European Champions Crowned in Portugal

The 2024 European Billiards and Snooker Association (EBSA) European Championships were staged earlier this month in Albufeira, Portugal with champions being crowned across seven individual and team events.

Staged from 10-23 October at the Vidimar Hotel & Resort, the event saw hundreds of competitors embark on the Algarve for Seniors Individual & Team, Women’s Individual & Team, Men’s Team, 6-red and Shoot Out tournaments.

Additionally, for the first time ever the World Disability Billiards & Snooker (WDBS) European Disability Snooker Championship ran alongside the championships from 18-23 October.

Fantastic Four for England

Players from England incredibly won a quartet of titles in a single day at the EBSA European Championships as Craig Steadman, Lee Stephens, Rebecca Kenna and Tessa Davidson were successful in the Seniors and Women’s competitions.

England were dominant in the individual European Seniors Championship, with three of the four semi-finalists representing the nation, as Steadman defeated compatriot Wayne Brown 5-4 in the final to secure the title and a place in the 2025 World Seniors Championship at the Crucible Theatre – ten years on from facing Ronnie O’Sullivan at snooker’s most iconic venue.

Later that evening, Steadman followed up his individual glory with success in the European Seniors Team Championship alongside former English Seniors champion Lee Stephens.

A whitewash victory over the Wales team of Darren Morgan and Philip Williams saw Steadman and Stephens book their place in the title match, where they were once again in ruthless form as they overcame Northern Ireland’s Sean Gray and Anthony Heaney by the same scoreline to complete a European Seniors double.

In the European Women’s Championship, Kenna dropped just two frames in the knockout stages – defeating Ewelina Piślewska, former World Championship runner-up Wendy Jans and Diana Stateczny to reach the final where she overcame Latvia’s Anna Prysazhnuka 4-1 to win the prestigious trophy.

Kenna had little time to celebrate her individual victory before returning for the European Women’s Team Championship final, where her and Tessa Davidson took on the Portugal team of Vania Franco and Sara Rocha.

It was a hard-fought affair against the home nation, but Kenna and Davidson were ultimately able to get over the line in a deciding frame to complete a memorable double in the European Women’s Championship events.

Ukraine at the Double

Former professional Iulian Boiko was in stunning form in Albufeira as he won both the European Shoot Out Championship and, alongside compatriot Denys Khmelevskyi, the European Men’s Team Championship for Ukraine.

In the Shoot Out event, where matches were player over a single timed frame, Boiko defeated Viktors Jengovatovs, Maciej Kusak, Alex Borg and Nicolas Mortreux to reach the final.

Craig Steadman, who had won the European Seniors and European Seniors Team titles already earlier in the week, was his opponent in the final but Boiko denied him a hat-trick of trophies by winning the title match by a scoreline of 49-5.

Boiko and Khmelevskyi then followed this success up on the final day of the competition by winning the European Men’s Team Championship.

Having defeated fellow countrymen Anton Kazakov and Mykhailo Larkov in the last 16, the Ukrainian duo them whitewashed teams from Malta and Poland to set up a final meeting with Malta’s Aaron Busuttil and Chris Peplow.

The two teams went blow for blow in the final, with neither ever leading by more than a single frame, but Boiko and Khmelevskyi were able to earn the win in a final frame to secure victory for their country.

Nuessle Earns Victory for Austria

Austrian national champion Florian Nuessle earned victory at the European Championships by defeating Stuart Watson 5-3 in the final of the 6-red event.

The knockout stages saw Nuessle pick up victories over Gregory Cooke and Gary Milne, before an impressive whitewash win over WPBSA Q Tour Europe event winner Andres Petrov saw Nuessle reach the semi-finals.

Another whitewash victory, this time over Iulian Boiko of Ukraine, saw Nuessle reach the title match where he would face Watson after the Englishman defeated fellow countryman Harvey Chandler in the semi-finals.

Watson led 2-0 and 3-1 in the final with help from breaks of 57, 45 and 45 but Nuessle rallied to win four consecutive frames and come away a 5-3 victor in Portugal.

Historic European Disability Snooker Championship Debuts

WDBS staged the first ever European Disability Snooker Championship alongside the EBSA European Championship from 18-23 October with champions crowned across six classification groups.

The historic first ever staging of the event saw 40 cueists from six nations competing across Wheelchair, Ambulant, Intellectual, Visual and Deaf classifications in the five-day competition.

Dave Beaumont (Group 1+2), Andy Lam (Group 3), Carl Gibson (Group 4), Dave Bolton (Group 5), Matthew Haslam (Group 6) and Luke Drennan (Group 7-8) were crowned the first ever European Disability champions during a closing ceremony attended by WDBS Chairman Nigel Mawer QPM, EBSA President Maxime Cassis and FBP President Ricardo Salgado.

Click here to read a full report from WDBS on the European Disability Snooker Championship.