World Cup
Tournament information
LocationWuxi
CountryChina
Established1979
Organisation(s)World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association
FormatNon-Ranking team event
Total prize fund$800,000
Current champion Scotland
John Higgins
Stephen Maguire

The World Cup is an invitational team snooker tournament created by Mike Watterson. The annual contests featured teams of three (two since 2011) players representing their country against other such teams. Steve Davis has won the event more times than any other player, with four titles for England.

History

The event began in 1979 as the World Challenge Cup with the sponsorship of State Express. It was held at the Haden Hill Leisure Centre, Birmingham, with six teams participating: England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Canada, Australia and Rest of the World. The teams were broken into two round-robin groups and the matches were best of 15 frames. The top teams in the groups met in the final. In 1980 the tournament moved to the New London Theatre and the Northern Ireland team was replaced by an All-Ireland team.[1]

The event was renamed to the World Team Classic in 1981 and moved to the Hexagon Theatre in Reading. The matches were reduced to best of seven and the top two teams from the groups advanced to the semi-finals. This time seven teams competed. Team Rest of the World were replaced by Team Scotland and instead of an All-Ireland team both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland fielded teams. After the 1983 event State Express ended their sponsorship of the event and the tournament's place in the snooker calendar was taken by the Grand Prix.[1]

The event was moved to spring for the 1984/1985 season and the event was renamed the World Cup. It was held at the International, Bournemouth. The tournament also became a knock-out contest and featured eight teams. Ireland and Northern Ireland fielded a combined team, known as All-Ireland, the Rest of the World team returned and the defending champions, England, had two teams. The event was terminated after the 1990 event.[1]

The event was briefly revived for 1996 and it was held at the Amari Watergate Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. There were many entries and qualification was held. The 20 qualified teams were split into four groups of five and the top two teams of the groups advanced to the quarter-finals.[1]

On 22 March 2011 it was revealed that the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association planned to revive the event with the sponsorship of PTT and EGAT. It was held between 11 and 17 July at the Bangkok Convention Centre, Bangkok and twenty two-men teams participated at the tournament.[2][3]

Winners

[1]

Year Winners Runners-up Final score Host city Season
Team Players Team Players
World Challenge Cup (team event)
1979  Wales Wales Ray Reardon
Wales Terry Griffiths
Wales Doug Mountjoy
 England England Fred Davis
England John Spencer
England Graham Miles
14–3 England Birmingham 1979/80
1980  Wales Wales Ray Reardon
Wales Terry Griffiths
Wales Doug Mountjoy
 Canada Canada Cliff Thorburn
Canada Kirk Stevens
Canada Bill Werbeniuk
8–5 England London 1980/81
World Team Classic (team event)
1981[4]  England England Steve Davis
England John Spencer
England David Taylor
 Wales Wales Ray Reardon
Wales Terry Griffiths
Wales Doug Mountjoy
4–3 England Reading 1981/82
1982[5]  Canada Canada Cliff Thorburn
Canada Kirk Stevens
Canada Bill Werbeniuk
 England England Steve Davis
England Tony Knowles
England Jimmy White
4–2 England Reading 1982/83
1983[6]  England England Steve Davis
England Tony Knowles
England Tony Meo
 Wales Wales Ray Reardon
Wales Terry Griffiths
Wales Doug Mountjoy
4–2 England Reading 1983/84
World Cup (team event)
1985[7] All-Ireland Northern Ireland Alex Higgins
Northern Ireland Dennis Taylor
Republic of Ireland Eugene Hughes
 England A England Steve Davis
England Tony Knowles
England Tony Meo
9–7 England Bournemouth 1984/85
1986[8] Ireland A Northern Ireland Alex Higgins
Northern Ireland Dennis Taylor
Republic of Ireland Eugene Hughes
 Canada Canada Cliff Thorburn
Canada Kirk Stevens
Canada Bill Werbeniuk
9–7 England Bournemouth 1985/86
1987[8] Ireland A Northern Ireland Alex Higgins
Northern Ireland Dennis Taylor
Republic of Ireland Eugene Hughes
 Canada Canada Cliff Thorburn
Canada Kirk Stevens
Canada Bill Werbeniuk
9–2 England Bournemouth 1986/87
1988[9]  England England Steve Davis
England Jimmy White
England Neal Foulds
 Australia Australia Eddie Charlton
Australia John Campbell
Australia Warren King
9–7 England Bournemouth 1987/88
1989[8]  England England Steve Davis
England Jimmy White
England Neal Foulds
Rest of the World South Africa Silvino Francisco
New Zealand Dene O'Kane
Malta Tony Drago
9–8 England Bournemouth 1988/89
1990[8]  Canada Canada Cliff Thorburn
Canada Alain Robidoux
Canada Bob Chaperon
 Northern Ireland Northern Ireland Alex Higgins
Northern Ireland Dennis Taylor
Northern Ireland Tommy Murphy
9–5 England Bournemouth 1989/90
1996[10]  Scotland Scotland Stephen Hendry
Scotland John Higgins
Scotland Alan McManus
 Republic of Ireland Republic of Ireland Ken Doherty
Republic of Ireland Fergal O'Brien
Republic of Ireland Stephen Murphy
10–7 Thailand Bangkok 1996/97
2011[3]  China China Ding Junhui
China Liang Wenbo
 Northern Ireland Northern Ireland Mark Allen
Northern Ireland Gerard Greene
4–2 Thailand Bangkok 2011/12
2015[11]  China B China Yan Bingtao
China Zhou Yuelong
 Scotland Scotland John Higgins
Scotland Stephen Maguire
4–1 China Wuxi 2015/16
2017[12]  China A China Ding Junhui
China Liang Wenbo
 England England Judd Trump
England Barry Hawkins
4–3 China Wuxi 2017/18
2019  Scotland Scotland John Higgins
Scotland Stephen Maguire
 China B China Zhou Yuelong
China Liang Wenbo
4–0 China Wuxi 2019/20

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Turner, Chris. "World Cup, World Team Classic, Nations Cup". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 16 February 2012. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
  2. "Snooker World Cup Takes Shape". worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Archived from the original on 12 June 2012. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
  3. 1 2 "PTT-EGAT World Cup (2011)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 21 June 2011.
  4. "England's Classic Triump". The Glasgow Herald. 2 November 1981. Retrieved 2 June 2011.
  5. "Canada wins snooker classic". Evening Times. 1 November 1982. Retrieved 2 June 2011.
  6. "Davis leads England to second win". Evening Times. 31 October 1983. Retrieved 2 June 2011.
  7. "Snooker". The Glasgow Herald. 25 March 1985. Retrieved 2 June 2011.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "On this Week: Irish hat-trick success". Eurosport UK. Archived from the original on 20 September 2012. Retrieved 2 June 2011.
  9. Turner, Chris. "On this Week: Birth of the Hurricane". Eurosport UK. Archived from the original on 11 September 2012. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
  10. "Castrol-Honda World Cup 1996". Snooker.org. Retrieved 10 June 2012.
  11. "World Cup (2015)". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  12. "World Cup (2015)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
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