Europe regained the partypoker Mosconi Cup with an emphatic 11-3 victory over Team USA which was completed by MVP Jayson Shaw at Ricoh Arena, Coventry.
Alex Lely’s side won three of the four matches played on Thursday evening to complete their first partypoker Mosconi Cup win since 2017, Shaw making the winning 9-ball against Shane van Boening.
“It feels great,” said Shaw, whose two singles and two doubles wins saw him become the first Brit to lift the Predator MVP trophy since Chris Melling in 2012. “I was feeling a little bit of pressure at the end there, but I played well to go 4-2 up, I really dug deep. I am delighted to win.
“If that had been in front of 3,000 fans it would have been great, but we will still enjoy this. They played well the last two years; you have to take your hat off to them. This time around we jelled better as a team, we played better in the doubles matches, and won a lot more lags which was massive because a lot of fames came down to hill-hill.”
“It feels amazing,” said European captain Alex Lely. “It has been quite a tussle; we have self-quarantined away from our families but we put a lot of work in and it paid off.
“They are top of the bill, all young. Having lost the last two years, this is the start of a new era. These players will set the benchmark for the next ten years. There are so many new, young players coming through, so it isn’t just these five players.”
Team USA Captain Jeremy Jones said: “We didn’t get the outcome that we wanted. The Euros definitely outplayed us but I don’t really think the score reflected how close the overall play was.
“It was a weird situation this year, we didn’t have the travels to different countries to play as a team, we didn’t get a warm-up match, we didn’t get a lot of things, let alone a bunch of tournaments.
“Alex did a good job. Overall, I think his job is a little easier, I think he would tell you the same thing, especially with us losing Justin. Matchroom did a great job considering everything that was required to make this happen but we will leave and we will be thinking of winning the Cup again, not just some time, but we are going to win it back soon.”
Europe had begun the day with an 8-2 lead, thanks largely to a 5-0 session whitewash of Team USA on Wednesday.
They moved a step closer to glory when Albin Ouschan and Joshua Filler beat Shane van Boening and Skyler Woodward 5-2 in Thursday’s opener. Joshua Filler then avenged the defeat he suffered to Woodward in the final match of last year’s Cup with an emphatic 5-0 victory.
That set the stage for Ouschan and debutant Fedor Gorst to seal the title for the hosts. Billy Thorpe and Chris Robinson were fighting though and took a 5-3 win to save this team the ignominy of equalling the record defeat suffered by USA in 2013.
That handed Shaw the chance to claim the Cup by beating Van Boening. The Scot had made the winning 9 in the 2016 event and despite a match which at times swung in favour of both players, it was Shaw who took Europe’s 11th point of the week for their 13th partypoker Mosconi Cup title, the same number won by USA.
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