Spalding Snooker League star Mark Gray produced his best-ever Mosconi Cup performance as Team Europe piled the misery on a floundering American side to take a five point lead into the third day of the 2016 competition at the Alexandra Palace in London.
They won three of the four Wednesday night matches to leave the USA with a mountainous task if they are to win the Mosconi Cup for the first time in eight years.
Gray joined forces with Niels Feijen to win the opening doubles matches against Shane Van Boening and Skyler Woodward.
He then featured in the final match of the night by recording a 5-1 singles success over Justin Bergman.
Gray produced a near faultless performance to win four frames in a row and dash American hopes.
The Bourne Snooker Centre pro was delighted with his display in front of a capacity crowd.
Gray said: “I have now played in three Mosconis. I have played well in the other two, but my stats are pretty poor.
“For me, this was the performance of my Mosconi career and especially against the guy who has probably been their best player.
“You can tell the future of American pool, especially at the Mosconi, is going to be Bergman and Woodward and some of the youngsters that are coming through.
“I knew I was in for a tough time and maybe on paper he is slight favourite but I have really produced.
“I love the big stage with the bigger crowds and you don’t get much bigger than the Ally Pally with 2,000 screaming fans going wild.
“If you can’t play well here then you aren’t going to play well anywhere.”
Play continues tonight.