Two Norwich petanque players have narrowly missed out on representing England in the Six Nations Junior Tournament, to be held in the Netherlands this spring.

Two Norwich petanque players have narrowly missed out on representing England in the Six Nations Junior Tournament, to be held in the Netherlands this spring.

Hellesdon's James Urquhart and Georgie Wright, from Earlham, joined Red Lodge's Christopher Peel as part of the Anglia team hoping to make the competition on the continent.

However, it was not meant to be for Urquhart, 15, and Wright, 16, who are both members of the Wanderers St Faiths Club.

The qualifier at Whittlesey, in Cambridgeshire, attracted the country's top junior players, including members of the England team that participated in last year's World Junior Championship, held in Tunisia.

Anglia encountered a tough qualifying series but, having lost their first match to a strong multi-region team, proceeded to the play-off with four wins from five games, including a 13-7 victory over the 2009 England team members from the Chiltern region.

However, against the same opponents in the play-off, this time the Chiltern triple of Jack Blows, Ross Jones and Reece Gould regained their composure to reverse the previous result and it will be them who will represent England in the Dutch tournament.

Another Wanderers St Faiths youngster Josh Wilcox, 15 years old from Hethersett, partnered by Sam Ohlsson (Chiltern) and Emma Stockbridge (Isle of Wight) also reached the later stages of the tournament and will have benefitted from the experience.