Dylan Rees has become the first player from Ireland to win a European Disability Snooker Championship title after defeating Bulgaria’s Nikolay Hristov 3-0 in the Group 7 final in Sofia, according to the WPBSA and Snooker & Billiards Ireland.
The victory adds a European crown to a record that already includes Rees becoming Ireland’s first World Disability Snooker champion in 2025. Snooker & Billiards Ireland said that he had subsequently defended that world title, while the WPBSA reported that he is now the only Irish player to have won both the world and European disability championships.
Rees completed the final without conceding a frame against Hristov, who had reached a WDBS event final for the first time on home soil. The WPBSA said that Rees had also progressed through his group without losing a frame before the title match.
Irish landmark in Sofia
The European Disability Snooker Championship was staged in Sofia alongside the 2026 European Billiards & Snooker Association Championships. According to the WPBSA, 45 competitors from 11 nations took part across eight classification groups at the third edition of the disability event.
WPBSA reported that the tournament produced first European disability champions from Ireland and Poland, with Adam Wilk beating Andy Lam 3-1 in the Group 3 final. Rees’s success therefore formed part of a championship in which several classification groups produced notable results, but his achievement carries a particular national distinction.
WPBSA said eight champions were crowned at the third staging of the event. Its report also recorded successful title defences by Nicklas Olsen and Lewis Knowles, while Dave Beaumont won a third successive European crown. The results showed that Sofia featured both established winners and first European champions from Ireland and Poland, without changing the separate national significance of Rees’s achievement.
Snooker & Billiards Ireland said that Rees had made Irish snooker history by becoming the country’s first European Disability Snooker champion. Its account described the Sofia result as the latest addition to his list of achievements at domestic and international level.
The 3-0 scoreline also underlined the authority of Rees’s run through Group 7. The WPBSA reported that Hristov had earned his place in the final by defeating Raymond Marsland, becoming the first Bulgarian player to contest a WDBS event final. Rees, however, maintained the form that had carried him through the group stage without a dropped frame.
European crown follows world-title success
Rees’s European title follows his world-championship breakthrough in 2025. Snooker & Billiards Ireland said that he had been Ireland’s first World Disability Snooker champion and had successfully retained the title afterwards.
The reports place Rees’s European title alongside his world-championship success and Irish Masters win, while also recording the first European title for an Irish player.
His achievements have not been limited to disability competition. Snooker & Billiards Ireland said that Rees won the Irish Masters Championship in 2025, describing it as another major domestic title in his collection. The domestic result provides additional context to his competitive record, although the Sofia victory is the one that has created the new Irish European landmark.
Work on the Irish disability game
Snooker & Billiards Ireland also credited Rees with contributing to the development of disability snooker away from competition. It said that his work and commitment had helped the Irish Disability Tour reach a high standard, creating opportunities and a route for players to compete and develop in the sport.
The organisation further said that Rees had invested significant effort in club-level snooker in his adopted home of Dungarvan, County Waterford. According to its account, that work has included promoting the game and helping to provide local playing opportunities.
Those contributions give wider context to the European title: Rees’s result in Sofia represents an individual championship success, while Snooker & Billiards Ireland has also identified him as a figure helping to support participation and player development in Ireland. For Rees, the 3-0 final win over Hristov now stands alongside his world-title success and 2025 Irish Masters victory in an expanding record of achievement.