The whole team played strong and everybody played a big part.  We outplayed them in every department and afterwards watching some of the matches back, the scoreline flatters them.  Final rack score was around 90-67.

Going into the last day, I did have a chance to win the match for us against Jonny Archer, which would have been great to make the winning ball and also retain the MVP.  Not going to lie, that would have been sweet.  I didn’t really do anything wrong in the match, I got unlucky with my first break and one loose safety, I was down 4-1.  Then Jonny made some mistakes and I came back to 4-3, I had a nice open table after the break.  But, my first shot the 2ball skidded on me when cutting it back into the corner, which basically cost me the match Nothing you can do about bad luck, it’s part of the game, just a bad time for it to happen.  I quickly shook the disappointment and got behind the team and Niels Fiejen was up against Rodney Morris.  Niels played solid all week and Rodney was the weakest American player for the second year running.  I was 99% sure Niels would bring the trophy home for us and that he did.  To be fair, Rodney didn’t play bad… he got two bad skids on the two ball, which probably didn’t get picked up by the commentators AGAIN.  But Niels, what a feeling it must be to make the winning 9ball and to top it all off, he wins the MVP.  Well deserved, final stats for the team Fiejen 5/6, Appleton 4/6, Melling 4/6, Souquet 4/6, Van den Berg 2/6… also like to thank all the Europeans that travelled over to support the team.  They made us feel like we were the home team at times, and to my friends and family that travelled over thanks… and hope to see you all in London next year

                                                                          After celebrations with my baby and close friends

The first couple of days was tough.  I was unlucky to lose against Dennis Hatch on the hill.  The next day, I played my best pool and played 5 matches straight.  In my best match of that day, I ran 7 straight racks and only gave my opponent one kick shot.  It was a really long day that ended with a nail biting match against Shaun Putnam, who I beat 9-8.  He must’ve been sick of the sight of me after the amount of times I beat him this year, I had to pull a lot of great shots to win this match.  Sadly the next day, I woke up feeling very burnt out and struggled to find any feeling in my game.  It was a grind, I managed to win one match.  Then I ran into Ralf Souquet, I made a few mistakes early in the game even though I was up 3-2.  I missed a costly hanger to go up 4-2 and he punished me and ran the next 6 racks including making the 9 ball twice on the break.  In the end, I finished 5/6th.

With all things considered, I was quite happy with this finish.  The Mosconi Cup is such a huge event that it is hard to get up for a smaller event like Turning Stone.  Turning Stone is a great venue and the set up is great.  The only downside is that the format is rack the balls for each other; and the players cannot get the balls tight because the racks are very poor.  This results in making the 9 ball on the break or many 9 ball combinations, in my opinion… this is not pool, especially at this level of play.  It’s like watching the old style pool where the players would break the balls and the 9 ball is flying in everywhere.  The level of play world wide should not be having to play under these conditions because it makes the game too easy… especially in 9 ball.  If the 9 ball goes in after the break then it should be re-spotted; otherwise the tournament just comes down to a breaking competition.  I don’t see how spectators can get any entertainment from watching this style of pool.  The organizers at Turning Stone really need to adjust this for the future in order to be taken seriously by the top professional players.  Besides this, it has a lot of potential to be a great tournament.  This was my last tournament of the year and it is great to finally get a break and enjoy the holidays.

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year

Europe takes a 4 – 1 lead out of 5 available points, all players showing heart, determination and mental strength to pull off what must be the strongest opening to a Mosconi cup team Europe has ever had.

The first match the 5 man team round would be the first point if the evening, even with the added pressure of the format changing from the previous format to a single rack for each player (possibly playing twice alternate break so 1 break each) first to 6 points. Great play from all if team Europe would lead to USA being 1 – 0 down the game winning 9 Ball to be made by Darren’s friend and newbie Chris Melling with an impressive clearance!

Match 2 a doubles match between Chris Melling / Nick VanDenBerg(EU) vs Johnny Archer and Shaun Putnam (USA) would see USA equalise coming back from a 3 – 1 deficit to win the Euro duo 6 – 3.

Match 3 the first of the singles matches of the evening would see Niels Feijen(EU) vs Rodney Morris(USA). Showing Europe’s form once again Niels putting on a fantastic performance defeating USA’s Morris with the 6 – 0 not only adding another point to Europe but also I imagine a massive confidence boost!

Match 4 would see another doubles game between Ralf “the kaiser” Souquet and our own “Dynamite” Darren Appleton (EU) Vs Shane Van Boening / Mike “the pain” Dichaine(USA).

After a strong start from the Americans taking a 4 – 1 lead, they seamed to struggle, breaks were dry, position and safety were not coming out as they wanted which left the door open to the crafty veterans in Ralf and Darren to take their chances and claw back a 6 – 4 victory with the final 9 ball being potted by Ralf Souquet, after erupted cheers and emotion from both the players and the fans!
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The last match of the day would be a singles game between newcomer Chris Melling (EU) and Shane VanBoening (USA).

After a tough start and some strong play taking Shane into a 3 – 1 lead, it would be a safety battle that would go in Chris’s favour to bring him nah into the game to equalise. Even with the nerves of his first appearance on the Mosconi cup Chris dug deep to push VanBoening to a hill/hill game, after another safety battle we would see Europe’s Chris “the magician” Melling take control of the table, and to the sound of thunderous applause and cheers from the packed out crowd Chris potted the final 9ball taking Europe to a 4 – 1 points lead at then end of day one!

With so much excitement and tension in day one we truly are in for a treat this year, with such a high standard on both teams this will be a great tournament!

Day 2 begins tonight (Saturday) at 7pm on Skysports 3 and Skysports 3HD.

Play my first match today 3.30pm will post later.

Ps great to see so many Brits traveling to mosconi cup and some of my friends and my girlfriends family and friends going also sweet )

Dynamite

Darren carries his good form forward into the last 32 defeating his next opponent 10 – 5 after a slow start and stuck at 4 – 1 Darren was able to put 5 rack clearances back to back to win 10 – 5. Dyno went on to win his next match from 6 – 3 down to win 10 – 7 and secure his place in the last 16.

His next opponent was to be Wu Cha Ching, the Filipino ace that Darren defeated in 2008 to become the world 10 ball champion. Unfortunately Darren would lose this match 10 – 6 after some tough rolls and a bit of bad luck. However still a good performance securing Darren 9th place.

Dynamite returns to the UK on Tuesday to begin preparations for the Mosconi cup in December, will Europe win again on American soil? Can Darren pull off yet another astonishing MVP performance? We will have to wait and see!

Don’t forget to check out Dyno’s official blog for his thoughts!

Team Dyno out.

Team Dynamite.

Don’t forget guys to check out Darren’s sponsors. Predator cues, see-system and Yalin Billiards. Links can be found on the home page!!

Team Dyno out!