Well, I ended up missing out in this years Mosconi Cup despite having a pretty good season. I won quite a few tourneys including 2 out of the 7 Eurotours, and I topped the Eurotour ranking in April, may, and June. But after Karl Boyes had a good run earlier in the year he pipped me to the number1 spot on the "mosconi cut-off date", and then Darren Appleton won the US Open meaning that I was the one that had to miss out this year unfortunately for me. There has never been 3players play the Mosconi from the same country in previous years anyway (since 5man teams were introduced), so I sort of knew that I would miss out after Darrens super victory in USA....even though I knew I deserved to be in.
It was a wierd feeling watching Darren win, because I was pleased for him obviously, but at the same time I was gutted for myself because I knew what his win would mean with regards to Mosconi Cup.
....so I put all my own feelings to one side in order to give Darren his deserved congrats, and I was the first person to congratulate him on his win. We had a great night after with all the celebrations etc. Then the next day I felt sick.....and not from the drink lol.
That's how it goes when we have so many great players in the Uk now, and after having chance to weigh it all up, I know this will make me stronger and more determined to get in next years team.
After the US Open, I went to Portugal Eurotour to try and defend my title. I had just about as tougher draw as I could have got......when you think, I am seeded number2 and my draw was koshavoy (very talented Ukranian), followed by Sascha Teige (won German Eurotour this year), followed by Raj Hundal ...... And that was just to qualify for last 32!
Then I draw Darren Appleton in last32 who's is on a high after his win in US the week before, but I play something near to when I won my world 9ball crown and come through a convincing 9-2 winner, only to lose to a lesser known German called Marco Vogel in the last16 early the following day. This was the only match I had played at morning in this event and may have still been a little jet lagged from US....meaning it was still 4am where we had just come from! Still it's no excuse for a player of my experience and I have to give Marco credit as he played some good pool to beat me.
So, GB9 event in my home town next for me, followed by Spain Eurotour. I'll update my blog after these events.
