EUROPEAN ROMP!

Team Europe Beats USA, Wins Mosconi Cup

Team Europe

BY LUKE RICHES

World Pool & Billiard Association

LAS VEGAS -- EUROPE has successfully defended the PartyPoker.net Mosconi Cup following a convincing 11-7 victory over the USA at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Holland’s Niels Feijen, in his seventh Mosconi Cup, downed the winning 9 ball.

With two singles and two doubles wins, Feijen won the Mos Valuable Player Award. "I just want to thank the crowd, the British and Europeans and you need them to make it," he said after his 6-3 victory over Rodney Morris to seal the Mosconi Cup. 

The Americans, who had trailed 10-5 at the start of the day, won the opening two games to leave the Europeans looking a little edgy.

Niels Feijen

"Even this morning, there was pressure on us and we knew they would come out strongly. There was some heat to get over the finish line but these guys are just so good,” continued Feijen.

Johnny Archer, playing in his 15^th Mosconi Cup, was stoical in defeat. "We lost a couple of matches we should've won and they blitzed us in a few matches," he said. "We all gave it our best and will do it again next time. Hats off to their team, they hung in there when things didn't look good."

The opening match of the day saw Shane Van Boening keeping US hopes alive as he comfortably beat Nick Van den Berg 6-2. Veteran Johnny Archer also beat Darren Appleton Sunday, and in the process effectively quashed the hopes of a repeat MVP trophy for the stellar English player.

So in the end it was Niels Feijen who was left to finish off Team USA.  He beat Hawaiian Rodney Morris 6-3 to give the Europeans the decisive 11th point. "Being the Most Valuable Player is something I've been dreaming about this for seven years, every year I've played in it," said Feijen.

Sunday's Match Scores:

Nick Van den Berg 2-6 Shane Van Boening

Darren Appleton 3-6 Johnny Archer

Niels Feijen 6-3 Rodney Morris

The World Pool and Billiard Association(WPA) is the international governing body of the sport of pool.  Please visit the WPA site at www.wpa-pool.com. Follow the WPA on Twitter: @poolwpa

SVB extracts $5,000 from Strickland

South Dakota Kid wins 9-ball Challenge Match

After losing to Earl Strickland earlier this year in 10-ball, Shane Van Boening took his revenge with a 75-67 victory over the mercurial Hall of Famer in  a Las Vegas challenge match on Sunday.

Both players put up $5,000 in the winner-take-all event sponsored by theactionreport.com. Play began on Friday and continued throughout the weekend.

Van Boening mostly led throughout, although the tight Diamond table installed in The Action Report's Las Vegas studio seemed to flummox both players. Van Boening was up by only 50-48 at the end of Saturday’s play

Van Boening continued to lead Sunday, methodically stringing together racks despite his opponent's almost constant griping. The length of time it took Van Boening to rack the balls and Van Boening's softer-than-usual break seemed to particularly irk the older player. “Look at that – he’s got an eight-minute rack, and a two-mile-per-hour break,” Strickland complained at one point.

Briefly it appeared that Strickland, Hulk-like, actually was becoming stronger as he became angrier. After falling behind 63-58, The Pearl suddenly won six in a row, complaining and glowering with every sunk nine-ball.

But that rush Sunday would be Strickland's last. After a miscue and few other unforced errors, The Pearl allowed the always dangerous Van Boening to quietly trot to victory. Strickland continued to complain afterwards. "I'm willing to say that I'm a f***ing  a**hole, but there's a lot of a**holes," he acknowledged shortly before the recording ended.

Strickland beat Van Boening in a similar winner-take-all 10-ball event conducted last March in Youngstown. Both players put up $10,000 for that event.

 

-- R.A. Dyer