Maltese players made a promising start to the European Individual Seniors Snooker Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, winning five of their seven group-stage matches on Wednesday.

This year’s competition has been divided into two categories: over-40 and over-55, with players aged 55 or older allowed to choose which event to contest.

Alex Borg and Philip Ciantar both opened their campaigns with convincing 3-0 victories in the over-40 category.

Borg defeated Lithuania’s Darius Bublys, winning the frames 72-37, 61-7 and 52-7. Ciantar was equally impressive against Ireland’s Jay Chopra, prevailing 79-25, 71-27 and 49-36.

In the over-55 category, known as the Super Seniors, France Mintoff secured his place in the knockout stage after winning both his opening matches.

Mintoff began with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Finland’s Juhani Koskelin, taking the frames 66-12, 60-13 and 54-15.

He was then pushed to a deciding frame by England’s Ian Buckley before emerging with a 3-2 victory. Mintoff won the opening frame 58-22 but lost the next two 41-80 and 39-59. He recovered to take the fourth 68-47 before dominating the decider 70-4.

Emanuel Mallia also began positively, recovering from the loss of the opening frame to defeat Ireland’s Stephen Merrigan 3-1. The frame scores were 35-49, 72-32, 54-37 and 75-65.

Ivan Attard, however, was eliminated after suffering two 3-1 defeats despite winning the opening frame in both encounters.

Attard first lost to Sweden’s Andy Nettleton, with the frames ending 51-26, 23-51, 28-43 and 61-66. He later went down to former Welsh professional Darren Morgan, one of the favourites for the Super Seniors title, 60-54, 40-54, 16-54 and 21-70.

The remaining group-stage matches involving Maltese players will be held on Thursday, although the Super Seniors knockout phase could also get under way.

Thursday’s matches

09:00 – Over-40 Group K: Alex Borg v Patrick Geysels (Belgium)
13:00 – Over-40 Group C: Philip Ciantar v Darryl James (Wales)
13:00 – Over-55 Group A: Ivan Attard v Paul Arnold (Ireland)
15:00 – Over-55 Group C: France Mintoff v Eddy Kinderemans (Belgium)
17:00 – Over-55 Group J: Emanuel Mallia v John Breeze (Wales)
17:00 – Over-40 Group K: Alex Borg v Gavin Colcombe (Wales)