World Cup of Pool 2015 Results: Winner, Final Results and Prize Money

Chinese Taipei made history on Sunday night after the pairing of Ko Pin-yi and Chang Yu-lung came back from four racks down to defeat England B 10-8 and claim their nation's first World Cup of Pool crown.

The "B" team of Mark Gray and Daryl Peach looked as though they would seal a second successive title for England, but a mid-match call to arms provided Chinese Taipei with enough ammunition to stage a revival.

Ng Han Guan/Associated Press

England suffered double disappointment on Sunday, too, after the "A" team of Darren Appleton and Karl Boyes fell to none other than Chinese Taipei in their semi-final fixture earlier in the schedule.

Ko and Chang will share a $60,000 (£39,500) prize purse thanks to their climactic triumph, while runner-up duo Gray and Peach will be left to settle for half that sum.

Here's a breakdown of Sunday's final and semi-final scores, where Chinese Taipei eventually ran rampant to come out on top of the global pile in convincing fashion:

Final
Semi-Finals
Winner	Score	Loser
Chinese Taipei	10-8	England B
Winner	Score	Loser
Chinese Taipei	9-6	England A
England B	9-7	Japan

Recap

Although it would later go on to become a fearsome tug-of-war, Sunday's final initially looked like a one-sided affair as England B proceeded to open up a 5-1 lead over Chinese Taipei with what looked like minimal effort.

However, having already won the nine-ball and 10-ball championships this year, it was at this point that Ko's truly elite class began to show for Chinese Taipei, with the world No. 1 refusing to crumble under pressure.

Perhaps it was a lack of final experience that came to play a role in the turnaround, and Chinese Taipei's heavyweight duo showed great nerve in forcing some bank shots, while cracks started to appear in England B's approach.

Referee Brendan Moore was almost spot-on with his pre-match prediction of another 19-game thriller on Sunday, just missing the mark with his foresight:

But just as was the case against Japan earlier in the day, Gray and Peach were far from perfect in their play and left too many lingering shots for Ko and Chang to convert, taking their first lead of the evening at 8-7.

From there, the visitors were unassailable and brought Chinese Taipei its maiden World Cup crown after making the semi-finals in five of the last six tournaments.

Earlier on Sunday, Ko and Chang became the first representatives from Chinese Taipei to ever make a World Cup of Pool final thanks to their 9-6 victory over an out-of-sorts England A.

Ng Han Guan/Associated Press

Both teams stuttered in attempting to find a foothold early on, as Appleton and Boyes looked shaky in front of a home audience, just about managing to put their noses in front with a 4-3 lead after five games. However, a missed eight ball pot then gifted Ko the chance to get Chinese Taipei level before sneaking into a one-game lead, a position they wouldn't surrender for the remainder of the match.

Chinese Taipei threatened to run away with the match by a huge gulf at 7-4, and even though the top-seeded pair managed to pull back within one game, writer John Dobson rightly bemoaned the high rate of errors from England A:

There was a dry break in the final game to give the English one final chance of a comeback, but even that passed them by to mark a dismal semi performance, with Ko and Chang merely the less error-prone of the two.

Where the A team had fallen, though, England B would not, and a 9-7 win over Japan sealed Gray and Peach's place in the final. But the latter was still quick to critique their display, per Matchroom Pool: 

"

We have had a really tough draw and maybe sub-consciously we were favourites today and that would be the first match where we are favourites since the first round, so maybe that affected our performance a little bit. But there is no excuse for some of the balls we both missed today.

"

England's hope for a finalist looked done and dusted after Japan sailed into a 5-2 lead at Bethnal Green, but an irrepressible persistence saw the B team pull back to 6-5 before claiming three racks in succession.

That string of success put the British pair on the crest of a momentous win at 8-6, and Peach held his nerve spectacularly to position a sublime bank shot that just put the fixture beyond two-time semi-finalists Japan:

It may not have been England's top pair who claimed the plaudits in London on Sunday, but Gray and Peach's performance in some ways only further cements England's dominion in the world of pool.