Malta concluded their commitments at the 2026 International Challenge Cup in Youghal, Republic of Ireland, with a fourth-place finish after suffering defeat against Northern Ireland before bouncing back with an impressive victory over hosts Republic of Ireland.

The Maltese team followed an identical pattern to the previous day, when they had lost to Scotland before defeating France. This time Malta went down 15-12 against Northern Ireland in the morning but responded strongly to beat the Republic of Ireland 16-11 in their final encounter.

Malta’s best performances against Northern Ireland came in the Masters category, where Philip Ciantar recorded an emphatic 3-0 victory over Gregory Cooke.

France Mintoff defeated Ramie McAllister 2-1, while Ivan Attard overcame Darren McGavigan by the same score. Emanuel Mallia was beaten 3-0 by Paul Sweeney.

In the Men’s category, Alex Borg was Malta’s only winner, defeating Stephen Brady 2-1. Chris Peplow lost 2-1 to Anto Heaney, Joseph Casha suffered a similar defeat against Brian Milne and John Farrugia went down by the same score against Shea Moore.

Junior player Xavier Rizzo was beaten 3-0 by Shea McConville, reversing the result of their meeting in last year’s competition when the Maltese youngster had won by the same score.

Malta produced a much stronger performance in the afternoon against the Republic of Ireland, a nation which has traditionally enjoyed considerable success when hosting the competition.

The Maltese Masters were particularly impressive, winning all four of their matches 2-1. Ciantar defeated Brendan Cooney, Attard overcame James Bateman and Mallia beat Brendan Thomas.

In the final match of the competition, Mintoff defeated Stephen Merrigan 2-1 to confirm Malta’s 16-11 victory. The result also completed an excellent individual tournament for Mintoff, who won all his matches during the competition.

In the Men’s category, Peplow defeated Ross Bulman and Casha overcame Robert Murphy, while Borg lost to Daniel Merrigan and Farrugia was beaten by Michael Judge.

Rizzo also ended his tournament on a positive note by defeating Cathal Horgan. Remarkably, all nine individual matches between Malta and the Republic of Ireland finished with 2-1 scorelines.

Malta finished the tournament with 56 frames won, exactly the same total as last year. However, they had to settle for fourth place, finishing just one frame behind the Republic of Ireland.

Scotland retained the International Challenge Cup in convincing fashion after collecting 79 frames, finishing 18 ahead of runners-up Northern Ireland, who ended with 61. France placed fifth with 17 frames.

During the closing ceremony, it was also confirmed that Malta will host the 2027 edition of the International Challenge Cup. The tournament will be staged in November, the same period in which Malta last hosted the event in 2024.