Championship League Group 1: Day 1: An eventful day in Essex

As snooker returned for the first time in 2015 on the tour, it was an incredibly eventful day at Crondon Park where it literally all seemed to be happening. First up the news arrived very late to everyone it seemed that Shaun Murphy had withdrawn from the tournament as he has been ill with a virus. That all seemed to happen an hour before play started (despite the fact he actually withdrew well in advance) which mean Mark King stepped in living just 20 minutes from Crondon Park and with a revised schedule we started 30 minutes late at 12.30pm. Once we did get going, there was some on table excitement in Barry Hawkins second match against Stephen Maguire in the second frame where (starting from a fluke) Hawkins was able to make a maximum break at around 3.30pm from my memory, so just three hours into snooker in 2015 we'd already had our first 147.

Now it's time for me to show you a picture I've taken of my (what shall surely become famous) notepad with all of yesterdays results and the as it stands table on written on it. For a little bit of fun you can also try and spot where I was forced to test my new pen after the previous one ran out.

 

 

 

As you can see from that Stuart Bingham had the perfect day and would already seem to be into the semi-finals with two games left having won all four of his first games. Neil Robertson has won three of his first four games and is also on target for a top four finish while it's anyone's game from the remaining five players for the two other semi-final spots. Barry Hawkins had a nice day after his 147 against Maguire as he won two of his opening three games, but another good day is needed from him today with plenty of players breathing down his neck. Marco Fu and Stephen Maguire were both only able to record one win from their opening four games, with both players beating Judd Trump. Maguire and Fu do play each other so you would suggest that the loser of that game may finish in the bottom two and get eliminated, while the winner has a great chance of making the play-offs. Having only got a late call to play, Mark King had a short but productive day at Crondon Park. He only played two games, which means he has four games in a row today and to take two frames off of Bingham and beat Fu 3-1 was some achievement on little preparation and if he can carry on strong and win half of his games today you'd fancy his semi-final chances. Finally, one man that has it all to do is Judd Trump who has lost all three of his opening games against Robertson, Fu and Maguire and you feel he has to win all of his remaining games to make sure of a semi-final spot, while a couple of wins could save him from elimination in the bottom two places having won 5 frames in those three defeats with two decider losses against Robertson and Fu yesterday.

 

 

That's how everything looks then after day one of the Championship League and who needs to do what on the final day of this opening group. From what I saw I was particularly impressed with Stuart Bingham and Barry Hawkins and in my view it will be one of those two who wins this group, though they will also face good competition from Neil Robertson and Stephen Maguire looks most likely of the others to take the other semi-final place having played ok yesterday and playing King and Fu as his final two games today i expect him to win both and as long as Trump doesn't win his remaining games that should be the play-off line-up. 

We'll see how everything pans out though, and i'll be back tomorrow to let you all know how it's gone and give you a little preview of what's to come in Group 2 of the Championship League.