Mosconi Cup
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The Mosconi Cup is an annual nine-ball pool tournament contested between teams representing Europe and the USA since 1994. The trophy is named after American player Willie Mosconi. It has been referred to as the "Ryder Cup of pool".
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA will host the 2007 Mosconi Cup.
The 2006 Mosconi Cup took place between Thursday December 7 and Sunday December 10 at the Cruise Terminal Rotterdam, Netherlands. Overall all 24 matches were played, with the match ending tied 12-12, thus Team USA retained the title.
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[edit] Famous players
The tournament has featured some of the most famous players in the sport including Earl Strickland, Johnny Archer, Jimmy White, Alex Higgins and Steve Davis.
The American team is usually composed of members from one of the many pool associations - the UPA. Players who belong to other groups are not considered for the team unless they win the U.S. Open or World Pool Championship.
In the first year of competition some of the WPBA's top players played alongside the men in their respective teams. These included Franziska Stark (Germany), Allison Fisher (UK), Jeanette Lee (US) and Vivian Villarreal (US).
[edit] Most appearances
The players to have appeared in the Mosconi Cup:[1][2]
- 12 Ralf Souquet (Germany)[dubious — see talk page] [one source[2] disagrees with others[3][4]]
- 11 Steve Davis (UK), Mika Immonen (Finland), Earl Strickland (USA)
- 10 Johnny Archer (USA)
- 9 Oliver Ortmann (Germany) [1 as a non-playing captain]
- 7 Jeremy Jones (USA)
- 6 Marcus Chamat (Sweden)
- 5 Charlie Williams (USA)
- 4 Steve Knight (UK), Rodney Morris (USA), Corey Deuel (USA), Nick Varner (USA) [1 as a non-playing captain]
- 3 Niels Feijen (Netherlands), Kim Davenport (USA), James Rempe (USA), Thomas Engert (Germany), Nick van den Berg (Netherlands)
- 2 Tony Robles (USA), Tom Storm (Sweden), Thorsten Hohmann (Germany), Shannon Daulton (USA), Ronnie O'Sullivan (UK), Reed Pierce (USA), Mike Massey (USA), Mike Gulyassy (USA), Michael Coltrain (USA), Mark Wilson, Lou Butera (USA), Jimmy White (UK), Dallas West (USA), Alex Lely (Netherlands), Robert (Bobby) Hunter (USA)
- 1 Vivian Villarreal (USA), Vincent Facquet (France), Tommy Donlon (UK) , Shawn Putnam (USA), Roger Griffis (USA), Raj Hundal (UK), Paul Gerni (USA), Lee Tucker (UK), Lee Kendall (UK), John DiToro (USA), Jeanette Lee (USA), Franziska Stark (Germany), Fabio Petroni (Italy) , Daryl Peach (UK), Danny Harriman (USA), C.J. Wiley (USA), Andy Richardson (UK) , Allison Fisher (UK) , Allen Hopkins (USA), Alex Higgins (UK), Imran Majid (UK), David Alcaide (Spain), Mike Davis (USA), John Schmidt (USA), Johan Ruijsink (Netherlands) [as a non-playing captain]
[edit] European representation
David Alcaide, who in 2006 was the first Spanish player to appear, took the total nations who have represented Europe to ten (in order of total representatives):
England - 10
Germany - 5
Netherlands - 3
Sweden - 2
Finland - 1
Northern Ireland - 1
France - 1
Italy - 1
Ireland - 1
Spain - 1
[edit] Television coverage
In the UK, Sky Sports shows this event every year, and until the 2005 tournament had the only live coverage of the competition with a total of 22 hours of coverage across Sky Sports 1, 2 & 3.
[edit] Tournament modifications
There have been rule changes and format changes throughout the tournaments brief history. These include, but are not limited to: "Non-playing captain" roles were introduced in 2003 (the first Mosconi Cup not played in the UK); however these were removed in 2004. The doubles matches were re-formatted to be scotch doubles in 2004. In 2005, a 30-second shot clock was introduced, and caused controversy due to timing malfunctions. The 2006 tournament started with a single team-versus-team match followed by two trebles matches. That year also saw the reintroduction of the non-playing captain role, but Europe elected to make use of it, choosing Johan Ruijsink.[1]
[edit] Results table
| Year | Venue | Victors | Losers | ||
| 2007 | Las Vegas, Nevada | - | - | - | |
| 2006 | Rotterdam, Netherlands |  USA |
12 |  Europe |
12 |
| 2005 | Las Vegas, Nevada | USA |
11 | Europe |
6 |
| 2004 | Egmond aan Zee, Netherlands | USA |
12 | Europe |
9 |
| 2003 | Las Vegas, Nevada | USA |
11 | Europe |
9 |
| 2002 | Bethnal Green, London | Europe |
12 | USA |
9 |
| 2001 | Bethnal Green, London | USA |
12 | Europe |
1 |
| 2000 | Bethnal Green, London | USA |
12 | Europe |
9 |
| 1999 | Bethnal Green, London | USA |
12 | Europe |
7 |
| 1998 | Bethnal Green, London | USA |
13 | Europe |
9 |
| 1997 | Bethnal Green, London | USA |
13 | Europe |
8 |
| 1996 | Dagenham, London | USA |
15 | Europe |
13 |
| 1995 | Basildon, Essex | Europe |
16 | USA |
15 |
| 1994 | Romford, London | USA |
16 | Europe |
12 |
[edit] Other competitions opposing continents in sport
- Ryder Cup — Golf
- Weber Cup — Ten-pin bowling
- Continental Cup of Curling — Curling
- IAAF World Cup — Athletics
- NFL Global Junior Championship — American Football, includes a Team Europe
[edit] References
- ^ a b "Mosconi Cup 2006: Results", MosconiCup.com, Matchroom Sport, December 2006; retrieved 5 April 2007
- ^ a b "History", MosconiCup.com, Matchroom Sport, 2006; retrieved 5 April 2007
- ^ 2004.MosconiCup.com, Matchroom Sport, 2004; retrieved 5 April 2007
- ^ 2005.MosconiCup.com, Matchroom Sport, 2005; retrieved 5 April 2007
[edit] External links
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