World Cup - ROSB History
Today I'm kicking off a new feature here in the Blog, the ROSB History. On these texts, I'll be writing about the history of tournaments and events, and there's nothing better to start with than the World Snooker Cup, of which the 15th edition will be played this year from July 3rd to 9th in China. So, let's remember how it all started...
The beginning
The World Snooker Cup started in 1979, when Snooker was about to live it's "Golden Years". With three players representing each nation, it was the legendary Welsh team of Ray Reardon, Terry Griffiths and Doug Mountjoy that won the event for the first two times (beating England [Fred Davis, John Spencer & Graham Miles] 14-3 in '79 and Canada [Cliff Thorburn, Kirk Stevens & Bill Werbeniuk] 8-5 in '80.
The 80's
The Welsh trio wasn't good only playing together, Reardon, Griffiths and Mountjoy would also show their class at the Crucible. However, by 1981 Snooker had already become BBC's precious son and a certain boy called Steve Davis was the big winning machine leading the sport that had quickly become Britain's most popular.
And it was Steve Davis the one who stopped the Welsh team and gave England's their first World Title. And it was really down to Steve, 3 of the 4 points England scored in the 4-3 win over Wales were thanks to him. His partners were John Spencer and David Taylor, but it was Davis who beat Doug Mountjoy, Ray Reardon, and then Reardon again in a deciding play-off after the Final ended 3-3.
In 1982 Davis had Tony Knowles and Jimmy White by his side, but despite having a much better team England could not defend their World Title. Canada, with the same team runner-up in 1980, claimed their first World Title with an amazing performance by Cliff Thorburn and a surprising win for Werbeniuk over Davis in the Final - Davis couldn't score a point himself in the Final and England was defeated 4-2.
The '82 disappointment was later forgotten as England, with Steve Davis, Tony Knowles and Tony Meo (in exchange of Jimmy) beat the Welsh team 4-2 to win their second World Title. It was the fourth Final in five years for Wales with Reardon, Griffiths and Mountjoy.
The Green Years
After being named "World Challenge Cup" in '79 and '80, and "World Team Classic" for the following three years, the event wasn't held in 1984 but came back in 1985 called simply "World Cup", the name it carries to this day.
And when it came back, it was Ireland who dominated. Back then represented by both Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland, the "All Ireland" team made something that had never been done before, and since then has never been done again: Alex Higgins, Dennis Taylor and Eugene Hughes won three consecutive titles, beating England (the same team Champion in '83) 9-7 in '85, and then Canada (the same team Champion in '82) twice, 9-7 in '86 and 9-2 in '87.
The Legend Steve Davis
Ireland was by then the biggest winner of the World Cup, with three wins, but it was a renewed English team with Neal Foulds, Jimmy White and Steve Davis that retained the title in 1988 to tie Ireland in the all-time list. The runner-up was Australia, with Eddie Charlton, John Campbell and Warren King taking their nation to their only Final ever, losing 9-7.
The same English team defended the title in the following year against the "Rest of the World" team of Tony Drago, Silvino Francisco and Dene O`Kane. The Final was one of Snooker's greatest televised matches ever: It was won 9-8, the only time a World Cup Final of such length went to a decider, and in the decider a play-off frame between Davis and O`Kane was won in the re-spotted black after 73 minutes of play.
That had been at the time Snooker's longest ever televised frame, and Steve Davis had become the first player to win four World Cups, something never repeated.
The 90's
In 1990 Cliff Thorburn gave Canada their second World Title. Playing alongside Alain Robidoux and Bob Chaperon this time, they beat Northern Ireland (Alex Higgins, Dennis Taylor & Tommy Murphy) 9-5 in the Final. It was though, the end of the event.
World Snooker only gave it another go in 1996, when Stephen Hendry, John Higgins and Alan McManus brought the title to Scotland after a 10-7 triumph over Republic of Ireland (Ken Doherty, Fergal O`Brien & Stephen Murphy) in the Final. Twenty nations were represented in Thailand for the 1996 World Cup, but the attempt failed because there was not enough global interest and the British public wasn't as keen to Snooker as they had been in the 80's.
