Malta 1's unbeaten run in the European Championships came to an end last night when Alex Borg, Simon Zammit and Duncan Bezzina suffered their first defeat in Group A at the hands of holders Wales 1 10-7.

The Maltese trio came into yesterday's match against the reigning champions in good form. After Wednesday's back-to-back victories over Austria (10-4) and Russia (10-2), Malta 1 yesterday morning made it three wins on the trot when they eased past Poland 10-3.

However, in the evening session, Zammit, Borg and Bezzina found the going tough against the Welsh trio of Lee Walker, Elfed Evans and Peter Roscoe who had ousted them in the semi-finals of last year's competition.

The match was evenly-balanced but the Welsh players showed better composure in the crucial final part of the match to prevail 10-7.

Clayton Castaldi, Simon Camilleri and Mark Saffrett, the players forming Malta 2, recovered from Wednesday's 10-8 defeat to Iceland to trounce Croatia 10-4 yesterday.

Malta 3, made up of Duncan Pisani, Philip Ciantar and Marius Gatt, conceded successive defeats to Scotland (10-1) and Belgium (10-5).

In the Masters tournament, Arthur Cachia and Frans Mintoff maintained their perfect record after beating Russia and Scotland with identical 4-0 scorelines.

Tony Mifsud and Ivan Rizzo bounced back from their 4-2 loss to Germany as they beat Scotland 2 4-3 and France 4-2 yesterday.