Air Malta Grounds Snooker Champ

If, like me, you took some pride in the fact that the Snooker Malta Cup was on TV and publicising our nation across the ether think again. I enjoyed following the odd match on Eurosport and was even more pleased to hear the French commentators grumble with envy that their country does not host a spectacular event while la petite isle mediterranèenne does. I almost flew to Paris to punch up the commentator who was all gleeful about Higgins' food poisoning and who did all that was possible to insinuate that this was due to la nourriture maltaise. Such was my amour de la patrie.

But then today I open the Times. The English one of course. To read that Higgins and Doherty were both thrown off their Air Malta flight KM100 to Heathrow (7am) because of their state of inebriation. It seems that this inebriation went unnoticed with check-in, immigration and security but not with some stuck-up Brit tourist who sat just behind them. Once there state of drunkenness was pointed out to the Captain of the KM flight they were asked to disboard and wait for the next plane while they cooled off their spirits.

Well at least it seems that the biggest worry is whether Higgins and Doherty have tarnished the World Snooker Association's image. In the words of the Times:

"However, given that the Malta Cup, the first world-ranking tournament of the year, was partially sponsored by the Malta Tourism Authority, the news is bound to cause a degree of angst for the sport’s governing body, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA)."

My guess is that WPBSA are worried whether MTA will cough up any cash for drunken champions next time round. No need to worry folks... the only taxes on travel around here go to people carrying a Maltese passport. Everyone else is encouraged to fly!

What makes a Maltese Cross indeed!