The Malta Pool Association will be hosting the European Eight Ball Championships between February 16 and 21 which has recorded a record number of participants at the Dolmen Hotel.
The championships will be composed of eight categories, namely Men A, Men B, Men C, Women, U-18 men, U-23 men, Over 50 and Over 60.
During the period of competition and individual tournament will also be organised for men, women, U-18, U-23 and the Over 50 categories.
The championships will attract to our islands players from 11 countries, namely, Belgium, France, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Scotland, Wales, Malta and guests Morocco.
The European championships will see the participation of a record 81 teams and over 550 players in the various categories.
The continental competition will get under way on Sunday with the opening ceremony at 10.30am. The first matches will get under way at noon and will come to a close on Friday, February 21 with the finals from all categories.
Malta has enjoyed a lot of success in these championships and in fact they won the men’s team event three times, namely in 2002, 2008 and 2013, the U-23 trophy in 2015, 2016 and 2018 and the U-18 crown in 1999.
The Maltese players also enjoyed success in the world championships in the U-23 category in 2011.
Added to that Anton Cuschieri and Clayton Caruana were both crowned European Individual champions in 2017 and 2011 respectively.
This weekend Scott Muscat will be defending the U-23 singles title he won in Ireland last year.
Malta will be represented by ten selections.
The Maltese teams will be formed as follows:
Men A: Clayton Attard, Anton Cuschieri, Christ Tabone; Lyden Debono, Ryan Pisani and Johan Attard.
Men B: Wayne Bonnici, Jason Agius, Wallace Muscat, Josef Gafa, Miguel Falzon, Ryan Falzon.
Men C; Kevin Mercieca, Daniel Grima, Rudolph Gellel, Antoine Aquilina, Warren Falzon, Clayton Castaldi.
U-18 A: Liam Mifsud, Nordai Desira, Neil Caruana, Steve Muscat.
U-23 A: Scott Muscat, Dejan Grech, Elcid Aquilina, Wayne Farrugia.
Over 50 A: Marcel Micallef, Ray Caruana, Tonio Mifsud, Christ Mills, Brian Grech, Marco Bonello.
Over 60s: Mario Spiteri, John Azzopardi, Pankrazzju Borg.