Blues
Half Blues
The Blues awards are the highest level of recognition for Cambridge University sporting achievements. They award exceptional performance, but specifically exceptional performance within the university setting and dedication and hard work towards your sport.
Archery is a Half-Blue sport, meaning at the end of the year the outgoing captain can choose to award Half-Blues at their discretion to athletes that they feel are worthy of the award.
In addition to performance the captain will also take in to account the Six Blues’ Criteria as set out by the Blues Committees. These are the athlete’s:
- Ability
- Excellence
- Effort
- Determination
- Overall contribution to the sport
- Contribution to the result against Oxford.
To be eligible for this award an athlete must have been a member of the Varsity Match team (top four scores) and have shot over a first class score in the Varsity Match. They must also compete in at least half of the additional university competitions and attend training regularly.
It should be noted that shooting in the Varsity Team is not sufficient alone to attain the award. Being a member of the team is reward in itself and something many aspire to. An archer must also have worked hard and shown dedication to their training to achieve this, and made a valuable contribution to the performance of the team across the year. A Blues athlete not only shoots for themselves, but should drive forwards and inspire the whole team.
Archers of all bowstyles that are not members of the Varsity Team but achieve a first class score in the match may be awarded First Team Colours by the captain at the end of the year.
Full Blues
For truly exceptional athletes it is possible to obtain a Full Blue award at the Captain's discretion. These award performance on a national level by athletes in the university setting.
To be eligible for a Full Blue, an archer must achieve a first class score in the Varsity match. Further they must achieve a Master Bowman or Grand Master Bowman Classification (top 4% or 1% nationally) in the outdoor season or win a medal at the BUCS outdoor finals while achieving a Bowman classification score at that event.
Again, simply achieving this level of performance should be reward in itself, and Full Blue athletes would also be expected to fulfil the six Blues criteria above and be judged to have made a truly exceptional contribution to the performance of the club. If the Captain feels an archer is worthy of this award they can apply on their behalf and make the case to the relevant Blues committee. There have been 3 Full Blues in Archery over the last 15 years.
A Full Blue can be awarded for any bowstyle. However, for men, a Full Blue may be awarded to no more than one athlete competing on each non-recurve bow type per year.