The Maltese national men’s team have participated in the last edition of the European Nations Challenge Cup (ENCC) 2010.

Competing against 16 teams from 14 different countries, Malta placed 9th ranking high amongst top European players and improving on last year’s performance which had seen Malta place in the 15th place.

Although Malta’s start to the tournament proved to be rather rough, having been grouped with the two top seeds (Serbia, the eventual winner being one of them), the Maltese team managed to recover quite well.

Playing without top seeds Brad Hindle Deguara and Mike Fiteni (both players in India for the Commonwealth Games) the team consisted of Joseph Desira, Daniel Zammit Lewis, Bernard Bugeja and Carl Camilleri.

First match was against Gibraltar 2, which the Maltese team easily beat. The second and third matches were against the two top seeds with both teams fielding PSA ranked players.

Team Malta played well but had to concede both matches to tougher opposition.

The next three matches saw Malta win against Isle Of Man, Liechtenstein and Poland. Carl Camilleri secured his first win at international level against Isle of Man, while Joe Desira showed off his skills beating a rival from Liechtenstein 3-1.

The final match against Poland was keenly contested. Bernard Bugeja lost closely in a well fought-out match. Joe Desira secured Malta’s win against Polish number 1 Lukaz Nitka, while the young Daniel Zammit Lewis showed off his talents by winning his game thus helping Malta place 9th.

Ivan Balzan, national coach commented that this tournament was a perfect launching pad for the forthcoming European Championships in April and above all the GSSE 2011 in Liechtenstein.