The 2026 European championships for Men’s singles, Women’s singles, Mixed doubles, Men’s doubles, and Women’s doubles took place in Lorca, Spain over the weekend of 18 to 21 June. Four Jersey players took part and were accompanied by coaches, Rosie Boleat and Elaine Paisnel.
Top Jersey performer was Nicky Maindonald, who was competing in Europe for the first time. Nicky won her opening Women’s game beating the Bulgarian player 13-8. She followed this with a second win, ironically against the Guernsey lady.
Toby Northern represented Jersey in the Men’s singles and he too won his opening game, also beating a Bulgarian 13-8.
Partnered with Lorna Limbrick, Nicky had to wait until the third round for a win in the Women’s doubles – a very close contest against Finland which they won12-10.
Andrew Bellamy-Burt partnered Toby in the Men’s doubles and their win also came in the third round, overcoming the pair from Latvia.
Playing in the mixed competition, Lorna and Andrew beat Estonia, again a tight finish of 12-9.
So, all our teams won at least one game, and they all played some excellent petanque against far more experienced nations.
All finishing in the lower half after the round, our Jersey players each took part in the Nations Cup at the knockout stage.
In each category our players put up good challenges but could not make it through to the quarterfinals, though all gained experience of playing at top level.
See link to Jersey Results