The 2019 EBSA European Championships get under way this weekend at the U Magic Palace Hotel in Eilat, the southernmost city in Israel.
Europe’s flagship annual amateur festival of snooker consists of three tournaments, with continental champions being determined at Men’s, Under-21, and Under-18 levels.
Proceedings get under way with the latter event on Sunday, in which a new winner is guaranteed to be crowned as two-time defending champion Jackson Page isn’t in the field.
Instead, the talented teenager will take part in both the blue riband Men’s championship, which gets under way next Saturday, and the Under-21 tournament.
The main event and the Under-21s will both provide avenues onto the Main Tour, with the two champions earning two-year cards onto the pro circuit.
A total of ten players make up the Irish team that will don the green waistcoat at the EBSA European Championships.
Aaron Hill, Greg Casey, John Sutton, Jason Devaney, Ross Bulman, James Fennessy, and Noel Landers will enter the Men’s event.
Hill, Bulman, and Landers will be joined by Ryan McGuirk as well as Mark and Noel Gleeson in the Under-21 championship.
The Under-18 tournament will again feature Cork duo Hill and Bulman, with McGuirk and Noel Gleeson in action too.
While the Under-18 champion won’t be offered a Main Tour spot, in recent seasons the winner has been invited to compete in that season’s World Snooker Championship qualifiers in Sheffield.
Other notable players to look out for in the prestigious Men’s event include 2015 champion Michael Wild from England and 2017 runner-up Andres Petrov from Estonia.
Previous under-21 champions Kacper Filipiak from Poland and the Isle of Man’s Darryl Hill feature in the draw as well.
