Mosconi Cup
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The Mosconi Cup is an annual nine-ball pool tournament contested between teams representing Europe and the USA. The trophy is named after American player Willie Mosconi. It has been referred to as the Ryder Cup of pool.
The 2005 Mosconi Cup was played in Las Vegas between December 15 and December 18, and as of 2005 USA lead the overall score by 11 tournament wins to Europe's two.
It features some of the greatest players in the sport including Earl Strickland, Johnny Archer, Jimmy White, Alex Higgins and Steve Davis. As of 2004, Davis was the only player to have played in every Mosconi Cup, however due to his snooker commitments and his desire to stay in the world snooker top 16, he declined to take part in the 2005 tournament as it clashed with the UK Snooker Championship (in which he finished runner up to Ding Junhui).
While the American team features members who can play, it also highlights the ugly side of the sport. For instance, Earl Strickland continues to set new lows for poor sportsmanship and generally childlike tantrums. The American team is also only composed of members from one of the many "associations" - the UPN. Players who belong to other groups are not considered for spots on the team.
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.
The competition currently only features male players, however in the first year of competition some of the WPBA's top players played alongside the men in their respective teams. These include Franziska Stark (Germany), Allison Fisher (UK), Jeanette Lee (US) and Vivian Villarreal (US).
The Mosconi Cup is sponsored by Matchroom Sport who also produce such tournaments in the UK as the Premier League Darts and Premier League Snooker.
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[edit] Tournament modifications
There have been rule changes and format changes throughout the tournaments brief history. These include, but are not limited to, The introduction of "non-playing Captain" roles in 2003 (the first Mosconi Cup not played in the UK) however these were removed for the 2004 tournament.
Another change was the re-formatting of the doubles matches to be Scotch Doubles in 2004.
In 2005, a 30 second shot clock was introduced, much to the dislike of many fans, this caused controversy due to timing malfunctions.
[edit] European representation
In the European team a total of 9 nations have been represented (in order of total representatives):
- England - 9
- Germany - 5
- Holland - 3
- Sweden - 2
- Finland - 1
- Northern Ireland - 1
- France - 1
- Italy - 1
- Ireland - 1
[edit] Results table
| Year | Venue | Victors | Losers | ||
| 2005 | Las Vegas, Nevada | USA | 11 | Europe | 6 |
| 2004 | Egmond aan Zee, Holland | 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 |
