clear at the top of the league table with 2172 and 2158. On the surface there is nothing unusual, Gregor Schnuer and Naomi Crouch leading the SUS champions home on both occasions. The real story comes from the improvement of some of the other SUS clubs. In the first match both Dundee and Heriot-Watt went over 2000, and despite a 572 from Lorna Provan, Heriot-Watt fell nineteen points short of Dundee, the Taysiders winning 2039 to 2020. Eilidh Marshall and Laura Vallius both scoring 535 for Dundee.
Seven days later Edinburgh again had a winning margin of just over 100 points, but this time Napier who were making their SUS League debut comfortably saw off Aberdeen for second place. Richard Nicol's 542 carried Napier to 2047 and second in the table, ahead of Dundee by only eight points on aggregate. Dundee v Edinburgh v Heriot-Watt was the first SUS League Match for over 3 years that all 3 teams went over 2000 and with new club Napier also making very healthy progress, the malaise which had seemed to sit over this league seems slowly to be shifting.
UKSAA and Steven Wicks the SUS League Organiser are co-ordinating an "unofficial" novice league, which Edinburgh also lead after two wins, Cihan Altay and Allan Love both going over 500, Love making the senior team in the second match. Next week the SUS Novice Championships take place in Dundee.
Bradford got their NEUAL campaign off to a successful start with a home match against Sheffield and Keele. Despite the recent events in Bradford the match was just about able to go ahead. Shelley Hurst, Bradford President continues:
[On] Friday night, we'd planned to move the bosses to the sports hall at 7pm, but the place where they are stored is on the corner of the street where the police officers were shot. The police locked down the entire area, but some how my helpers managed to roll the bosses past a police blockade (with officers carrying very big guns) and pass the press without being caught on camera while I rang up the other teams with alternative directions into the Uni (avoiding road blocks)! If you ever to anyone to host an archery competition in a war zone, then Bradford should be your first choice.
Shelley herself top scored with 555 and a 547 from teammate Paul Newnham was enough to push Bradford to 2146, nearly 100 points clear of Sheffield. Keele made their long awaited NEUAL debut and although third were not completely out of touch, finishing with 1980, their top scorer Andy O'Connor. Sheffield won the novice competition, largely thanks to the top lady and top gent novice, Meghann Mears 480, one ahead of teammate Robert Richards. Keele picked up two points for second but hosts Bradford had to settle for just one.
Edinburgh won the first SUS match of the season, beating Dundee into second and Heriot-Watt into third. All three clubs went over 2000, the first time this has happened in a SUSF/SUS match since at least the end of the 2001/02 season. Full deatils will be published in SUS section when they become available.
With the deadline for applications to host the tournament now less than two weeks away, there is some fantastic news for BUTC 2006. Werner Beiter has confirmed that after being impressed by last year's event he has accepted an invitation from Tim Mundon to be present along with the hit/miss targets that so enlivened the knock-out phase last season. I'll let the man himself explain:
Nottingham [BUTC 2005] was the most fascinating tournament I have seen,...and I have seen many! The enthusiasm of all the archers, spectators and the speakers as well as the performance of the archers... everything impressed me a lot. It is a honour for me that you want to continue to use the Hit Miss System again. I am more than pleased to support you with the Hit Miss targets again!
There were wins at the weekend for Imperial (v Surrey), Southampton (v London) and Sussex (v Brunel). Imperial outscored everyone by 90 points and sit top of the table on aggregate with 2167, 569 from the evergreen David Wilson and 559 from Chris Eames were too much for Surrey for whom Jamie Goodliffe's 555 was the highlight. Sussex thrashed Brunel by about 300 points. In the day's third match, Southampton got their first SEAL campaign off to a winning start against London who return to SEAL after a one year gap. The south coast team were far too strong, Vincent Tse top scored with 550, the ex-St Andrews archer steering his side to 2077 and second place overall.
The novice team results all went the same way as the seniors with Imperial leading, again on aggregate. Sussex go second from Southampton after they won their match with an extra handful of points. Top individual scorers were Travis Woodward (Imperial) 434 and Julia Johnson (Sussex) on 405.
The next SEAL match is on 4th December and is an all-London affair: Imperial v London v Brunel. Looking at the opening day scores, it is hard to see anything other than a comfortable Imperial win in a league where the difference between top and bottom is one league point, but a cavernous 562 points aggregate. Before they get too carried away, 2167 would have been enough for 5th at the BUTTS leg at Warwick. Next weekend Edinburgh look to get their SUS campaign off to a smooth start as they and neighbours Heriot-Watt journey to the "City of Discovery", Dundee and Bradford host Sheffield and newbies Keele in the first NEUAL match of the season.
