Mosconi Cup

The Mosconi Cup is an annual nine-ball pool tournament contested between teams representing Europe and the United States since 1994. The trophy is named after American player Willie Mosconi, and has been compared to the Ryder Cup in golf.[1] It can also be compared to the Weber Cup in bowling.

Logo of the Mosconi Cup

Team Europe beat Team USA 11–3 on 4 December 2020. By ending USA's two year run, Team Europe evened out the overall series record at 13–13, with one tie.

Player selection

In its earliest days, the Mosconi Cup was created by Sky Sports and Matchroom Sport as an exhibition event to increase public awareness of pool in the United Kingdom. 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 from Germany, Allison Fisher from England, Jeanette Lee and Vivian Villarreal from the United States.

As time progressed, the event evolved from its exhibition nature into a much more serious and professional tournament, and earning a place in the event has acquired a great deal of prestige. In early runnings of the event, many famous snooker players participated, but only Steve Davis continued into the event's more serious era, bowing out when the event began to clash with snooker's UK Championship (at which he appeared as both a player and a BBC commentator).

After Davis' withdrawal, all players had to earn an invitation through their performances at other events, meaning that no more snooker players appeared until 2007, when Tony Drago earned a place by virtue of his performance on the European Pool Tour, and won the tournament's Most Valuable Player award for his unbeaten run in the singles matches.

Player appearances

The players to have appeared in the Mosconi Cup:[2]

Legend P = playing team member NP = non-playing member

Player representation

European nations

Players from sixteen nations have represented Europe. Sorted by number of different people, (number of appearances), and alphabetically, these are:

Number of players by country
15 (44)  England 6 (35)  Germany 4 (32)  Netherlands 2 (12)  Sweden
2 (4)  Greece 1 (15)  Finland 1 (4)  Austria 1 (4)  Scotland
1 (2)  Albania 1 (2)  Malta 1 (2)  Spain 1 (1)  France
1 (1)  Ireland 1 (1)  Italy 1 (1)  Northern Ireland 2 (2)  Russia

American states

Players from twenty-two states have represented the United States (Charlie Williams and Johan Ruijsink were both born outside of the US). Ordered as above, these are:

Number of players by state
4 (24)  California 4 (11)  Texas 4 (7)  Illinois 3 (17)  North Carolina
3 (14)  Kentucky 3 (8)  New York 3 (7)  Pennsylvania 2 (4)  Ohio
2 (2)  New Jersey 1 (17)  Georgia 1 (12)  South Dakota 1 (5)  Missouri
1 (4)  Maine 1 (4)  Oklahoma 1 (2)  Michigan 1 (2)  Mississippi
1 (2)  Tennessee 1 (1)  Florida 1 (1)  Kansas 1 (1)  Maryland
1 (1)  Virginia 1 (1)  Wisconsin

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; however these were removed in the 2004 tournament. In 2004 the doubles matches were re-formatted to be scotch doubles. In 2005, a 30-second shot clock was introduced, and caused controversy due to timing malfunctions. The 2006 tournament started with a team-versus-team match followed by two trebles matches. That year also saw the reintroduction of the non-playing captain role.

The 2009 tournament included several new features:[4]

  • No pairing in the doubles matches could be repeated.
  • The event included four blocks of consecutive matches, organized so that five slots were available for each side, in which every player was required to play exactly once.
  • In two singles matches, each player was selected by the opposing team captain.

Results table
Year Venue Winners Score Losers MVP Ref
1994 Romford, London, England  USA 16–12  Europe [5]
1995 Basildon, Essex, England  Europe 16–15  USA [6]
1996 Dagenham, London, England  USA 15–13  Europe [7]
1997 Bethnal Green, London, England  USA 13–8  Europe [8]
1998 Bethnal Green, London, England  USA 13–9  Europe [9]
1999 Bethnal Green, London, England  USA 12–7  Europe [10]
2000 Bethnal Green, London, England  USA 12–9  Europe [11]
2001 Bethnal Green, London, England  USA 12–1  Europe [12]
2002 Bethnal Green, London, England  Europe 12–9  USA [13]
2003 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA  USA 11–9  Europe Mika Immonen [14][15]
2004 Egmond aan Zee, Netherlands  USA 12–9  Europe Rodney Morris [16][17]
2005 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA  USA 11–6  Europe Earl Strickland [18][19]
2006 Rotterdam, Netherlands  Europe
 USA		 12–12  Tied Corey Deuel [20]
2007 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA  Europe 11–8  USA Tony Drago [21][22]
2008 St. Julian's, Malta  Europe 11–5  USA Mika Immonen [23][24]
2009 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA  USA 11–7  Europe Dennis Hatch [25][26]
2010 Bethnal Green, London, England  Europe 11–8  USA Darren Appleton [27]
2011 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA  Europe 11–7  USA Niels Feijen [28][29]
2012 Bethnal Green, London, England  Europe 11–9  USA Chris Melling [30][31]
2013 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA  Europe 11–2  USA Niels Feijen [32][33]
2014 Tower Circus, Blackpool, England  Europe 11–5  USA Niels Feijen [34][35]
2015 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA  Europe 11–7  USA Niels Feijen [36]
2016 Alexandra Palace, London, England  Europe 11–3  USA Albin Ouschan [37]
2017 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA  Europe 11–4  USA Joshua Filler [38]
2018 Alexandra Palace, London, England  USA 11–9  Europe Skyler Woodward [39]
2019 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA  USA 11–8  Europe Skyler Woodward [40]
2020 Ricoh Arena, Coventry, England  Europe 11–3  USA Jayson Shaw [41]

References
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