Carlos Flores won the Open event in Manchester where he narrowly beat Massimo Cremona 1-0 in the final of this highly-attended event.
Both players had a tough route to the final where they met high-quality opposition, however they both proved their abilities. In Flores’ route to the final he convincingly defeated former Junior World Champion, Joseph Borg Bonaci in the Last 32. He then had an encounter with England’s top player, Darren Clark, who he saw off 2-0. In the quarter finals he met another of England’s finest, Chris Thomas, who he convincingly beat with a 4-0 result. In the semi-finals he faced another tough test when he met, Dutchman, Eric Verhagen, this was to be another convincing result for Flores as he overcame the World’s Number 2, with a 4-2 scoreline.
Cremona had some superb results in Manchester, with extremely convincing wins against Austrian Stefan Sandner (5-1), Englishman Dave Pawsey (8-1), Austrian Hitman Markus Matzinger (6-0), before a much more realistic encounter against Portuguese, Sergio Loureiro, who he narrowly beat 1-0.
The other 4 Maltese players present in Manchester were all knocked out in the Last 32. These included Samuel Bartolo who was unconvincingly beaten by Markus Matzinger, Joseph Borg Bonaci who was eliminated by eventual winner, Carlos Flores, Joseph Mifsud who narrowly lost to Bologna’s Alberto Apollo and Hansel Mallia who came out to Austria’s Heinz Eder.
The U19 was won by strong favourite, Christian Haas, from Austria, who currently sits at the top of the U19 World Rankings. Haas’biggest challenge was his semi-final match against Manchester’s own Tom Motley, who he only beat by a 1-0 scoreline, he then made his way to play against Scotsman Daryl Shanks who provided a strong challenge and only lost 3-1 to the World’s Number 1.
The Veterans Event was won by Liverpudlian, Phil Redman who saw off all challenges to accumulate even more silverware. Continuing his domination of the veteran’s category in Great Britain, he came off on top once again in Britain’s most prestigious event. He defeated big names such as Marinucci and Hinkelmann, to prove he is currently the man to beat in the Veterans.
The team’s event provided a sweet double for Carlos Flores as his club, Bologna Tigers, took home the title. They were on top form throughout the day and eliminated big names like English Premier League, TSC Royal Kaisermuhlen and Catalunya FT before overcoming their final challengers, TFC Mattersburg.
Full Results: http://www.sfu.ca/~haasw/subbuteo/files/200607/GPOldham.pdf
