Busuttil and Peplow reach final of European Team Snooker Championship

Malta 1 formed by Aaron Busuttil and Chris Peplow extended their winning run as they reached the final of the European Men’s Team Snooker Championship in Albufiera, Portugal.

Earlier in the day, the three Maltese teams were involved in their quarter-final contests but the other two teams ended their winning streak.

Malta 3, formed by Joseph Casha and Philip Ciantar, were beaten by Ukraine 1 3-0.

Alex Borg and Isaac Borg, who formed Malta 2, lost to France 2, which went on to set up a semi-final clash against Busuttil and Peplow.

In the other quarter-final, Aaron Busuttil and Chris Peplow (Malta 1) won against the Austrian team formed by Florian Nüßle and Paul Schopf 3-1, and in the semi-final against France 2 of Fabian Monnin and Brian Ochoiski, the Maltese won 3-0, with frames scores of 66-24, 60-51 and 68-47.

Wednesday’s final will be the best of five frames and will start at noon (Malta time).

Malta 1, for the second time during this championship will face Ukraine 1, made up of Denys Khmelevskyi and Iulian Boiko.

During the group stage the two teams were together in Group E and Malta had won the group game that was played last Monday.

In the past Malta has won the European Championship in the men’s team category on five occasions, although this time around the competition format is different.

Malta achieved its first success in Latvia, in 2004, when three players participated in that period.

In that year, the winning team was formed by Alex Borg, Simon Zammit and Duncan Bezzina.

A year later, in Malta, Alex Borg and Simon Zammit, together with the late Joe Grech, triumphed again, but in the subsequent edition, the winners participated as doubles.

In 2014, Alex Borg and Duncan Bezzina won in Romania and in 2016, Alex Borg together with Brian Cini won the edition organised in Lithuania.

Malta last won this championship in Serbia in 2019, when Tony Drago and Duncan Bezzina were the winning players.