At a glance
FITA
Senior Team (John, Andy, Nat, Dom) – 4263 – 6th
Novice Team (Sam K, James C, Jiahao) – 2742 – 7th
John Bowes – 1081 – 23rd
Andrew Howe – 1079 – 24th
Dominic Collis – 1044 – 35th
Stephen Fawcett – 893 – 64th
Declan Ashworth – 724 – 78th
Matt Potticary – 406 – 81st (retired)
David Williams – 119 – 83rd (retired)
Liam McDonnell – 561 – 3rd
James Nelson – 278 – 10th
Nata Chavanich – 1059 – 9th
Isabelle Hawkins – 780 – 28th
Janna Collier – 778 – 29th
Suzanne Coley – 680 – 31st
Samantha Hewkin – 601 – 37th
Ally Miller – 549 – 39th
Fiona Walsh – 676 – 5th
Sam Killgallon – 1002 – 9th
James Clark – 947 – 14th
Jiahao Chen – 793 – 30th
Kirie Yasuda – 750 – 17th
Head-to-head
Andrew Howe – 585 – seed 10, rank 17 (1/16)
John Bowes – 556 – seed 25, rank 17 (1/16)
Stephen Fawcett – 552 – seed 27, rank 33 (1/32)
Dominic Collis – 521 – seed 42, rank 8 (QF)
David Williams – 516 – seed 44, rank 33 (1/32)
Sam Killgallon – 472 – seed 62, rank 33 (1/32)
Declan Ashworth – 350 – seed 91, rank 65 (1/64)
Nata Chavanich – 543 – Seed 6, rank 1
Suzanne Coley – 351 – seed 29, rank 33 (1/32)
Isabelle Hawkins – 316 – seed 34, rank 17 (1/16)
Ally Miller – 276 – seed 36, rank 17 (1/16)
Fiona Walsh – 228 – seed 12, rank 9 (1/8)
Liam McDonnell – 227 – seed 13, rank 9 (1/8)
James Nelson – 126 – seed 22, rank 17 (1/16)
Full results
Report
Almost every BUCS weekend begins with some amount of chaos. With people, bow bags, tents, sleeping bags, food and clothing all being crammed into two minibuses. This year was no different except for the fact we had three cars alongside with those archers going to the Dunster week immediately from BUCS. The original plan was to have only those going to Dunster going in the cars with only BUCS people in the minibuses. But James Clark and Sam Killgallon could not be separated and Sam K went in the car instead. Misplacing the highly organised (!?!?!) arrangements. “Spaceship!!” Eventually the seating was sorted out and everything was loaded. At this point we’d only lost Jaihao Chan twice (this will become a theme of the weekend). The cars set off and the minibuses followed. Our minibus however had to stop to collect Danielle Newman and her giant BBQ. Thankfully we had some strong boys and girls in our bus and the BBQ was wedged in. We met up with the other bus and Dominic Collis and his passengers at ASDA, as is the usual stop before hitting the motorway.
This year the forward thinking Matthew Potticary had decided to get most of the food for the trip at Costo, including 60 eggs. Thanks to James C for driving us there and helping out, and Sam K to. So the ASDA trip wasn’t as painful as usual. Matt P and Liam McDonnell ran around ASDA picking up the last few bits that we didn’t buy at Costo and we all managed to get back to the minibus within the set time. Unfortunately most of us had chosen chocolate as our snack of choice for the journey but we hadn’t counted on the heat of the day. So that was rather a sticky mess! Due to the campsite not being opened till the evening we hadn’t left until the midday. News came down the line from the drivers ahead that there was major traffic jams. The other minibus driven by Theo Chen Sverre and Chris Skipper went for an alternative route as Chris and Theo both knew another way. Our minibus, driven by myself and Matt P only knew the main route so we stuck it out with the traffic. As we’d left last anyway we were a little behind the others but still managed to arrive, unload our people, tents, food, bow bags and the giant BBQ all before dark. On arrival were treated to a quick look inside the rather elaborate tent set up of David Williams and Sam Baldwin. Which was from then on called the sex dungeon/boudoir. We quickly set our tents up and thankfully Skipper came to the rescue of Matt and I with a foot pump so we could blow up our air bed. We then all piled back into the minibuses and headed out for dinner.
As is customary for the BUCS outdoors trip the first dinner is at the Redhouse Inn. With such a large party we took over the entire back section of the pub. Thanks to Isabelle Hawkins for arranging that. While everyone queued at the bar a few of the girls were left behind along with Sam K (Mrs Clark) so we allowed him onto the ladies table. As Fiona, Mrs Clark and I were discussing our partners Dani told us that she was “an independent woman who don’t need no man… I’ve got a king size feather duvet”. Eventually everyone managed to order and return to the tables. “Spaceship!!” The boys seeing the ladies table decided to become manly and go outside for a while to talk about cars. Poor Mrs Clark was torn between the two groups. The food at the Redhouse is always amazing, especially after a long day of travelling, however it was the desert most of us were looking forward to. There was an especially amazing sounding cheesecake that I had my eye on. However Dani and Theo managed to get the last two pieces leaving the rest of us crushed. Bad times. Dani, being amazing and beautiful and wonderful, let me have a bite of hers so the day wasn’t totally bad after all.
