Vince Busuttil, Mario Camilleri, Alfred Desira and Paul Aquilina recently returned from the Mediterranean Cup in Nicosia, Cyprus, with the best result ever in this competition for the Malta Darts Association.

The team, managed by Noel Gauci and Paul Sciberras, won two tournaments besides another second placing in the singles. Six countries took part, namely, Cyprus, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Italy and Malta.

In the event for teams, Malta won its group with Cyprus topping Group B. Then Busuttil and Camilleri teamed up well to reached the last four in the doubles.

Camilleri was also a semi-finalist in the singles.

In the teams' semis, France were no match for Malta who finished with a 9-3 win. Italy overcame hosts Cyprus 9-5. Malta and Italy were the finalists as well in the doubles after respective wins over France 4-3 and Cyprus 4-0. Camilleri beat Italian Loris Polese 4-2 to book a place in the singles final with Sergio Pettarini, another Italian. For the first time ever all Med. Cup finals were contested by the same two countries.

The doubles final saw Busuttil and Camilleri making a tremendous comeback by winning the last two legs for a 4-3 win but then luck deserted Camilleri who lost to Pettarini 4-3 in a closely-fought final for singles.

Malta then took a 3-1 lead in the final for teams, only for Italy to bounce back and nose ahead 6-4. This left the Malta clan wondering what was going wrong after such an auspicious start.

But, boosted by the coaching staff and supporters who accompanied the players in Cyprus, the Maltese started playing better and won the next five legs for a 9-6 victory.

During the managers' meeting, Malta won the bid to host the next Mediterranean Cup in May next year.