It was definitely the end of the event, something that affected Scotland and Wales, nations that certainly should've won titles while the World Cup was gone - a proof of that was the Nations Cup, played for three years from '99 to 2001 and won once by Scotland and once by Wales, as well as once by England.
Barry Hearn's era
When Barry Hearn took command of World Snooker in 2010 his intention was clear: Make Snooker grow worldwidely. And of course, one year later he would relive the World Cup in Thailand.
19 nations were represented and to make all teams competitive, they were reduced to two players. A "new" country, that had never before appeared in a World Cup Final, ended up winning the event: Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo gave China the title after a 4-1 win over Northern Ireland (Mark Allen & Gerard Greene) in the Final. It was though, too early for an event like this and it was not re-established just yet.
But in 2015, when Hearn's work ahead of World Snooker had made the sport huge all over the World, it was announced that the World Cup was coming back and this time it was going to be played in China and become a biennial event.
The tournament was a success, 23 nations were represented by two players each, and the global interest was already big enough to make the game get printed in papers of several languages all over the World, with things like Brazil beating Scotland (eventual runner-up with John Higgins and Stephen Maguire), India reaching the Semi-Final with Pankaj Advani and Aditya Mehta (they were one ball away of beating Scotland in the semis), and China winning the title for a second time with then 15 years-old Yan Bingtao and 17 years-old Zhou Yuelong, representing their B team (China was the only nation that had two teams in this 48-men event). Shall we not forget as well that Norway's team had a woman, Anita Maflin - shortly after the event she conceded us an exclusive interview talking about the experience, which you can read here.
2017?
Without a doubt the 2015 edition was a tremendous success, and this event has in fact a bigger potential to get noticed worldwidely than the World Championship at the Crucible itself, because you have all the different countries being well represented, what makes people interact with the event supporting their fellow countrymen.
However, less than a month before the 2017 World Cup we know barely a thing about the upcoming event. We know John Higgins and Anthony McGill will play for Scotland, Aditya Mehta will be joint by Pankaj Advani in the Indian team, Jeff Jacobs will be with young star Luca Brecel wearing the Belgian flag, Iran will rely on their two only professional players, Hossein Vafaei and Soheil Vahedi, and Brazil will comeback with Igor Figueiredo and Itaro Santos. Apart from that we know nothing else, people have been speculating about the World Cup more and more, but if you go to World Snooker's official website you'll see even the venue is "unknown", and there's one thing that gets me even more worried: the calendar shows two events, a World Cup for "main tour players only", and a World Cup for "amateur players only". No one knows exactly what it means, but apparently there will be a main World Cup and an amateur World Cup, whether the countries represented at the main event need one or two players on the main tour no one knows.
For me that is a mistake. I'm not sure why they would separate main tour players from amateur players once all teams in 2015 proved competitive. I'd understand better if they were making this move to make three players' teams, which is reasonable, but once it'll still be two-men teams I can't get it. The fact there was 23 nations in a couple years back, was what made so many countries around the globe get interested in the event, and even if you increase the number of participants with that move you won't get as good a feedback, because people won't get too bothered about the "Amateur Snooker World Cup". Watching someone that I know personally playing the likes of John Higgins, Marco Fu and Stephen Maguire (and even beating some of them) in 2015 was one of the most special things of the event, it'd be a shame if it's not like that anymore.
I don't know whether you need to have one or two players to be part of the "main World Cup", but even if you need only one, countries like Brazil and Singapore, that were very impressive in 2015, will not be eligible.
Well, that "main tour/amateur" thing might not mean anything (what I don't think so), but it's unacceptable that 20 days before an event that takes place every two years we have such a lack of information.
