No doubt that Maltese table football is passing through a great moment. In the past few days , a couple of players were successful in England and Greece and thus making themselves proud offering satisfaction to their clubs only two months before Malta defends a World Cup title.

Grand Prix in England

Members of the Italian club Fiamme Azzurre, namely Hansel Mallia, Joe Mifsud and Steve Austin headed for Leicester in England to give their team the possibility to win this Grand Prix. Following the results, earlier this year in Mons (Belgium) and the Serie B Championship last April, Fiamme Azzurre were pointed out as the favoruites for this tournament. They had to face the club from England named Glide, Slide, Chip & Dip where the Italian side with Maltese players won with a 2-1 score.

On an individual basis, in the Open Category, Malta was close to repeat the success of Massimo Cremona last year thanks to Hansel Mallia. Hansel arrived in the final and was declared the sportsman of the tournament, but he lost 3-2 against home player Christ Thomas.

In the Veterans Category, Joseph Mifsud continued with his positive run with some more successes. The Maltese player reached the final after beating Oliver Pere in the semifinal. He has now improved his ranking and is now eyeing first position in this category.

Steve Austin also participated in this category. He was eliminated at an early stage, but in a consolation tournament the former player of Spezia beat Tony McCann winning 5-1.

Treble for Atlas FTC

Mark Gauci and Derek Conti were in action for the Greek team Atlas FTC of Athens. Following their transfer from the Italian side of CCT Roma, Gauci and Conti, fresh from the world title in September with the Maltese national team, helped their team win the Grand Prix in Athens a couple of days after the World Cup. They also managed to win the Maltese Grand Prix on the first weekend of April 2011. But this was not all, they managed to win the Europa League in October and also the Greek Cup in January and thus making a treble for the Greek team.

Angelo Borg was also in Greece to play for his side Piraeus Lions. The youngster had very positive perfomances unlike of what his team offered during the weekend which made it impossibile for the team to obtain satisfactory results.