Last weekend saw the 2026 Ladies British Isles Championship take place in Belfast, with 3 of Gloucester’s ladies representing England. Jo Featherstone (Sharpness) was selected in the Pairs, with Monica Carter (Ripple) and Carole Preece (Ripple) selected together in the Triples.
Last season’s event saw Ireland complete a clean sweep of titles and it would be a challenge to prevent this from happening again this year, with Ireland being on home turf.
The Triple of Carole, Monica and Sonia Burden (West Sussex) started the Saturday with a tough game against a strong Irish team. Unfortunately, the Irish proved dominant winning 19-5. Next up were the Welsh. Off the back of a big win over Scotland they repeated the performance beating the English triple 23-4 and setting up a showdown with Ireland on the Sunday.
With pride to play for, the English Triple overcame the disappointment of the Saturday with a 17-13 win over Scotland on the Sunday to secure 3 rd place in the group. The title match saw Ireland come out on top beating the Welsh by 8 shots.
The Pair of Jo and Emily Weaver (West Mids) started their weekend well with a dominant 29-1 win over Scotland. Next up was Wales and despite taking a hard-fought lead into the last end they finished up 14-14. This meant at the end of Saturday they were top of the standings on shots over Ireland with just the Irish pair to play. A win on the Sunday would guarantee the title while a draw would leave them reliant on other results.
This was familiar ground for the English pair who had been in the same position last year disappointingly losing to Ireland on the final bowl. However, this year would be different! An emphatic 23-7 win over Ireland saw the pair clinch the title in style.
The pairs would prove to be the only title not to be retained by the Irish. England found themselves runners up in the Singles, Fours and Team event with the Irish retaining the remainder.