The Republic of Ireland's Intervarsity league got going last weekend at Dublin City Univeristy (DCU). Their city rivals Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) who took last season Irish Intervarsity title also won the opening leg with a score of 2412, almost 150 points clear of their nearest rivals UC Dublin (UCD) who themselves were 80 points ahead of Limerick. In case you were wondering how DIT amassed an apparently impossible score, it's worthwhile explaining just how the Irish IV team scores work. For a start it's mixed team of five and secondly beginners shoot a Portsmouth and experienced archers shoot a FITA 18. Each leg is an all-against-all format but league position is determined by the total points aggregated over the season, so DIT's big winning margin puts them in a very strong position even this early in the season. There are nine teams involved so far, but only seven had complete teams of five.
Whilst we are discussing matters international, I'd like to say hello to a slow but steady stream of visitors to UKSAA from Japan. I don't know quite why this has been happening in the last couple of weeks, but konichiwa to you.
Closer to home, all the action this weekend is in SEAL, with the three 2-way matches, Brunel v Sussex, defending champions Imperial v Surrey and London v Southampton all being played this weekend. Match winners will get three points and losing teams get two for coming second. Also several NEUAL matches have been re-arranged. The league now kicks off on Saturday 19th Novemeber with Bradford v Sheffield v Keele.
Robert Gordon's Uni AC, in Aberdeen, has shut down. RGU have not been very active over the previous 12 months, fielding only a maximum of two archers in the SUSF league matches and not atteding the SUSF (or BUSA) Championships at all. Their disappearance comes in the same year that their university opened a big new Sports Centre. The closure is a big disappointment for Scottish university archery at a time when it is trying to reinvigorate itself, although RGU could still send archers to the SUS championships events.
It is sad to see any uni club go and you hope that one day they will be back in some form, it would be a shame to see this as the last gasp of RGU as they have produced some decent archers over the years. Probably RGU's best season was 2003/04 where they finished 4th in the SUSF League, 3rd at SUSF Indoors and 2nd (to Edinburgh) at SUSF Outdoors, Brian Marr finishing 4th individual gent at both championship events.
The withdrawal of RGU coupled with addition of Napier, means SUS remains at seven teams for the year. The match to be hosted by RGU has been cancelled, but League organiser Steven Wicks has re-organised the calendar such that the other match hosts are unchanged. This results in a few changes amongst the away teams but minimises disruption in terms of hall bookings. Full deatils can be seen in the SUS calendar - the first match is now Dundee v Edinburgh v Heriot-Watt on Saturday 19th November.
In their home BUTTS leg Warwick snatched a thrilling BUTTS opener by the tiny margin of just six points, Warwick finishing on 2220 and Cambridge on 2214. As so often last season, Warwick were led home by Tom Kemp who shot 574, aided by Thomas Hutchins' 563, and good support from Jon Shaw and Paul Williams. Remarkably Jon Shaw shot with a broken draw hand and his score made all the difference as Warwick's fifth score would not have been enough for victory. All four of Cambridge's scores were above 545, Matthew Johnson's 560 the pick of the bunch but despite 550+'s from Ric Whalley and Ian Caulfield and 546 from Rob Bacon, the light blues fell just short.
Behind the leading two Loughborough and Oxford fought a close battle for third place. Loughborough's Danny Clifford with 581 outscored Oxford's Sam Johnson with 576, as Loughborough were third on 2189. Astonishingly 2175 was only enough for fourth for Oxford when a similar score in the first leg of last season would have been almost enough to win outright.
Birmingham and Nottingham were well adrift in fifth and sixth, but there was joy for Nottingham's novices as they tasted victory in the novice competition. Chris Holt made the senior team as well as leading Nottingham's novices to the top of the early season table with 437. Birmingham were second and Warwick third [corr.]. Individually however, easily the top scoring novice by a full 35 points, was Rachel Abbott of Oxford with 473.
Normally when a new record is broken I don't devote an entire editorial article to it but this one is a bit speical. For a long time, 588 has been the blue riband record for both the BUSA and All Unis records. That score, the record for Gents Recurve Experienced Portsmouth, was shot by Leslie MacPherson (Strathclyde) in an unknown SUSF competition way back in 1980/81 season and equalled by Matt Gray (Loughborough) at the BUSA Indoor Champs 1996, held in Sheffield. Astonishingly, Matt Gray's mammoth effort here was only good enough to lift Loughborough to second place with 2246, 8 points behind Edinburgh, it remains the second highest total not to win BUSA Indoors.
