Let`s team up!

03:46:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments

The A-team (Dennis, Alex and Eugene)
Last week I read in the Belfast Telegraph an interview with the 1985 world champion Dennis Taylor, about what used to be the "World Team Championship". The tournament started back in 1979, introducing a new format - a three members team representing a country and competing against another one. For the first two years the competition was known as the "World Challenge Cup", the first winner being Wales and...Wales :)). From 1981-1983 the name was changed to "World Team Classic" and the winners were England, Canada and one more time, England. From 1985-1996 (mentioning that between `91 - `95 the tournament was cancelled), the name of the game was "World Cup", the trophy being won by Ireland for three times, England- two times, Canada and Scotland and finally from 1999 until 2001, the last name was "Nations Cup", with a four members team, the winners being Wales, England and Scotland.


What is really exciting and interesting about this format, is that in 1989 the two teams that were competing were England ( Steve Davis, Jimmy White and Neal Fould) and "The Rest of the world" starring Tony Drago (Malta), Dene O`Kane (New Zeeland) and Silvino Francisco (South Africa). What a wonderful opportunity that was! What an amazing match that was! It would have been awesome to take part at such an event. :)

The three musketeers waiting for snooker
But going back to what Dennis Taylor declared for the newspaper; it seems like the guy is pretty much into reviving this tournament. And to be honest he’s not to be blame, for in `85, `86 and `87 his team won the game with no problems. In the next years, the governing body decided to separate the team (the winning formula, that is) into Northern Ireland and Ireland, probably based on political issues.
Dennis remembers joyfully those moments of glory, shared with his colleagues: Alex Higgins and Eugene Hughes, although in the meantime the dispute between him and "The Hurricane" was on, Alex threatening to shot him. Still, Dennis declared he and Alex put to rest that unpleasant incident some years ago. They were like the three Musketeers! :)


"I would like to see a team World Championship event back in snooker. Even something along the lines of a challenge match between Europe and the Rest of the World would be a step in the right direction.”, said Dennis Taylor for Belfast Telegraph and added: "It’s a shame the Northern Ireland Trophy isn’t still being played and it would be nice to see an event back in Belfast. There’s no reason why there shouldn’t be one. Barry Hearn will certainly help to get snooker back on the right track again."


If in the near future we shall see a new team tournament in the snooker business, that’s to be seen, but personally I think it will bring more color to this lonely game. Today I was reading Dave Hendon`s blog (snookerscene.blogspot.com) and he has written an article about how awfully lonely this sport can be. It can bring you such joy, but also it can make you feel so miserable. And it’s true, the pressure that a snooker player is under is enormous.


But on a more optimist note, let’s hope that the big boss, the "Captain Picard" as I like to call him, Barry Hearn will take into account this kind of competition. And I hope it will be televised, for I’m really hungry for snooker right now. :))


If you want to read the whole article, click here. :)

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