This is the first professional tournament of 2021 and we start with the Championship League. It isn’t the most invigorating tournament in the world. Indeed, there were three different Championship Leagues last year. Scott Donaldson, Luca Brecel and Kyren Wilson won these three events. Even when it became a ranking event last September, a lot of fans were annoyed by its repetitiveness and short format.
But this is the original Championship League format that has been ever-present since 2008. This is a non-ranking event that we are all familiar with, the one that Scott Donaldson is actually defending. Let’s not forget – the Masters is around the corner and practice here may be vital indeed.
The Rules
Let’s started with the first group. There are seven players and they play each other within one group. Players earn prize money for every frame won and matches are best of 5 frames.
Once all matches are played, the top four players of the group proceed to a knockout and the bottom two are eliminated from the competition. The winner of the knockout qualifies to the winner’s group.
This means that the three knockout losers, alongside with the 5th-placed player proceed to Group 2. Three newcomers join these four individuals and the process repeats itself.
There is usually no audience. Every match is broadcast via the internet only. But I’m sure there will be the same COVID-related protocols. It is still in Milton Keynes, so no change there then.
The Groups
These groups are taken from the Championship League website. They are correct at the time of publishing. The reason why I say that is because is that it is common for players to withdraw and others to move places.
Group 1 (4th – 5th January): John Higgins, Stuart Bingham, Michael Holt, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, Gary Wilson, Zhou Yuelong, Graeme Dott
Group 2 (6th – 7th January): Kyren Wilson, Matthew Selt, Scott Donaldson
Group 3 (8th – 9th January): Mark Selby, Neil Robertson, Tom Ford
Group 4 (8th – 9th February): Judd Trump, Yan Bingtao, Jack Lisowski
Group 5 (10th – 11th February): Ronnie O’Sullivan, Joe Perry, Ali Carter
Group 6 (12th – 13th February): Mark Williams, David Gilbert, TBC
Group 7 (29th – 30th March): Kurt Maflin, TBC, TBC
Winners Group (31st March – 1st April): All winners of the above 7 Groups
Random Moments of the Championship League
Forgetting the Championship League events won by Luca Brecel and Kyren Wilson, this tourney has shown a few flashes of brilliance. Indeed, it isn’t well-rated and the turnover of players is quite high. It always seems like the black sheep out of the current family of ranking and non-ranking events. But there are a number of decent memories.
Nine maximum breaks were made in the Championship League before the pandemic. This included the 147th maximum break, which David Gilbert made against Stephen Maguire. The snooker fanbase rejoiced when a delighted Fergal O’Brien made his first maximum back in 2016.
Mark Davis made his two maximums in 2017. In fact, Mark Davis made his second a couple of months after his first in the same event! Davis was the oldest professional to make a maximum at 44 years, 202 days until John Higgins overtook him in the 2020 World Snooker Championship.
Then there are some recent oddities. Ones that first come to mind are Mark Selby and Barry Hawkins uncontrollably laughing during the match, The highlight of the last campaign was Matt Selt and Tom Ford exchanging verbals towards each other. This lead to Selt declaring that “this is a place of work”, leading to much merriment over social media.
The 2021 Championship League will take place from 4th January to 1st April 2021 in the Ballroom at Stadium MK in Milton Keynes in England.
