REPORT: BUCS Indoor Finals & COVID-19 Update

With all archery in the UK suspended until further notice, now seems like the perfect opportunity to reflect on what turned out to be a terrific day for archers right across the region!

SWWU sent a total of 54 archers to the BUCS Indoor Finals in Warwick, competing in a WA18 seeding round followed by head-to-head matches in the hope of grabbing one of those elusive shinies.

Plymouth's non-compound men's team of Alex Rowe (565), Joe Tripp (555) and Lonja Selter (513) picked up bronze with a total of 1633, just 10 points shy of Loughborough, who took silver. Bath's score of 1534 placed them 6th, with Exeter securing a single BUCS point in 8th (1520), ahead of Aberystwyth in 9th (1509), Swansea in 10th (1492), Bristol in 11th (1472) and Cardiff in 14th (1381).

Plymouth's non-compound women's team also scored highest of all the SWWU clubs, with Eloise Hepburn (464), Kerry Marks (432) and Katie Pollington (424) scoring a total of 1320 to finish 9th overall, narrowly ahead of Bristol in 10th (1315) and Swansea in 12th (848).

In the individual events, SWWU dominated the women's longbow category, with all 4 archers in the head-to-heads coming from SWWU clubs! Plymouth's Emma King took top seed with a score of 274, just a point ahead of Swansea's Keely Pringle on 273, with Cardiff Met's Cameron Noble-Smith seeding 3rd (220) and Swansea's Stacy Oswald seeding 4th (171). In the knockout rounds, Emma King ended up taking home the gold medal, winning her matches 6-4 and 6-0. Keely took silver and Stacy took bronze.

In the men's barebow competition, SWWU also put in a strong performance, locking out the top 3 seedings, with Plymouth's Lonja Selter setting a new all-universities and BUCS record of 513 to take top seed, followed by Bath's Paul Cobee (511) and Aberystwyth's Tobias Johnson (509). At the end of the knockout rounds, Paul beat 4th seed, Nottingham's Matt Waters, to take home the gold medal, while 6th seed, Swansea's James Hayday, put in a stellar performance, pipping Lonja to bronze.

SWWU also picked up a silver medal in the women's barebow category, with Plymouth's Eloise Hepburn seeding first and putting in a dominant performance in her first three head-to-head matches before being edged out in the final by 6th seed, Cambridge's Cameron Krulewski.

And finally, in the men's recurve category, Plymouth's Alex Rowe secured 2nd seed (565), narrowly ahead of Leeds/ex-Cardiff's Tom Braxton (556) in 3rd and Plymouth's Joe Tripp (555) in 4th. Another noteworthy performance is Swansea's Matt Butler, who secured his place in the head-to-heads by winning a 1 arrow shoot-off, only to have his arse handed to him by top seed, Warwick's William Pike in the first round (we love you Matt). Joe won his first H2H round 6-2, but was knocked out in the second round 6-4. Alex won his first two matches 6-2 and then went on to knock out Exeter's William Ingamells 6-0 before succumbing to Warwick's Christopher Woodgate 6-0 in the quarter finals. Tom put in an equally impressive performance, winning his first two matches 6-0 and third match 6-2, before losing his quarter final match 6-2 to Brunel's Jonas Skackauskas, who was relying on a borrowed set of limbs following an equipment failure earlier in the competition (please don't lynch Connor, he wasn't aware that his limbs would go on to eliminate 2 SWWU archers and pick up the silver medal...)

Huge congratulations to the 5 archers that broke SWWU records during the day - These archers are all listed below:

Men's Experienced Longbow - Joe Barham, Exeter (195)

Women's Experienced Recurve - Johanna Meyer, Bath (543)

Women's Experienced Barebow - Eloise Hepburn, Plymouth (464)

Women's Experienced Compound - Catherine Hughes, Exeter (545)

Women's Novice Longbow - Stacy Oswald, Swansea (171)

Throughout the day it was great to see so many smiles on SWWU archers' faces, with many proud to be displaying their new stash and waving their SWWU flags.

With Archery GB now recommending against all archery-related activities for the foreseeable future and many universities closed until the end of the academic year, the SWWU league is unfortunately now suspended until further notice. BUTC has been cancelled (although thanks to Bristol for offering to host it at the last minute!) and although there is a very slim chance that the BUCS Outdoor Championships may still take place in June, that is looking increasingly unlikely. We do however have some good news though - We are hoping to put on a SWWU summer slam during the summer holidays should the recommendations on social distancing be lifted by then. More details on that and the awarding of this year's league titles will follow in due course.

We would like to send our best wishes and good health to all of our members across the region during this difficult time and we hope to see you again soon, in happier times.

SWWU love,

Connor, Matt & Tom

Many thanks to Malcolm Rees for the above photos.