With an excellent performance on the second day of the finals of the local Premier Snooker Championship, Aaron Busuttil was again crowned local Snooker champion after defeating Brian Cini, who had won the previous edition against Busuttil himself. This was the third time that Aaron Busuttil became the local Snooker champion, and it was also the sixth final between the two who are undoubtedly the two best players in this sport in recent years.
This year, the Malta Billiards and Snooker Association introduced a format where this final is won from the best of 19 frames played over two days. On the first day, the first nine frames are played and the remaining ten frames, according to need, are played the next day.
In fact, after the first day played on Wednesday, it was Cini who had a lead of just only one frame and finished the first session 5-4. In this session, Busuttil started with a two-frame lead, but Cini won four consecutive frames before Busuttil brought the match back to a tie. Cini closed the first day by winning the ninth frame.
On Thursday, during the second day, Busuttil was in formidable form and did not give Cini any chance to get into the game, so much that he won the first five frames of the second session for a provisional score of 9-5. In four out of five frames that he won, he potted breaks of 76 points, twice in a row, 87 points, and in the 14th frame he even managed to secure the highest break of the season so far with a score of 129 points.
Although Cini won the next frame, Busuttil closed the match in 16 frames for a final score of 10-6. The scores of the sixteen frames played during this final were as follows: on the first day, 80-36, 81-0, 45-72, 53-83, 1-66, 16-71, 81-36, 71-59 and 52-73; and on the second day, 82-38, 76-1, 87-19, 75-42, 130-7, 15-70 and 66-5.
After the final, Mr. Marlon Brincat, the Managing Director of the sponsors of the Premier Snooker Championship, CE Installations Limited, together with the President of the Malta Billiards & Snooker Association, Ivan Brincat, presented the trophy to Aaron Busuttil, who has now once again engraved his name on the prestigious trophy for this sport after having achieved this success in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons.
