With a new team assembled Warwick headed to Oxford for the first leg of the BUTTS competitions this year, on the 9th November 2016. Warwick having the morning session meant a chirpy campus rendezvous at 08:00 before heading to oxford to shoot.
Our experienced team placed first with a combined score of 2282. Making up this team were: Tom Hall (591), Sherman Ip (574), James Jeffs (565) and Craig Devonport (552). Our novice team came fourth (combined score of 1233) which is unfortunately last on the bright side this leaves plenty of room for improvement. Making up this team were: Sarah Allaway (327), Oliver Moynes (326), Serena Russell (298) and Bethany Spencer (282). In the male compound category Chris Woodgate came first with a score 582. A shout out to our lady recurve Caz Evans who even though she didn’t make the team came third in her category with a score of 544. I presume we came first in the boat race.
At leg 1, hosted by the University of Nottingham, the University of Birmingham’s mens recurve team shot a total score of 2331! (A B.U.T.T.S League record). Ashe Morgan (Birmingham) broke the All Universitys’ record with a score of 598 with 58 golds as did barebow Ollie Hartfield (Loughborough) with his score of 541! Well done to both for raising the bar, we still hope to beat you.
For Warwick, BUTTS leg 2 was in Loughborough on 26th November 2016. On arrival our novices were mostly nervous as it was their first competition! Ella Parodi however felt “indifferent” – not a bad emotion to be feeling before a competition, something to do with a clear mind and no self pressure. The venue was in a dance studio, luckily there was only one wall of floor to ceiling mirrors. Easy to avoid if you’re a lefty! Unfortunately not for Laura Daley and Bex Bedford, who were shooting right next to it, both finding it “rather off putting”.
Competitors stormed through the Portsmouth round and headed off to the pub to await result and the infamous boat race. With Tamlyn score broken, somehow, final scores had to be accounted for by hand(!). Our experienced team came in first place with a combined score of 2243. The team consisted: Sherman Ip (581), James Jeffs (562), Craig Devonport (555) and Carys Evans (545). Sherman and Carys also came 1st and 2nd in the gents and ladies categories respectively. In first place again was our novice team with Simon Tapley (461), Eduard Bohm (440), James Gardener (416) and Sam Armstrong (415) with a combined score of 1732. This was a massive leap from their finishing place at the last leg, a record in itself. More importantly we beat Birmingham’s novice winning streak. Simon came 3rd overall.
Overall league standings, after both legs, see Warwick Experienced team in 2nd place behind Birmingham in 1st and Warwick novices in joint 4th, on a points basis, with Nottingham Trent University. For a full overview of the current standings see here.
The infamous boat race saw Warwick Novices come in 5th place and Warwick A and B come 1st and 3rd respectively. A shout out is also in order to Chris Woodgate for taking part in his first boat race with a not too shabby performance.
Overall they were an enjoyable two competitions for both novices and experienced archers. No matter your position/score we hope you come back to shoot with us some more! If you want final results from Leg 1 and Leg 2 follow the links; also remember to ask James Jeffs about his opinion on stringers and ceiling tiles.
