Immonen And Alcaide Put Europe Up Three

Immonen And Alcaide Put Europe Up ThreeDavid Alcaide and Mika Immonen moved the Europen billiard team three points up on Day Three of the 2006 PartyPoker.com Mosconi Cup.They recorded a fantastic 6-4 doubles victory against Rodney Morris and Earl Strickland, as the USA pair suffered their second defeat in two days.Discuss the PartyPoker.com Mosconi Cup
An early error gave Europe ball in hand and Immonen held his nerve to pot a difficult looking 9-ball into the right centre pocket for a 1-0 lead. They doubled their advantage shortly afterwards thanks to an 8-9 combination from David Alcaide.Europe broke in the third and Alcaide sunk both the 1 and 4 balls and with a shot on the 2-ball they were in prime position to move into an impressive 3-0 lead, which Immonen did by potting the 9-ball.America needed to begin a fightback quickly and they won the fourth as Morris potted the 9-ball. However, they fell three racks behind as Europe clinched the fifth for a 4-1 lead, although Morris and Strickland did win the next but still trailed 4-2.Before this year, Morris and Strickland had been a formidable pairing in the Mosconi Cup doubles matches and had won each of their six matches.However, 2006 has been a different story as they slumped to a shock 6-5 defeat against Nick van den Berg and Imran Majid on Friday afternoon. It looked like becoming two losses in successive days as Alcaide potted the 9-ball to move Europe to the hill at 5-2 ahead.A fine shot from Strickland to cut the nine in from a tight angle ensured another rack would be played but Europe had a glorious chance as Immonen would break in the next.But a missed bank on the blue 2 from Alcaide gave USA another chance, which they took to make it 5-4.There was to be more drama in the next rack as Strickland drew back too far off the break and scratched into the right centre pocket, to the delight of the partisan Dutch crowd.Strickland, not for the first time this tournament, then slammed his cue down on the table and became involved in a shouting argument with members of the crowd. The Pearl would not have to play another shot this match as Immonen finished off the encounter for a Europe triumph.

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