PREVIEW: Championship League – Group Winners Strike Back

There is plenty of talk about the Matchroom Championship League. Even though there is plenty of snooker, it is repeatedly noted that lockdown hairdos of some snooker players are quite suspect. Judd Trump was compared to Terry Griffiths. Daniel Wells has similarities to Dominic Dale with peroxide blonde hair. Kyren Wilson was compared to Richard Gere. Ronnie O’Sullivan with his moustache looks like an extra in a Spaghetti Western film. Hammad Miah decided to go for the blonde look. Also, Oliver Lines has decided to get a top-knot bun.

Alfie Burden took a stance at the event. He decided to kneel in solidarity to the Black Lives Matter cause in response to the killing of George Floyd, which shocked the world. You can find an article about it by clicking here.

The quality of snooker hasn’t been fantastic. We expected that. Table leaders Liang Wenbo, Gary Wilson and Ronnie O’Sullivan are the stand-out performers, with nine centuries between them. The added importance of the highest break brought some extra drama to the competition. The final match between Kyren Wilson vs. Ryan Day was certainly the main highlight for me for partly that reason as well as its high quality.

Lesser known players such as Joe O’Connor, Ashley Carty, Harvey Chandler and Chen Feilong had flashes of brilliance. It’s great for them as professionals to get experience on live television.

What’s the response been like?

So far, the Matchroom Championship League has been an outstanding success. As of 8th June, all tests for COVID-19 came back with a negative result. The players and referees have almost unanimously praised the safety and organisation of the event. Previously, I was concerned that professional snooker was returning too soon in the middle of the pandemic.

The other things I liked was the coverage. ITV4 are doing a great job with its commentary and punditry. I don’t know a lot about Matchroom, but I really enjoyed the quips from COO of Matchroom Multi Sport Emily Frazer. She interacts a lot with snooker players and certainly worth a follow. Following its recent success, World Snooker has confirmed that the Tour Championship is rescheduled to June 20th to 26th at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, rather than the original venue at Llandudno.

But let’s not get complacent. There’s still a few more days of the event left. Ronnie O’Sullivan said he would not attend events if all tournaments are operated like the Championship League. This is understandable, as anyone would be feeling more anxious being in such a stringent environment for too long. Hopefully, this will be a one-off thing. When the pandemic ends, tournaments won’t be run like this during the ‘new normal’. Hopefully.

The Group Winners’ Stage

Sixteen winners proceeded into four groups of four players. The placements of these groups were already drawn at random. Groups C and D will play to a finish on 9th June. Groups A and B will start and conclude on 10th June. The final group consisting of four group winners will take place on the 11th June. Snooker.org determined the seeds below.

Group A

Gary Wilson (13)

Luca Brecel (25)

Mark Joyce (39)

Ashley Carty (53)

Group B

Judd Trump (1)

David Gilbert (7)

Barry Hawkins (8)

Ryan Day (18)

Group C

Ronnie O’Sullivan (5)

Stuart Bingham (10)

Sam Craigie (37)

Harvey Chandler (56)

Group D

Tom Ford (14)

Martin O’Donnell (21)

Liang Wenbo (22)

Ben Woollaston (23)

A reminder that I take no credit for the images used here. Full credit in particular goes to Monique Limbos for the image of Harvey Chandler in this article.