Thanks for reading, I will be certainly coming back with a World Cup preview once we know the format and players. Share this text if you want to see more ROSB History here in the Blog! Like us on Facebook. 😉
The beginning
The World Snooker Cup started in 1979, when Snooker was about to live it's "Golden Years". With three players representing each nation, it was the legendary Welsh team of Ray Reardon, Terry Griffiths and Doug Mountjoy that won the event for the first two times (beating England [Fred Davis, John Spencer & Graham Miles] 14-3 in '79 and Canada [Cliff Thorburn, Kirk Stevens & Bill Werbeniuk] 8-5 in '80.
The 80's
The Welsh trio wasn't good only playing together, Reardon, Griffiths and Mountjoy would also show their class at the Crucible. However, by 1981 Snooker had already become BBC's precious son and a certain boy called Steve Davis was the big winning machine leading the sport that had quickly become Britain's most popular.
And it was Steve Davis the one who stopped the Welsh team and gave England's their first World Title. And it was really down to Steve, 3 of the 4 points England scored in the 4-3 win over Wales were thanks to him. His partners were John Spencer and David Taylor, but it was Davis who beat Doug Mountjoy, Ray Reardon, and then Reardon again in a deciding play-off after the Final ended 3-3.
In 1982 Davis had Tony Knowles and Jimmy White by his side, but despite having a much better team England could not defend their World Title. Canada, with the same team runner-up in 1980, claimed their first World Title with an amazing performance by Cliff Thorburn and a surprising win for Werbeniuk over Davis in the Final - Davis couldn't score a point himself in the Final and England was defeated 4-2.
The '82 disappointment was later forgotten as England, with Steve Davis, Tony Knowles and Tony Meo (in exchange of Jimmy) beat the Welsh team 4-2 to win their second World Title. It was the fourth Final in five years for Wales with Reardon, Griffiths and Mountjoy.
The Green Years
After being named "World Challenge Cup" in '79 and '80, and "World Team Classic" for the following three years, the event wasn't held in 1984 but came back in 1985 called simply "World Cup", the name it carries to this day.
And when it came back, it was Ireland who dominated. Back then represented by both Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland, the "All Ireland" team made something that had never been done before, and since then has never been done again: Alex Higgins, Dennis Taylor and Eugene Hughes won three consecutive titles, beating England (the same team Champion in '83) 9-7 in '85, and then Canada (the same team Champion in '82) twice, 9-7 in '86 and 9-2 in '87.
The Legend Steve Davis
Ireland was by then the biggest winner of the World Cup, with three wins, but it was a renewed English team with Neal Foulds, Jimmy White and Steve Davis that retained the title in 1988 to tie Ireland in the all-time list. The runner-up was Australia, with Eddie Charlton, John Campbell and Warren King taking their nation to their only Final ever, losing 9-7.
The same English team defended the title in the following year against the "Rest of the World" team of Tony Drago, Silvino Francisco and Dene O`Kane. The Final was one of Snooker's greatest televised matches ever: It was won 9-8, the only time a World Cup Final of such length went to a decider, and in the decider a play-off frame between Davis and O`Kane was won in the re-spotted black after 73 minutes of play.
That had been at the time Snooker's longest ever televised frame, and Steve Davis had become the first player to win four World Cups, something never repeated.
The 90's
In 1990 Cliff Thorburn gave Canada their second World Title. Playing alongside Alain Robidoux and Bob Chaperon this time, they beat Northern Ireland (Alex Higgins, Dennis Taylor & Tommy Murphy) 9-5 in the Final. It was though, the end of the event.
World Snooker only gave it another go in 1996, when Stephen Hendry, John Higgins and Alan McManus brought the title to Scotland after a 10-7 triumph over Republic of Ireland (Ken Doherty, Fergal O`Brien & Stephen Murphy) in the Final. Twenty nations were represented in Thailand for the 1996 World Cup, but the attempt failed because there was not enough global interest and the British public wasn't as keen to Snooker as they had been in the 80's.
It was definitely the end of the event, something that affected Scotland and Wales, nations that certainly should've won titles while the World Cup was gone - a proof of that was the Nations Cup, played for three years from '99 to 2001 and won once by Scotland and once by Wales, as well as once by England.
