For the 5th consecutive year, Camphill Stormers won the Vectis summer pétanque league, equaling the record set by Arreton Barnstormers.
The 2026 summer league took on a different format to previous years with teams spilt into 3 leagues based on their 2025 end-of-season positions; the top 2 leagues consisted of 7 teams, which played each other 4 times, twice home and twice away.
Over the 24 weeks, the Vectis league was extremely competitive, with the race for the top spot switching between Camphill Stormers and Plessey Hotshots; it all came down to the penultimate game of the season, which saw the two teams playing each other.
Camphill had the home advantage and triumphed 5-0; this meant they had won the league with one game to go.
Team captain, Sean Newton, said:
“It was an exceptionally long and competitive season which started back on 8th April; every week was a challenge and required the team to focus and play to the best of their ability. After 19 games we knew that winning the league was a big ask, but everyone upped their game and we won the last five games 5 – 0. Huge credit to Plessey as they pushed us all the way.
“Thank you to Dave Sedgeley for arranging sponsorship from Konsilieo Insurance for our new team kit. We have one team competition left to play this season which is the Godbold on 25th October and then its time for the annual end of season party and definitely some celebrating!”
Overall, it has been an incredibly good year for the Stormers, 7 players qualified as part of the team representing the Isle of Wight in the first division at the annual Inter-Regionals which was held at Sand Bay holiday camp in Weston-Super-Mare.
Sean, Rob, and Emma Stockbridge qualified as the top Island team and secured 8 wins from 12 games at the event, which meant they were the top Isle of Wight team. Sean also won the Isle of Wight mixed pairs with Emma, and they were also part of a 4-player team with Kevin Gifford and Chris Bailey, which won the Isle of Wight triples.
