England were in a class of their own as they beat rivals Scotland in the World Eightball Pool Championship final in Blackpool, yesterday.

The early stages of the best-of-15 clash were shared but England looked the more composed team as the contest reached a crucial phase, going on to claim the title with a solid 8-3 scoreline in their favour.

More than 500 players from Australia, South Africa, Mauritius, Malta, France plus the Home Nations were in action over 12 days in various singles and team categories at the Imperial Hotel.

In 2014, Morocco beat England 8-4 in the final but the reigning champions failed to make a showing in Blackpool this year due to Ramadan, according to a World Eightball Federation report.

The Maltese team, composed of Anton Cuschieri, Clayton Attard, Johan Attard, Wayne Bonnici, Ray Caruana, Antoine Aqui-lina, Chris Mills and Duncan Pisani, were eliminated in the semi-finals by England.

The eventual tournament winners were made to sweat before sealing a close 8-6 win over Malta earlier this week.

Cuschieri finished with the best percentage for the national team after winning 25 frames from the 33 played in the competition for teams.

He was followed by Clayton Attard on 21 and Johan Attard, 20.

Malta won eight matches in the qualifying round, finishing behind England and Scotland who had nine wins each to top the group standings.

They beat South Africa 11-7 in the quarter-finals but could not extend their positive momentum to the next stage where they were eliminated by England.