No Strickland and no Corey Deuel.

I shall be enjoying this years tournament even more now after seeing that!

No Hatch either. Probably be fairly dull, especially as it's in Vegas.

Talking of dull when was the last time Steve Davis qualified?

Not watched the Mosconi cup properly for a while because I always seem to be busy when it's on.

Davis was always "picked", he never qualified. Hasn't played for a few years. Now, the teams are selected on the basis of rankings. A system is set up for both teams that incooperates a set number of events. There are wildcards, but as has been alluded to already, they are dished out to those who finish just outside the rankings, and were probably only there in case one of the big names, e.g. Archer, van Boening, Appleton etc managed to cock up in the ranking system.

As Dave Lister said - Davis/White never actually qualified, but were picked as 'Wildcards'. The reason his appearance in the Mosconi came to an abrupt end is because for the last few years a major Snooker tournament has always been held at the same time, and Tony Drago I think missed it one year to play.

As for no Strickland, Deuel and Hatch - Putnam and Dechaine have been in frighteningly good form this year, and Morris and Van Boening have both won lately aswell. Think it's going to be very close- two teams with players on form.

Charlie 'The Dragon' Williams will captain the USA team, with Johan Ruijsink again captaining Europe.

Less than a month to go now.

Just a few days away now - and the build-up has been dominated by a bit of storm regarding Captains. Williams was chosen to captain the US team ahead of more established names such as Davenport and Varner, and despite a reputation as a good coach, he plays most of his pool on gambling terms. Personally I don't really see much value of coaches in a tournament like the Mosconi but Ruijsink on the European side seems to be well respected.

Starts tonight at 7pm on Sky Sports.

Preview show is at 3pm!

Come On Europe!

Tonight's Order of Play:

Thursday, December 8, 2011
Match 1 Team match (all 5 to play) - USA v Europe
Match 2 Doubles match - Johnny Archer / Shawn Putnam v Chris Melling / Nick van den Berg
Match 3 Singles match - Rodney Morris v Niels Feijen
Match 4 Doubles match - Shane van Boening / Mike Dechaine v Darren Appleton / Ralf Souquet
Match 5 Singles match - Shane van Boening v Chris Melling

Come On Europe!

Results so far:

Team Match: USA 3 - 6 Europe
Doubles: Archer & Putnam 6 - 3 Melling & Van Den Berg
Sngles: Rodney Morris 0 - 6 Niels Feijen.

Currently 2 -1 to Europe, with Feijen destroying Morris. And tbh it could have even been 3 - 0 with Melling & VDB up 3 -1 in the second match. Ah well, Europe will feel confident in ending Day 1 ahead.

Ole!