Cyprus tournament tonic for Malta
Lake's team 6-1 winners in friendly with Poland
The Malta national squash team is currently training in earnest for the European small nations tournament which will be held in Cyprus.
Recently, they played a warm-up match against Poland's national squad players who were here for a training camp. The friendly international was was held at Marsa in front of a packed hall.
Present on the occasion was European Squash Federation president Chris Stahl who was welcomed by MOC vice president Julian Pace Bonello. Stahl delivered a short speech on the occasion and praised similar initiatives as the one of visiting team Poland and hosts Malta.
The Maltese started off with Ivan Balzan winning the opening match against Arkadius Salinski.
The Pole won the opening game and was 6-1 up in the second set when Balzan manage to pick up his game and eventually won 3-1.
Second on was Steven Rizzo. The Maltese newcomer had a good match against Wojtek Nowisz and crowned his debut with a close, but very encouraging, 3-2 win.
Steve Schranz played his usual cunning drop shot game to dispose of the Polish no.3 player Andrzey Golebjoski in a thrilling five-setter.
Schranz's determination and fitness proved to be too much for the younger Golebjoski.
Mark Lupi faced Marcin Lesze-wicz. He also showed class to win the match and open a 4-0 lead for Malta.
Bernard Bugeja went down to Poland's no.1 player and coach 3-1 but Karl Grech Orr finished off on a fine note for Malta by winning his match 3-0.
The national team had no.1 seed Josef Desira missing as he arrived 24 hours later from Melbourne.
The women's team also had a chance to test their wits against their counterparts from Poland.
Liz Said, Johanna Rizzo and Roberta Pace Grima, another newcomer to the team, won two matches from three.
The organisation of the tournament was in the hands of Malta coach Paul Lake. The national team was also assisted by the sponsorship of Wilson and the hospitality of the Marsa Sports Club.