Ciantar, Cachia and Mintoff reach knock out stages at European Championships

Philip Ciantar, Arthur Cachia and Frans Mintoff booked their place in the knock out stages of the European Championship that are currently being played at the Dolmen Hotel.

Philip Ciantar progressed to the knock out stages when he battled past Bosnian player Eldar Karamehmedovic 3-2.

The Maltese player needed to win the match to progress and his task turned out more difficult when Karamehmedovic stormed into a two-frame lead.

But Ciantar refused to throw in the towel as he managed to win the next three frames to secure a 3-2 win and a place in the knock out stages.

Arthur Cachia is through to the next round when he won his final group game against Mesrop Kamalyan, of Armenia, 3-1.

Frans Mintoff was another Maltese player who progressed from his group after he defeated Lithuanian player Nikita Kolpacenko 3-0.

Brian Cini completed a perfect run in the group stages when he had the better of highly-rated Moldovan player Vladislav Gradinari 3-2 in a thrilling encounter.

The Maltese player had to be at his best to see off the highly-rated Moldovan layer who scored runs of 51 and 82 to take a 2-1 lead.

But Cini kept his poise to take the final two frames to secure victory that guaranteed that he topped his section.

Duncan Bezzina beat Miguel Rulvo, of Portugal, 3-0 but the win was not enough for the Maltese player to progress to the knock out stages.

Melchior Galea’s run in the competition came to an end when he suffered a fourth successive defeat at the hands of Martin Nitschke, of Poland 3-0.

Chris Peplow also exited the tournament after he was beaten by Israeli player Nadav Biton 3-2.

The Israeli player hitt a best run of 102 while Peplow managed a run of 66.

Frans Abdilla won his final group match against Vlatko Janev, of Macedonia 3-0 but still bow out of the tournament.

This is because the Maltese player was eliminated as he had an inferior record to Finland’s Jani Kananen who won his final group match against Erik Dullerud, of Norway, 3-2.

Manwel Mallia ended his group commitments with a 3-1 defeat to Jeff Jacobs, of Belgium.

Isaac Borg failed to progress when he was beaten by Bulcsu Revesz, of Hungary, 3-1. Revesz is a highly-rated player who last week was crowned the U-18 European champion.

Tony Mifsud crashed out of the tournament when he was beaten by Italian player Gianmarco Tonini 3-0.