Malta's trio of players at the 2006 European Under 19 championship in Riga, Latvia, had a positive start when they won their opening match yesterday.

Thruston Grixti, in Group A, beat Reece Lagerqvist of Sweden 3-1, Duncan Pisani, in Group C, won 3-2 against Sebastian Vermeylan of Belgium while in Group E, Shawn Agius registered a 3-0 win over Alexander Raemy of Switzerland.

Forty players from 20 different countries are taking part in this competition. Among them are favourite Michael White of Wales, the 14-year-old world champion in this category and team-mate Jamie Jones who was very impressive in winning the Baltic Cup at the weekend.

In that competition, the Maltese did not qualify for the later stages from their Groups.

Duncan Pisani obtained one win, while Shawn Agius had two victories. Thurston Grixti failed to obtain a win but managed a good break of 54.

In the final Welsh youngster Jamie Jones beat England's Ben Woollaston 5-3 to claim the title. Jones was one of the Welsh team's players who recently won the European teams championship and which had eliminated Malta in the semi-finals.