WITH the exception of the ladies, Channel Islands teams have all tasted success on the opening two days of the 2004 European 8-ball Pool Championships being played at Hotel de France in St Helier this week.

The CI B-team, all cueists from Jersey, have won their opening four matches, the latest 9-6 against Scotland this morning.

Yesterday the B thrashed Portugal 13-2 while winning 8-7 against both Belgium and Wales.Organiser Paul Bolton said: ‘It’s very busy and there are some great matches taking place.

The Guernsey lads playing in the CI A-team beat the Isle of Man 9-6 today while yesterday they were defeated 11-4 by Wales.’Jersey players are representing the B-team and they are heading towards the semi-finals, having won all four of their matches.This afternoon they have a tough match against champions England.

Beating Wales was an excellent performance – Wales have a lot of strength in their team this year.’Ady Bougourd and captain Alan Humphreys won the match-winning frames against Wales and Belgium respectively while Bougourd suffered an early exit in the men’s singles competition following a 6-3 defeat by Portuguese Club’s Ricardo Varela, who is playing for Portugal in the team event.The CI ladies were beaten 11-4 by Wales in their only match so far, while the Juniors have been taken to the wire in both their fixtures, winning 8-7 against Wales before suffering an 8-7 defeat by Scotland this morning.All four CI teams play France from 8 o’clock tonight.