On returning to the campsite we all washed (although not Stephen Fawcett as he told me he doesn’t shower during BUCS…. make of that what you will) and headed to bed. Dom and James C decided however to annoy everyone by playing with Nata (Nat) Chavanich’s torch. In the morning we were treated to an amazing cooked breakfast, Dani was in charge of the BBQ and she arranged her little helpers to cook the eggs and beans. Those not helping with breakfast got ready for the day and took their bows down to the field. The rest of us quickly cleaned up and followed on. While trying to take notes on my phone of the weekend for this report by phone kept changing Jiahao’s name to “Mishap”. As it seemed so apt and funny we decided that we’d just have to call him that from now on. As it turns out Mishap had only bought jeans with him and had to shoot in Sam K’s pyjama bottoms. He’d also not set up his bow until the equipment checks were happening. Oh and he’d not numbered his arrows either. Bless. Ally Miller was wearing an eye patch to help with her shooting; however this meant that we just had to call her pirate Ally for the rest of the day.
The day started off hot. As is also customary for BUCS the majority of us were having a bad day. A few people had to pull out due to injury, either mental or physical. Our barebows Fiona and Liam though were having a great day. Dani came down to the field with bacon sandwiches at the end of the second distance and had a go at topping up her tan. However during the third distance the heavens opened and even the shelter wasn’t safe. The large drips inside the shelter were worse than being outside. Although being wet and miserable we continued the shoot. However we did end the day with some amazing achievements. Fiona achieved a bowman score and Liam won the bronze medal for barebow gents senior. Other achievements of note include the novice recurve team of James C, Sam K and Mishap coming 7th, the senior gents recurve team of John Bowes, Andrew Howe, Nat and Dom coming 6th, Nat coming 9th in the senior ladies recurve, Fiona coming 5th in the senior ladies barebow and lastly Sam K coming 9th in the novice gents recurve.
During this time Dani and Sam B had gone off in search of Krispy Kremes and had searched in 2 tesco’s and one service station before finding some for the team. Luckily they’d gotten back in time for Dani to arrange a fantastic BBQ meal for us all. The evening’s activities were varied. After showering some returned to the tents to sit out and chat, James C, Sam K and Suzanne Coley went for a drive to ASDA (but ended up getting lost and didn’t return for 2 hours) and the rest of us opted for civilisation and drank hot chocolates in the bar. The football was on that night so some stayed to watch, including Stephen, while we all headed off to bed. However there also seemed to be a wedding on that night at the hotel and we had to endure a live band until the small hours.
The next morning was met with the same delicious cooked breakfast. Those who weren’t shooting the H2H, or who had decided not to shoot after failing badly the day before, had a slightly more gentle start to the day. Kirie Yusuda bravely faced the morning and then promptly fell asleep in one of the chairs. Stephen was telling us about the football which had gone on quite late, leaving him to sneak into the large tent trying not to wake anyone up. He then asked Dani “how was stealth Tap” to which she responded “I don’t feel and different!” Needless to say most of us within ear shot of this exchange where now in pieces. Those of us not shooting the H2H had some time on our hands so after cleaning up the breakfast stuff and packing away our own tents and kit we showered and returned to the bar for more hot chocolate. “Spaceship!!” James C had bought his heat pads with him so Matt P and I were trying to find our most painful shoulder aches and place them strategically. Kirie then showed us her truly terrifying The Ring impression. By this point we’d completely lost Mishap and we’d decided that we should have given him the tracker instead of putting it on Parker.
We headed down the field to join the others for lunch and to watch the beginning of the matches. As usual there was a spread of seeding scores; Andrew seeded 10th, John 25th, Stephen 27th, Dom 42nd, David 44th, Sam K 62nd and Declan Ashworth 91st. Nat lead the Soton recurve ladies seeding by coming 6th, Suz 29th, Isabelle 34th, Ally 36th and Samantha Hewkin 45th. Our barebows did well with Fiona seeding 12th, scoring her second bowman score of the weekend and coming 1 point above Liam at 13th and James Nelson 22nd. As the matches began and people were knocked out we attempted to corral those people to come back to the campsite and help pack up. Unfortunately it is difficult to pack up and support our team mates at the same time, causing a conflict of which is more important. Most of us did however manage to witness Dom and Andy shoot against each other in the third round. Dom became the dominatrix of H2H and smashed Andy 6-0, going on till the fifth round before being beaten 6-0 himself. Nat was going strong and we packed up the site as quickly as possible as it was looking likely that she’d be in one of the finals. Just in time we got both minibuses down to the field as she began her gold medal match. Some of the people going to Dunster had left by this point. The rest of us managed to make Nat laugh at every end by doing a mass arm flail, perfectly timed when she turned back around after collecting her arrows. We all went crazy when it was announced that she’d won with a fantastic score of 6-2. The medals were awarded and Nat insisted on having Parker with her to collect her gold medal. By now it was late and we were all exhausted but still had a 3 hour drive back to do. So we threw everyone going back to Soton in the minibuses and headed off. As it was so late we stopped for dinner at the nearest service station and Mr and Mrs Clark were briefly reunited. Andy and Theo almost killed me by miming Theo feeding Andy a Jaffa cake. It doesn’t sound bad but it looked incredibly rude. I couldn’t catch my breath from laughing. Once I’d calmed down we were on our way again. We dropped Dani and her BBQ off at her house before meeting up with the other minibus on campus at midnight and letting everyone go home. Everything to be returned to wide lane had to be dumped at Sam K’s house as it was far too late to take it back. Eventually Matt P and I got home at 2.30am, thus is what happens when you’re the minibus drivers.
Oh and we finally found Mishap so we brought him back to Soton :D
-Janna
