On Saturday, at the Snooker Academy in Ħamrun, the Malta Billiards & Snooker Association hosted the second day of the International Challenge Cup, where the Maltese team narrowly lost to Northern Ireland by just one frame. Meanwhile, the Republic of Ireland concluded their commitments with a significant victory over Scotland and remain unbeatable.
The Maltese team faced a close defeat on Saturday with Northern Ireland winning 14 frames out of 27, while Malta secured 13 frames. Among the Maltese players, Arthur Cachia triumphed with a 3-0 win over Ramie McAllister. Alex Borg, Joseph Casha, and Philip Ciantar each claimed a 2-1 victory against Anto Heaney, Brian Milne, and Dermot Loughran respectively. Brian Cini, Isaac Borg, and Frans Mintoff each lost 2-1, with the decisive third frame tipping the balance in favour of their opponents Patrick Wallace, Stephen Brady, and Rory Mallon respectively. David Zammit found no answer to Paul Sweeney and was defeated 3-0, while the young Xavier Rizzo mirrored his first two matches of the previous day, winning the initial frame but losing the subsequent two. He was beaten by Jamie Gardiner.
In the two matches played by the Republic of Ireland on the second day of the tournament, they achieved significant victories. In the morning, they dominated France with a score of 23-4, and later, in the day’s final encounter, they defeated Scotland by 22-5. With a total of 77 points, no country can surpass them.
The standings after the second day of competition are as follows: the Republic of Ireland – 77 and declared champions of this edition, Malta – 43, Northern Ireland – 42, Scotland – 37, and France – 19. Today, Malta will face France in the last match of this ICC edition, starting at 3:00 p.m. The main objective of this tournament format is to win as many frames as possible, and the second place will also depend on the final result of the match between Northern Ireland and Scotland.
Malta will have the advantage of playing after this match. If the Maltese team finishes second, it will have achieved a better result than last year in the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, where they finished third.
