The 2026 British Bowls U25 International Series ended the outdoor season at Victoria Park with a bang as both the Men’s and Women’s competitions came down to the final bowl.

The Men’s competition saw Scotland narrowly miss a last-gasp drive which saw England take the gold medal in a reverse of fortunes from 2025.

The situation was flipped in the Women’s tournament, as England needed a result from the last shot to retain their title and deny Scotland a famous comeback win.

The final bowl was agonisingly close to doing enough, but the Scots took the end, the match and the Series in a thriller of a finish.

British Bowls at It’s Best

One could argue that the 2026 British Bowls U25 International Series was all about Day Two, Session Six.

Two countries still had a chance to take gold in both the Men’s and Women’s competitions: England and Scotland.

Ireland and Wales still had the opportunity to claim a well-earned medal in the Men’s Series, but neither were close enough to push for gold; it was down to the auld enemies.

In the Men’s Series, England took a narrow lead into Day Two after an 8-4 win over Wales, a brilliant 10-2 besting of Scotland and an epic 6-6 draw with Ireland.

Each nation stepped up their game on the second day, with each match becoming closer and each rink taking on added significance.

England began the day with another tough fixture vs and Ireland team buoyed by the previous day’s draw, and they showed that confidence on the green, taking a 4-6 win.

Wales were next, and England knew they needed to match Scotland’s result against Ireland to stand them in good stead going into the final session.

It wasn’t to be however, and Wales played some inspired bowls to take the match 8-2.

With Scotland snagging a 6-4 win over the Irish, that meant England needed two win on three of the four rinks in the final session, and win the Overall Shots.

Rinks A2 and A3 cancelled each other out, with the Four of Oli Collins, Carlos Lali, Harry Duffield and Finley Williamson taking a 15-8 win and Scotland claiming a 18-13 victory over Louie Hodges, Alasdair Williams and Isaac Jenner in the Triples.

The Pairs game on A5 was poised at 13-12 to England going into the final end, with Joe Sims and Mack May in the lead.

England held shot with the final Scottish delivery about to come, one English bowl surrounded by several Scottish ones.

The drive missed and England took the rink, 14-12, setting up a blockbuster finish to the Triples game on A4.

It was the same situation as the Pairs.

Joe Sanford, Sam Brugnoli and Charlie Beeton held shot with the scores within one.

Scotland had to employ another attempt at the drive shot.

It was a good attempt, and wasn’t far away from sticking it’s target, but thankfully for England, missed, sending the green into rapturous celebration as the team realised they had clinched gold.

The Drama Didn’t Let Up

Over on D Green, an epic battle of its own was brewing between England and Scotland in the Women’s U25 Series.

England were the class of Day One, sweeping Wales 12-0, downing Scotland 10-2 and dominating Ireland 12-0.

Day Two saw Scotland mount a serious comeback though, and with England claiming a narrow 6-4 win over Ireland and losing 4-6 to Wales in the penultimate session, the Scots still had a slim chance.

If England took any rinks of the four being played, they would retain the title and give the host nation a superb double gold.

Scotland did however carry a lot of momentum heading into the final game, and that showed as they took solid leads in three of the four rinks, with England’s trio of Ella Crouch, Hannah Smith and Maddie Burgess showing defiance with a strong lead in the Triples.

England roared back into contention on each rink, pushing the Scots close, but couldn’t quite make up the difference.

England Triples were also in a tight tussle, one that came down to the final shot of the weekend.

National Women’s Singles and Champion of Champions title winner Maddie Burgess had an extremely difficult shot to make, needing to take out the Scottish bowl lying shot and keep hers in the head to make two for England.

Maddie gave a valiant effort under immense pressure, but her brilliant attempt wasn’t quite enough and the Scottish women celebrated a comeback gold medal victory.

Results

• Teams receive two points for each Rink Win
• Teams receive two points for Overall Shots Win
• Teams receive one point for drawing a rink and/or Overall Shots
• That maximum a team could win on Day One was 12 points (five rinks in use), the maximum on Day Two was 10 points (four rinks in use)

See the full set of results and all the details using our Live Scoring sheet.

Ten of the Best

A Word from the Captains

“We knew what we had to do to win. Both the Pairs and Triples came down to the last bowl and, thankfully, we got over the line. I can’t quite believe it. We really wanted it this year. We did it the hard way, but we got over the line.”

Isaac Jenner, England U25 Men’s Captain

“We did as much as we could going into the second day and gave ourselves a great lead. We need to reflect back to the games during the second day where we could have capitalised on opportunities a bit more. The Talent Pathway Programme is great and it gives us juniors a great platform to break into the senior international teams.”

Yaz Hasan, England U25 Women’s Captain

Get Involved

Don’t forget that Victoria Park is playing host to another huge international bowls tournament next year as the 2027 World Bowls Championship comes to the Northern Hemisphere.

Click here to purchase tickets for a once-in-a-generation opportunity to see the best bowlers on earth battle for world supremacy.

Images: Kiera Thurston Photography