However it now appears that very nearly ten years ago, Matt Gray in fact went one point higher - 589 - in a BUTTS Leg held in Loughborough in November 1996, with 60 hits and 51 golds, breaking the All Unis record, but not of course the BUSA record. Loughborough dominated the leg with 2224 despite Andy Somers (Cambridge) who lifted his side to second place with a not inconsiderable 583. There were five legs that results exist for, although there were almost certainly six [corr.] held over the course of the season and Loughborough won all of those recorded, cruising to the BUTTS title for 96/97.
All this information came from the new BUTTS website courtesy of Diana Wood which is an excellent resource, the URL for which is www.srcf.ucam.org/butts/. Also thanks to Tom Duncan, who noticed the 589 thing in the first place. The All Unis records spreadsheet has been updated.
The calendar for the BUTTS league has been published and Warwick will begin the defence of their title at home on Saturday 5th November. With the SWWU dates still to emerge, this will now be the first inter-university match of the season. Birmingham will host the second leg on Sunday 27th November, with Oxford, Nottingham and Loughborough all scheduled to host in February. As usual Cambridge will be hosting the finale, outdoors, in early May.
Last season the battle between Warwick and Cambridge was very closely fought all season long, Warwick making sure with four leg wins including the clincher in Nottingham [corr.]. Hopefully the league can be this exciting again. Cambridge's novice team won both the BUTTS league and BUSA Outdoors novice team trophy. Interestingly BUTTS is the only regional league not to have its line up changed from last season.
SUS has added Napier, NEUAL has added Keele, SEAL has regained London and got Southampton from SWWU, whilst SWWU has lost Southampton to SEAL but regained Plymouth and added Aberystwyth. Got all that? It means that no less than 8+8+6+6+5 = a massive 33 uni clubs should be in league action this season.
The Isle of Man tournament will be taking place from 6th to the 10th April 2006 - the week before Easter. Entry forms need to be in on the 1st December 2005. The archery is held over two days, with a Portsmouth and FITA 18 on day 1 (Saturday 8th) and a Worcester and Bray 1 on day 2 (Sunday 9th). Entry forms and more information about the tournament can be found on the tournament website: www.isleofmanfestival.com. All transport on the island itself is organised for you.
Over the past few years archery has been one of the few sports that has grown in popularity with the festival and is currently the 2nd largest represented sport. BUTC winners Exeter, BUTTS winners Warwick and Birmingham, Bradford and Loughborough all attended last year. Awards will be for best individual gents and ladies recurve - compound will depend on entries - and for the best team based on total accumulated individual scores. Team size depends on entries, but is usually mixed.
The Aberdeen derby will kick off the SUS calendar at Robert Gordon's on Saturday 12th November, with Edinburgh the third team in that match aiming for thier fourth consecutive whitewash of the Scottish Unis. Edinburgh have three matches in three weeks, the last of which is at home. This match sees Napier make a tough SUS debut against the champions and St Andrews.
A day after RGU v Aberdeen v Edinburgh, the three two way matches in SEAL will all be played on the same day, Sunday 13th November. The pick of the bunch is defending champions Imperial at home to runners up Surrey. Southampton mark their transition eastwards with a home match against London, as Sussex play Brunel.
NEUAL kicks off a week later with new boys Keele making the trip to Bradford to play Bradford and Sheffield. The same day Durham host Liverpool and Lancaster. A week later champions York, like Edinburgh aiming for a fourth consecutive clean sweep, begin at home to Keele and Durham.
Bids to host all three national tournaments are still required from prospective host universities. Get in touch with Marie Atkinson at BUSA HQ or for BUTC get in touch with the UKSAA (that's me folks!). Currently the recommended dates are 4th March for BUSA Indoor, 11th March for BUTC and 17th June for BUSA Outdoors although they are all subject to alteration.
The BUSA Information pack for 2005/06 is available in the Resources section. There is also a copy of the BUSA's Archery Regulations. The qualifying scores and nomination form for the World University Archery Championships, in Vinicne in Slovakia are available from the Internationals section.
As always at this stage of the season I am on the look out for information, particularly for individual clubs contact info which is likely to have changed over the summer. Please get in touch if this is the case. All the regional leagues are also emerging for another year and it looks as though these will all continue to grow with Napier definitely added to SUS, Keele to NEUAL and both Aberystwyth and Plymouth scheduled to shoot in SWWU. Still to be confirmed: Reading or Sussex or both in SEAL.
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