World Cup (snooker)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Winners

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

See also

• Nations Cup (snooker)