WORLDPOOL OO
Wales - The Champions’ Report The “Dragons” Roar
The 2011 European championships were held in Malta from February 19th to 26th and TeamWales took a strong squad as normal.
The men’s “A” team at last lifted the European Championship trophy after a dominant performance in Malta. Wales have contested three of the last four finals and lost to England on every occasion, but not this time
Wales won the group stages easily after beat the host nation Malta 9 – 6, followed by the holders and current World Champions England 11 – 4. This seemed to spurWales on as they won all group matches to record an 8 out of 8 performance.
In the semi final Wales took on surprise qualifiers Belgium,who sneaked into the semis as a result of Wales beating Ireland in the last group game. Once again Wales were totally dominant and won the match easily by 8 frames to 2.
The finalwas to be against Englandwho came from 7 – 4 down in the semis against Malta to win 8 – 7.
The final was full of drama as it started with two very long tactical frames both being won by England for a 2 – 0 lead. Wales however bounced back as Russell Burgess cleared the table for his win whileWayne Smith capitalise on a missed black by Lee Kendall to also clear the table.
This seemed to give Wales the belief as they then ran the next four frames very quickly to lead 6 – 2. Gareth Potts then dished Paul Hawkins to reduce the lead to 6 – 3. Next up was Oly Bale against Gareth Potts and after a poor positional shot Gareth left Oly Bale a chance to clear and he did in double quick time.
Tom Cousins now had the chance to win the title for Wales from the break against Lee Kendall. Tom Broke well but the table was a
20 Welsh Team
Wayne Smith (Captain), Oly Bale, Russell Burgess, Tom Cousins, Paul Hawkins & Paul Penhale
mess and no chance of a clearance. That’s whatwe all thought, as Tomstarted to pull out shot after shot to leave a double on his last yellow for position on the black in the middle bag. In it went and he rolled the black in, the place went mad with delight as all of Malta andWales started to celebrate the victory.
A great run by the Welsh lads and a credit to the nation as usual.
Tom Cousins and Paul Hawkins were top of the averages for Wales and the whole event as they lifted player of the tournament with 19 wins from 24 frames.
All five welsh players were in the top six places of the rankings, showing how dominant they were.
So Wales now look to the World Championships in July forwhat promises to be a show down between the two best sides in theWorld.
Further information can be found at
euro8ball.com
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