Cremona reaches Milton Keynes final

Six Maltese players have just taken part in the Grand Prix of England which was played in Milton Keynes.

Four of them - Massimo Cremona, Mark Gauci, Derek Conti and Hansel Mallia - played in the Open category. Joseph Mifsud competed in the veterans tournament and the upcoming Angelo Borg took part in the U-15 and U-19 competitions.

Felix Rizzo was the co-ordinator of the Maltese contingent.

In the Open, Cremona reached the final but lost to Spain's Angel Valverde 2-3 on shots after a 0-0 draw.

Valverde also required shots to eliminate Gauci 2-1 in the semi-finals while Cremona had the better of Conti 2-0 in the other semi.

Mallia did well to qualify from the group stage but was eliminated in the knock-out stages by Belgium's Couke 0-1 on shots after a 1-1 draw.

Mallia made up for that upset by helping his club Hennuyer to win the final for teams after beating Stembert 2-0.

Mifsud lost to Spain's Juan Carlos Granados 1-2 in the veterans tournament semi-final but Borg left his mark in the U-15 competition.

The Ħamrun Table Football Club youngster had a comfortable 4-0 win in the semi-finals before downing the no.4 seed 1-0 in the final.

Borg also had a good run in the U-19 tournament but was ousted in the semi-final.

The showing in Milton Keynes was good enough for Borg to secure a berth in the World Cup tournament which will be played in Rotterdam next September.