If you've been to an archery tournament before, you already know you need to come. If you haven't been to an archery tournament yet, then you'll just have to trust me that they are the best part of student archery.  

Every tournament (apart from BUTC) has a separate novice tournament, so if you started archery this year you'll only be competing against other people with similar amounts of experience. We are just as keen to have novices come to tournaments as experienced archers. Even if you think you are rubbish at archery, you are still more than welcome to come along to as many tournaments as you can.

Below are but a few of the many tournaments we attend each year, along with a brief description. 

The Varsity Match

2010 marked the 61st year of the Varsity Match against the Cambridge University Bowmen. This is the highlight of the year.


The BUTTS League

The BUSA Midlands League consists of Oxford, Warwick, Birmingham, Cambridge, Nottingham, Loughborough and Derby. Every university hosts one leg a year, although not every university attends each leg. Placements at legs give you points, and the league finishes with an indoor championship worth more points. Whoever has the most points at the end, wins.

There are also 2 outdoor BUTTS shoots, a BUTTS outdoor championship, and a BUTTS friendly where the focus is the beer and the barbeque.

Frostbite Grudge Match vs Cambridge

Near the start of each Hilary term, we have the annual grudge match against our arch rivals, Cambridge. A frostbite round is so called because it is an outdoor round when the weather is cold. You won't actually get frostbite, in case you are worried. This one is going to be loads of fun because for the first time we are introducing a "no etiquette" policy, which means that short of touching, anything goes and you can do anything you want to try and put the tabs off their shots, and they can do the same to us. It isn't a particularly lengthy round, and it is shot at 30m on a big target face, so you'll all be capable of doing well.


BUSA Indoor Championship

The end of Hilary Term marks the highlight of the indoor student archery season. In 2007 at Leeds there were almost 400 archers from 35 universities.

BUTC (British University Team Championship)

This one doesn't have a separate thing for novices, everybody is treated the same. This one is loads of fun. The winners at archery tournaments are normally decided by a spreadsheet. At BUTC you shoot in teams of 3 at "hit/miss" targets which have little yellow plastic discs that go BANG and disappear into the target if you hit them. It makes it a great tournament to watch, and even more fun to take part in. We can only take a maximum of 6 archers to this, but that generally isn't a problem as it is often far away and awkwardly timed.


Isle of Man Festival of Sport

This one is a bit different but I'll mention it anyway. On the (long) weekend (usually around early April) there are various archery tournaments as part of the Isle of Man Festival of Sport. It's always a fantastic weekend and has in the past involved things such as illicit mini-golf.... Also a great opportunity to meet student archers from other universities including non-BUTTS ones.

BUSA Outdoor Championship

This is the highlight of the year for every university except Oxford and Cambridge. A massive outdoor shoot in Lilleshal, this is a day not to be missed. Usually held on Saturday of 8th week, Trinity Term.