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A Jersey team has secured a bronze medal in a competition known as "the Champions League of Pétanque".
The Liberation Pétanque Club secured a bronze medal in the European Cup for Clubs, which took place in Sin-Le-Noble in Northern France earlier this month.
But it wasn't an easy task getting to the French tournament.
Stubborn fog meant flights were cancelled and the group had to endure a last minute boat taxi and six-hour drive to make it in time for the opening ceremony.
But their efforts were worth it.
The Jersey team made it through the group stages in second place on points difference after beating Latvia.
The players then secured Jersey's first-ever knockout win against Croatia in the Federation Cup draw, which meant they needed to pull off a strong performance against Lithuania to succeed to the semi-finals.
After the singles, Jersey were 8-4 down with wins for Wendy Ritzema and Toby Northern but managed to win two of the three doubles thanks to Andrew Bellamy-Burt and Laurent Pellaton.
Geoffroy Buffetrille and Toby Northern then also won their match but were still 11-10 down overall.
This meant Jersey needed to pull off a strong come back and win both triples to get to the FedCup semi-finals.
Thanks to two teams – Andrew Bellamy-Burt, Jean Stewart and Gary Cowburn and Toby Northern, Laurent Pellaton and Geoffroy Buffetrille – who blazed through those contests, Jersey were through to the semis against Denmark.
The Federation Cup is a recent addition to the tournament, separate from the main European Cup contest that sees many more nation teams go heat-to-head.
An eventual loss to Denmark - who went on to win the Federation Cup - meant Jersey placed joint third with Ireland who lost to Finland after their semi-final match.
Some of Europe's best pétanque teams, including the French Frejus International Pétanque, which includes Dylan Rocher and Diego Rizzi, the two best players in the world, competed at the tournament in a purpose-built boulodrome.
Wendy Ritzema, who was lucky enough to play against Dylan Rocher over the weekend, said it was an "unforgettable" experience.
"Playing for Liberation Pétanque Club, representing Jersey in the Euro Cup was quite simply an unforgettable experience."
"My wonderful partner, Gary Cowburn and I managed to achieve our ambition of playing in Europe in a Mixed Doubles game. We played against a World Champion Dylan Rocher and his wife, and for a Pétanque player, it doesn’t get any better than that. We are both still on cloud nine!"
Toby Northern (Captain)
Andrew Bellamy-Burt
Gary Cowburn
Geoffroy Buffetrille
Laurent Pellaton
Ross Churchill
Jean Stewart
Wendy Ritzema
Alex Stewart
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