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".
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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.
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 (England), Jeanette Lee (US) and Vivian Villarreal (US).
[edit] Most appearances
The players to have appeared in the Mosconi Cup:[1][2]
- 12 Ralf Souquet (
), Earl Strickland (
) - 11 Johnny Archer (), Steve Davis (
), Mika Immonen (
) - 9 Oliver Ortmann () (one of them as a non-playing captain)
- 7 Jeremy Jones ()
- 6 Marcus Chamat (
) - 5 Corey Deuel (), Rodney Morris (), Charles Williams ()
- 4 Niels Feijen (
), Steve Knight (), Nick Varner () (one of them as a non-playing captain) - 3 Kim Davenport (), Thomas Engert (), James Rempe (), Nick van den Berg ()
- 2 Lou Butera (), Michael Coltrain (), Shannon Daulton (), Mike Gulyassy (), Thorsten Hohmann (), Robert Hunter (), Alex Lely (), Mike Massey (), Ronnie O'Sullivan (), Daryl Peach (), Reed Pierce (), Tony Robles (), Tom Storm (), Dallas West (), Jimmy White (), Mark Wilson ()
- 1 David Alcaide (
), Mike Davis (), Tommy Donlon (
), John DiToro (), Tony Drago (
), Vincent Facquet (
), Allison Fisher (), Paul Gerni (), Roger Griffis (), Danny Harriman (), Alex Higgins (
), Allen Hopkins (), Raj Hundal (), Lee Kendall (), Jeanette Lee (), Imran Majid (), Shawn Putnam (), Fabio Petroni (
), Andy Richardson (), John Schmidt (), Franziska Stark (), Konstantin Stepanov (
), Lee Tucker (), Shane Van Boening (), Vivian Villarreal (), C.J. Wiley (), Johan Ruijsink () (as a non-playing captain)
[edit] European representation
Konstantin Stepanov, who in 2007 was the first Russian player to appear, took the total number of nations who have represented Europe to eleven (in order of total representatives):
- England — 11
- Germany — 5
- Netherlands — 4
- Sweden — 2
- Finland — 1
- Northern Ireland — 1
- France — 1
- Italy — 1
- Republic of Ireland — 1
- Spain — 1
- Malta — 1
- Russia — 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 tournament's brief history. These include, but are not limited to: "Non-playing captain" roles were introduced in the 2003 event (the first Mosconi Cup not played in the UK); however these were removed in the 2004 tournament. 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.
[edit] Results table
| Year | Venue | Victors | Losers | ||
| 2007 | Las Vegas, Nevada |  Europe |
11 | USA |
8 |
| 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] See also
[edit] Other competitions opposing continents in sport
- Ryder Cup – Golf
- Solheim Cup – Golf
- Weber Cup – Ten-pin bowling
- Continental Cup of Curling
- IAAF World Cup in Athletics
- NFL Global Junior Championship – American football, includes a Team Europe
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Mosconi Cup official site
- Video interviews and highlights from Mosconi Cup
- 2007 Mosconi Cup image gallery
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