THE Channel Islands teams playing in the European Pool Championships were unable to play their 4 pm matches against the French men’s A and B teams or their ladies’ or junior teams yesterday because their opponents only arrived at the Hotel de France at 5.15 pm

Due to arrive in Jersey on Saturday, they found that their boat had been cancelled and they arrived over three hours after the opening ceremony was held.Championships organiser Paul Bolton said that the delay hadn’t affected the overall planning of the competition, nor the opening ceremony itself, which saw Tourism president Deputy Lyndon Farnham officially open the European eight-ball championships at the hotel yesterday at 2 pm.As expected, England’s men’s A and B teams won their opening matches against Scotland 8-7 and 10-5, respectively.

This morning both the men’s Channel Island A and B teams were in action, the A team beating the Isle of Man 9-6 and the B team beating Belgium 8-7.

Their matches against the French have been resheduled today for 8 pm.At the start of the championships it was announced that Malta would host the next European Championships in 2005 and that Dinard would almost certainly be the venue a year later.