Robert Murphy (Ireland), Kristjan Helgason (Iceland), John Whitty (England) and Robin Hull (Finland) qualified to represent Europe in the upcoming World 6 Red Championships in Thailand at the start of September.

The EBSA was again allocated four qualifying spots and, as happened before, a 20-player qualifier was held simultaneously with the European Championships in Poland, on Sunday.

Three were four groups of five players with each country allowed to enter one player into the qualifying event. Malta was represented by Duncan Bezzina – the national champion.

Murphy, Helgason and Hull all topped their respective groups undefeated although Helgason was given a little scare early on with Belgian lady Wendy Jans taking a 2-0 lead before he fought back to win 4-2.

The fourth group saw both Gareth Allen and Craig McGillivary qualify with three wins each and they, along with the top two in the other groups, went into a straight quarter-final draw with the winners then gaining the coveted invites to the prestigious 6 red event.

Bezzina made it to the knock-stages as runner-up to Hull in Group C with three wins from four matches. However, he was unable to proceed after a 5-2 upset to Helgason.

Hull was paired against Israel’s Shachar Ruberg and ran out a 5-2 winner to seal his place. Allen, from Wales, faced Whitty and it was the latter who qualified winning 5-3. The other match saw Murphy beat Scotland’s MacGillivary 5-1.