From Monday 18 March until Saturday 23 March in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, eight Maltese players will compete in the European Men’s Individual Snooker Championship. In this edition a total of 184 players from 40 different countries including Malta will be taking part. In the initial part of the competition the players are divided into 46 different groups but in this round robin stage no players from the same country can meet against each other.
The eight Maltese players and their respective group are Alex Borg (Group G), Isaac Borg (Group AB), Aaron Busuttil (Group AA), Arthur Cachia (Group AC), Joseph Casha (Group K), Philip Ciantar (Group AE), Brian Cini (Group M) and Chris Peplow (Group C). From each group two will qualify to the knock out phase. The largest contingent of players is that from organizing country, Bosnia, with a total of fifteen players.
The first three days of the competition is dedicated to all the matches of the group stage and every player must play three matches since each group is formed from four players. On Thursday the first part of the knock will played until the championship reaches the last remaining 32 players. The elimination stage continues on Friday and on the final day, Saturday, there will be the two semi-finals and later in the afternoon the final.
The Maltese team will arrive in Sarajevo today, Sunday, late in the evening and every player will play their first match tomorrow. The sessions spread over the whole day and are to be played between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. The players are accompanied by the officials of the Malta Billiards & Snooker Association, led by the President, Ivan Brincat, who is already Bosnia since he attended the AGM of the European Billiard & Snooker Federation.
