Mosconi Cup 2008

The winning team Europe with some fans who traveled with them in the background

When Mosconi Cup 2008 is the fifteenth edition of a 1994-annual 9-Ball - snooker tournament in which a European team against a US team plays. In 2008 it took place at the Hilton Hotel in Portomaso , St Julian's , Malta from December 11th to 14th. Team Europe won 11: 5, which was the fourth victory for the Europeans.

Attendees

Mika Immonen (left) and Mark Gray (right)

Earl Strickland in his thirteenth Mosconi Cup participation

For team Europe played:

• Alex Lely ( ) (non-playing team captain)
• Tony Drago ( )
• Niels Feijen ( )
• Mark Gray ( )
• Mika Immonen ( ) (awarded as MVP .)
• Ralf Souquet ( )

For the USA team:

• Nick Varner (non-playing team captain)
• Johnny Archer
• Shane van Boening
• Jeremy Jones
• Rodney Morris
• Earl Strickland

regulate

• Tournament length : A maximum of 21 games are played. The team that wins 11 games first wins the tournament.

• Match length: The game mode in the team competitions is Best of 9 , ie 5 games won are enough to win the set.

• Alternating break: The first kick is played, then the players or teams take turns, regardless of who wins.

• Alternating shot: in team competitions, the players rotate after each shot to the next player on their own team. In team competitions, for example, this means that the player who picks up the ball does not return to the table until the sixth ball to be played.

• Time limit for the shot: Each player has 30 seconds to execute his shot. However, this rule does not apply to the first push after kick-off, each player then has one minute to look at the situation on the table in peace. In every team competition players per game once have the option of an extension , that is an extension of the time by 30 seconds per shock to demand. In the individual competitions, this extension is only allowed once per game. Requests to the referee to clean the match ball or to hand over an auxiliary device are time-consuming.

• Break conditions:

The corner is built closer to the center of the table so that the 9 lies on the foot point. The trigger must come from the so-called break box , a clearly defined space in the header that excludes the two long bands.

A break is only correct if at least three colored balls run once over the head line. Sunk balls are withdrawn from these three balls so that, for example, only two balls have to cross the head line if another has fallen. This rule is intended to prevent the players from holding the balls together in the smallest possible space by means of a controlled soft break .

• Prize Money: The players on the winning team each received prize money of US $ 20,000; those of the losing team are $ 10,000 each.

Results

Local hero Tony Drago

Mika Immonen after sinking the decisive ball to win for Team Europe

Europe's non-playing captain Alex Lely during an interview

The game plan looked like this:

game	date	Art	Player Europe	Result	Player USA	Total status
01	12/11/2008	team	Team Europe	5 - 3	Team USA	1 - 0
02	12/11/2008	Double	Feijen - Souquet	5 - 3	van Boening - Morris	2 - 0
03	12/11/2008	singles	Immonen	5 - 1	Jones	3 - 0
04	12/11/2008	Double	Drago - Gray	3 - 5	Strickland - Archer	3 - 1
05	12/12/2008	Double	Feijen - Souquet	5 - 3	van Boening - Morris	4 - 1
06	12/12/2008	singles	Drago	4 - 5	Strickland	4 - 2
07	12/12/2008	Double	Immonen - Gray	1 - 5	Archer - Jones	4 - 3
08	12/12/2008	singles	Immonen	5 - 0	Strickland	5 - 3
09	12/13/2008	Double	Feijen - Souquet	5 - 1	Strickland - Morris	6 - 3
10	12/13/2008	singles	Drago	2 - 5	van Boening	6 - 4
11	12/13/2008	Double	Immonen - Gray	5 - 4	Archer - Jones	7 - 4
12	12/13/2008	singles	Feijen	3 - 5	Morris	7 - 5
13	12/13/2008	singles	Souquet	5 - 2	van Boening	8 - 5
14th	12/13/2008	singles	Immonen	5 - 3	Jones	9 - 5
15th	12/14/2008	Double	Feijen - Souquet	5 - 2	Morris - Jones	10 - 5
16	12/14/2008	singles	Immonen	5 - 3	van Boening	11-5

Thus the Mosconi Cup remained in the possession of the team of Europe until the next tournament in December 2009.

Web links

Commons : Mosconi Cup 2008  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website for the Mosconi Cup