After everyone has got everything out of their systems over everything that happened in the Shoot-Out and amateurs are starting their rounds in Gibraltar, now we are going to talk about the non-ranking event that pretty much no-one has been talking about. Now that makes a change. Something nice and stress-free isn’t it? 🙂
A little bit of history of the Championship League. It started in 2008 by Barry Hearn to provide an alternative way for top players to qualify for previously Premier League Snooker and currently Champion of Champions and earning lots of money. This is mainly for Top 32 players, consisting of eight groups battling out in a best-of-5 format to win the group to proceed to the Winners’ Group. Players get money depending on how many frames they won in the group stages, the play-offs in the group stages and the prize fund increases in the latter stages. Those who finish in the bottom two of the group are eliminated and are replaced by new players to compete against those who still have to participate in the next group. A number of players have won this tournament, ranging from the likes of Ding Junhui and Stuart Bingham to Martin Gould and Matthew Stevens.
This is a rather odd format, but I rather like it. It is very relaxed, and it is available to everyone, exclusively on the Internet where you will see top sportspeople slouching in gorgeous armchairs that you would see in mansions of an aristocrat in Midsomer Murders. Yep, I think that makes sense. This also helps them prepare for upcoming events, which is why it is so sought for before the Dafabet Masters. Anyways, here is the line-up!
Group 1 Winner: David Gilbert
You know when I said this tournament will be stress-free? Well, the poor Angry Farmer will hopefully have calmed down after being robbed of a potential £32,000 cheque, Players’ Championship place and a kitchen sink during the Shoot-Out. Despite finishing third in the original group, he beat Mark Davis and Ryan Day to qualify for the final group. He scraped through a few wins along the way, but these are the sort of qualities you need for this event. He will be more motivated than ever to make up for that unfortunate mistake, as he has vowed to not throw the towel in just yet. He reached the finals before last year while making his first 147 in the process.
Group 2 Winner: Anthony McGill
Now to the winner of the Shoot-Out! Anthony McGill showed great temperament to win this event and now has to play in contrasting conditions where they do not have the pressure of rankings or anything like that. Like Gilbert, he also scraped through the second group, beating Neil Robertson and then Ryan Day in the play-off final. This is his first appearance in the Championship League so it will be interesting to see if he tries to be the first player this season to win two events back-to-back.
Group 3 Winner: Mark Davis
It was in the event when Mark Davis became the oldest professional ever to score a 147 in professional competition, rather fittingly to win the decider of the play-off final 3-2 against Neil Robertson after beating Day. Davis has had some success in past editions of the Championship League, having reached the final in 2015, but beaten 3-2 by Stuart Bingham. Davis’s form has not been spectacular this season, having slipped down to No. 31 in the rankings. It was third time lucky for Davis, who start the competition in Group 1. By participating in three groups and qualifying, he earned £12,800. Not bad!
Group 4 Winner: Barry Hawkins
Past winners Gilbert (3rd), McGill (4th) and Davis (2nd) didn’t need to top the group to win the play-offs. Barry Hawkins became the first player in this season’s event to win the group while topping the table, winning five out of six matches before beating Day (there is a pattern emerging here!) and finally whitewashing Mark Williams. Hawkins has qualified for the final group several times, reaching the semi-finals in 2013 before being beaten by eventual winner Martin Gould.
Group 5 Winner: Judd Trump
After losing the decider of the 2017 Welsh Open 9-8, you’d expect Judd Trump to take a while to recover from such a struggle. No, my dear. defending champion Trump won all six of his opening group matches, and later whitewashed Day (for god’s sake) and Williams, scoring 3 +50 breaks and 3 centuries in just these two matches in this first group appearance. He became only the fourth player to win all six group games and then go on to win the group. Trump is also the most successful player in this tournament, winning the trophy three times against Mark Selby, Gould and Ronnie O’Sullivan, though he lost one to Ding. He is expected to be favourite in this group.
Group 6 Winner: Ryan Day
Hallelujah! After joining the tournament in Group 1 and reaching the playoffs each time, he finally qualified for the final group by finishing 3rd in the table and beat Ricky Walden 3-2 and finally Gould 3-1. He has reached the final group stages before and even topped it back in 2008 when he was beaten by eventual winner Joe Perry. By staying away from elimination for so long and eventually qualifying, he earned £23,700. If you think about it, this is more than winning the ranking-event Paul Hunter Classic (£18,750)!
Group 7 Winner: John Higgins
John Higgins takes the final spot, despite Bingham winning all of his six matches before the playoff stages. He showed great qualities in beating Holt twice in deciders and bouncing back from his first defeat against Mark Selby to whitewash him in the final. Three times a player has qualified from Group 7 since 2008 went on to win the trophy, so why the hell shouldn’t Higgins win? He has the form to do so and is straight into the format while the earlier players are likely to be very rusty. He had to come through probably the toughest group this Championship League, so he should be one to watch.
Should be a cracking group, with four current Top 16 players (including McGill, thanks to his 32,000 point win in the Shoot-Out) and some very experienced pros in the format. I expect a tough group, but we will see!
Prediction: Table from 1st position: McGill, Higgins, Gilbert, Trump, Hawkins, Day, Davis
Final: Higgins wins vs. McGill 3-1
