Alex Borg and Duncan Bezzina were crowned 2014 European team champions after beating England’s Callum Downing and Nick Jennings 4-2 in the final in Romania, yesterday.

It was an impressive performance from the Maltese players, the top seeds in the country’s national rankings and the most consistent in the current season, as they reached their peak in the latter stages of the tournament.

In fact, they chalked up five wins in the last two days of the tournament which was played at the plush Hotel Caro in Bucharest.

For Malta this was a third success in the European Team Championships after having claimed the trophy in 2004 and 2005.

On those two editions, play was held on a different format as each team consisted of three players instead of the current two.

Borg and Bezzina reached the final after easing past Poland 2 4-2 in the semi-finals which was played in the morning session. Here, Borg hit a top break of 73.

Downing and Jennings also found little difficulty in winning their semi-final after brushing aside Israel 4-1.

The Maltese tandem made a bright start in the final as Bezzina had the better of Jennings 48-19 while Borg beat Downing 124-0 with runs of 64 and 52.

But the English pair got back in contention when they won the first doubles match 60-46 before Downing had the better of Bezzina 60-40 to level the match at two-all.

However, Borg kept his composure as he edged past Jennings 64-52 before he teamed up with Bezzina to beat their English opponents 63-25 in the final doubles match and seal a 4-2 victory.

Meanwhile, Daria Sirotina and Anastasia Nechaeva, of Russia, secured the women’s title after defeating Belarus’s Nastya Toumilovitch and Yana Shut 4-1 in the final.

The Masters title went to Welshmen Peter Roscoe and Wayne Morgan. They beat Belgium’s Mario Van Herk and Alain Vandersteen 4-1 in the final.