The third of three European sub-regional qualifiers began today in Guernsey, with ten teams battling it out for one spot in next year's European final alongside Scotland, Netherlands, Italy and Jersey, with two teams to progress from that to the 2026 Men's T20 World Cup.

Hosts Guernsey are in Group B of the tournament along with Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland and Malta. Group A consists of Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Greece and Spain.

The hosts got their campaign off to a winning start this morning against Bulgaria at Port Soif. Batting first after winning the toss the visitors were bowled out for 97, Martin Bradley taking 3-16. Guernsey raced to their target in 9.4 overs to win by eight wickets, with Josh Butler scoring an unbeaten 41 from 28 balls.

Josh Butler scored 41 in Guernsey's win over Bulgaria (Guernsey Cricket)

Over at KGV, Spain were put into bat by Cypriot captain Roshan Siriwardena and scored 152-6. Daniel Doyle-Calle and Alec Soler were the leading run scorers, contributing 52 and 51 respectively. Cyprus batted out their overs in reply but were short of their target on 137-9, losing by 15 runs. Yasir Ali was the pick of Spain's bowlers with 3-22.

Denmark had the biggest score of the day in the afternoon match at KGV against Czechia, scoring 225-6 from their 20 overs with Hamid Shah scoring 100 from 58 balls for his first T20I century. Denmark used eight bowlers in their reply with Toqeer Ahmad taking 3-21 as the Czechs were kept to 107-8, losing by 118 runs.

At Port Soif, Malta won the toss and chose to bat first against Finland, scoring 117-9 from their 20 overs, Jaspal Singh top scoring with 46. Nicholas Salonen was the pick of the Finnish bowlers with 3-20. Finland then chased down their target quickly, taking 14.4 overs to win by nine wickets, with Ghulam Butt and Vanraaj Padhaal scoring 44 and 42 respectively.

Tomorrow morning will see Estonia take on Finland and Denmark play Greece. In the afternoon hosts Guernsey come up against Malta whilst Czechia will face Spain.