Peplow and Cinireach KO stage at Under-17 Open

Maltese duo Chris Peplow and Brian Cini secured a place in the knock-out stages of the European U-17 Open after winning their second match from as many fixtures in qualifying Group 2 and 6 respectively.

Peplow had a difficult time in beating Sweden’s Belan Sherif 3-2.

He won the first two frames but Sherif came back and potted a break of 60 on his way to making it 2-2.

But Peplow was in command in the final frame after taking a 40-point lead. He held composure to win the match and secure a place in the pre-quarter-finals stage.

Cini was in top form to beat Benjamin McCabe, also of Sweden, 3-0. The Maltese cueist had a 60 break in the third frame.

In other groups, after an auspicious start where he beat England’s John Morrell 3-0, Matthew Zammit lost his match to Swede Simon Lindblom 3-0 while Leon Caruana lost his second qualifier when he went down to Jeff Jacobs, of Belgium, 3-1.

The highest break of the tournament so far came from Darryl Hill (Isle of Man).

He managed a 69 in a 3-1 win over Poland’s Kamil Zubryzcki.

Meanwhile, Leong Man Hoi and Wan Sin Man, both of Hong Kong, each won their first match of the tournament after victories over Dan Parkinson (England) and Kobe Vanoppen (Belgium) respectively.