How old was Mosconi when he won his last world championship?

Positively Ralf

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also, was the championship in a tournament with others or was it won in one of those challenge matches they had for years?
 

sjm

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Mosconi was in his mid-40's when he won his last World 14.1 Championship, a proper BCA tournament, although back then, the defending champion from the previous year typically had a bye into the final while everyone else matched up for the chance to be the other finalist.

It's worth noting that Willie suffered a stroke in 1956, and while he won another title, his game would never be quite the same and he retired from competition at about 52 years old.
 

Bob Jewett

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You might count the April 1958 "National Invitational Tournament" as a world championship. It was a triple round robin with four players: Mosconi, Jimmy Moore, Irving Crane and Luther Lassiter. Mosconi and Moore tied at 10-2 and Mosconi won the playoff. Mosconi was 44. (info from Charlie Ursitti's files)

Mosconi was talked into playing in the 1966 "World Tournament" in Burbank. It was an 18-player round-robin, if you can imagine. He finished second to Balsis. In that tournament Balsis set a new BPI average record of 22. Mosconi would have been 52 at that time.

The last "officially" titled world championship Mosconi won was in April 1956 in Kinston, NC. It was an 8-player double round robin and he was undefeated. Crane was second with a 10-4 record. The order of finish was: Mosconi, Crane, Moore, Lassiter, Fitzpatrick, Eufemia, Rudolph, Riggie. Mosconi was 42 at the time.
 

Bob Jewett

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An interesting sidelight is that there was an unofficial world championship in 1954 at Allinger's in Philadelphia. I heard that the players were unhappy with the prize fund that Brunswick was providing for the tournaments, so they produced their own. The top finishers were Lassiter, Moore, Crane, and Eufemia.

The dates were March 15-26, 1954.

On March 19th, 1954, Willie Mosconi ran 526 in Springfield, Ohio in an exhibition.
 
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