Malta’s national snooker team went down 7-11 against hosts Belgium on the first day of the European Team Snooker Championships which started yesterday.

The Malta team was composed of Duncan Bezzina, Simon Zammit and Clint Grima.

Bezzina registered the best result when he won four frames out of six and even managed a break of 67 points.

Simon Zammit won only two frames and registered a good break of 87 points while Clint Grima, who is making his debut for the National team, won one frame out of six.

Malta’s next opponents are Iceland.

Meanwhile in the Masters competition, also played in Belgium, for players over 40 years, Malta won the first match against Ireland 5-3.

Tony Mifsud won three frames, two against Jim Carrick and another against Brendan Connery.

Frans Mintoff won a frame against Carrick and another against Connery.

Also yetserday other Maltese snooker player Alex Borg managed to go through to the second round in the World Championships Qualifiers after beating Paul Wykes 10-3 in Round 1. Borg will now play Rory McLeod in Round 2.

Also playing in Round 2 will be Tony Drago. His opponent will be Lui Song who beat Robert Stephen 10-9 in Round 1.

These qualifiers will determine the last 48 players for the Snooker World Championships this year.