Barry Hearn's era
When Barry Hearn took command of World Snooker in 2010 his intention was clear: Make Snooker grow worldwidely. And of course, one year later he would relive the World Cup in Thailand.
19 nations were represented and to make all teams competitive, they were reduced to two players. A "new" country, that had never before appeared in a World Cup Final, ended up winning the event: Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo gave China the title after a 4-1 win over Northern Ireland (Mark Allen & Gerard Greene) in the Final. It was though, too early for an event like this and it was not re-established just yet.
But in 2015, when Hearn's work ahead of World Snooker had made the sport huge all over the World, it was announced that the World Cup was coming back and this time it was going to be played in China and become a biennial event.
The tournament was a success, 23 nations were represented by two players each, and the global interest was already big enough to make the game get printed in papers of several languages all over the World, with things like Brazil beating Scotland (eventual runner-up with John Higgins and Stephen Maguire), India reaching the Semi-Final with Pankaj Advani and Aditya Mehta (they were one ball away of beating Scotland in the semis), and China winning the title for a second time with then 15 years-old Yan Bingtao and 17 years-old Zhou Yuelong, representing their B team (China was the only nation that had two teams in this 48-men event). Shall we not forget as well that Norway's team had a woman, Anita Maflin - shortly after the event she conceded us an exclusive interview talking about the experience, which you can read here.
World Cup Winners:
England x4 (1981, 1983, 1988, 1989)
All Ireland x3 (1985, 1986, 1987)
Wales x2 (1979, 1980)
Canada x2 (1982, 1990)
China x2 (2011, 2015)
Scotland x1 (1996)
2017?
Without a doubt the 2015 edition was a tremendous success, and this event has in fact a bigger potential to get noticed worldwidely than the World Championship at the Crucible itself, because you have all the different countries being well represented, what makes people interact with the event supporting their fellow countrymen.
However, less than a month before the 2017 World Cup we know barely a thing about the upcoming event. We know John Higgins and Anthony McGill will play for Scotland, Aditya Mehta will be joint by Pankaj Advani in the Indian team, Jeff Jacobs will be with young star Luca Brecel wearing the Belgian flag, Iran will rely on their two only professional players, Hossein Vafaei and Soheil Vahedi, and Brazil will comeback with Igor Figueiredo and Itaro Santos. Apart from that we know nothing else, people have been speculating about the World Cup more and more, but if you go to World Snooker's official website you'll see even the venue is "unknown", and there's one thing that gets me even more worried: the calendar shows two events, a World Cup for "main tour players only", and a World Cup for "amateur players only". No one knows exactly what it means, but apparently there will be a main World Cup and an amateur World Cup, whether the countries represented at the main event need one or two players on the main tour no one knows.
For me that is a mistake. I'm not sure why they would separate main tour players from amateur players once all teams in 2015 proved competitive. I'd understand better if they were making this move to make three players' teams, which is reasonable, but once it'll still be two-men teams I can't get it. The fact there was 23 nations in a couple years back, was what made so many countries around the globe get interested in the event, and even if you increase the number of participants with that move you won't get as good a feedback, because people won't get too bothered about the "Amateur Snooker World Cup". Watching someone that I know personally playing the likes of John Higgins, Marco Fu and Stephen Maguire (and even beating some of them) in 2015 was one of the most special things of the event, it'd be a shame if it's not like that anymore.
I don't know whether you need to have one or two players to be part of the "main World Cup", but even if you need only one, countries like Brazil and Singapore, that were very impressive in 2015, will not be eligible.
Well, that "main tour/amateur" thing might not mean anything (what I don't think so), but it's unacceptable that 20 days before an event that takes place every two years we have such a lack of information.
Thanks for reading, I will be certainly coming back with a World Cup preview once we know the format and players. Share this text if you want to see more ROSB History here in the Blog! Like us on Facebook. 😉
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