Darryl Hill and Dollin Mercer represented the Isle of Man at the European Billiards and Snooker Association Team Snooker Championship held in Albufeira, Portugal last week.
A field of 24 teams entered the event and IoM were drawn in a group with France 1, Poland 1 and Denmark where the top two teams progressed to the knockouts.
The format changed this year and the best of five matches were played scotch doubles style where players take alternate shots, so knowing where to leave your partner pays dividends.
Things didn’t get off to the best of starts as a good French duo looked much more accomplished and won 3-0. Scores (IoM first): 21-71, 0-85 and 30-47.
.png?width=209&height=140&crop=209:145,smart&quality=75)
Knowing they needed to win their next two matches to have a chance of progressing, the next opposition couldn’t have been harder in Poland 1, the winners for the last two years and represented by the same pair of Antoni Kowalski and Mateusz Baranowski.
The Manx lads certainly picked up their game with a 57 break to take the opener and then, after a Titanic battle, the match went to a deciding frame which went the way of IoM with a fantastic match-winning break of 55. Scores: 62-21, 28-68, 57-38, 15-61 and 67-23.
A 3-0 win over Denmark followed 61-33 68-7 57-52 and, with other results going the right way, they progressed through to the knockout phase.
With a quarter-final place at stake, opponents Malta 1 (Aaron Busuttil and Chris Peplow) raced into a 2-0 lead but then Hill and Mercer hit back in style to force another decider as the Maltese looked rattled.
The IoM were leading 28-0 in the finale before their opponents hit back with a 34. Both teams spurned chance to win on the colours before a snooker, full length of the table caused Mercer to go in-off and Malta potted the winning balls. Scores: 30-64, 19-73, 77-44, 57-18 and 43-67.
Initial disappointment was soon forgotten after a beer or two and the realisation of what a great performance they’d put up by earlier defeating the two-time champions and so nearly making the quarter-final.
Malta 1 went all the way to the final before losing 3-2 to Ukraine 1, a team they had beaten in the own group earlier on.
Afterwards, Hill and Mercer reflected on their trip in a very good interview with Derek Kiely, European Billiards and Snooker Association’s press rep.
Along with details of how they'd prepared for the event, they said how they hope their success encourages more local talent to want to aspire to competing at this level. Links to video footage of the matches are available on the Isle of Man Billiards and Snooker Association Facebook page.
MIKE CROOK