Two Malta teams will be departing for Sofia tomorrow to take part in the European team championships which will be played in the Bulgarian capital between Saturday and 16March. One team will play in the Men’s category while the other team will take part in the Masters.

The Men’s team of three players is made up of current local champion Alex Borg, Simon Zammit and Duncan Bezzina. The same three players won the inaugural event in 2004 in Riga, Latvia.

The Masters team of two players is made up of Emanuel Mallia and Ivan Rizzo. Malta is the current title holder in the Masters category having won the championship last year with the team that was made up of Simon Zammit and Joe Grech.

24 teams from 18 European countries will take part in the Men’s category. They were divided into four groups of six teams each with the top four in each group qualifying into the last 16 knock-out stages. All matches will be played over the best of 19 frames. Malta has been drawn to play in Group D that includes Israel, Scotland, Finland and two teams from Bulgaria.

In the Masters category, 14 teams from 12 countries will be participating. They were divided into two groups of seven teams each with the top four in each group qualifying into the quarter-finals. All matches will be played over the best of seven frames. Malta will be playing in Group B against Wales, Bulgaria Israel, Ireland, France and Russia.

For live scoring, other information about the championships, players’ profiles etc visit www.ebsa.tv and www.esnooker.pl