Championship League Preview

Christmas is over and the new year has rolled in and that means that we have entered the second half of the season and the snooker action is coming at us thick and fast starting with the first couple of groups at the Championship League this coming week. As always the Championship League features 25 players that will compete over 7 groups in order for the 7 winners of those groups to then go into the Winners Group. As I say the whole thing starts on Monday with Group 1 and every group runs across two days at different stages over the next six weeks.

Here is the full list of groups, players and dates for the seven qualifying groups of the Championship League:

Group 1 (Monday 5th and Tuesday 6th January):
Neil Robertson
Barry Hawkins
Judd Trump
Stuart Bingham
Marco Fu
Shaun Murphy
Stephen Maguire

Group 2 (Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th January):
Ali Carter
Robert Milkins
Michael Holt
+ 4 players from group 1

Group 3 (Monday 19th and Tuesday 20th January)
Ricky Walden
Mark Davis
Ryan Day
+ 4 players from group 2

Group 4 (Wednesday 21st and Thursday 22nd January)
Martin Gould
Matthew Stevens
Michael White
+ 4 players from group 3

Group 5 (Monday 26th and Tuesday 27th January)
Ronnie O'Sullivan
Liang Wenbo
Fergal O'Brien
+ 4 players from group 4

Group 6 (Wednesday 28th and Thursday 29th January)
Dominic Dale
Peter Ebdon
Kurt Maflin
+ 4 players from group 5

Group 7 (Monday 8th and Tuesday 9th February)
John Higgins
Mark Williams
Xiao Guodong
+ 4 players from group 6

Winners Group (Wednesday 10th and Thursday 11th February)
7 Group Winners


As always it's a round robin event where every player plays each other once over the two days before the top 4 in the group go through to the semi-finals and the overall group winner goes into the winners group, while places 6th and 7th in the group are eliminated and the other four remaining players move on to the next group.

Looking at the players we have in the first couple of groups this week it is nice to see Ali Carter competing ahead of his Masters tie with Barry Hawkins, while nine of the ten guys competing across the first two groups also competing in the upcoming Masters event so that could give us a little insight into how they're playing and a hint perhaps as to how they will go in their first round games at the Ally Pally.

My main focus here is looking ahead to the first couple of groups, while I will look ahead to the other groups at a later stage and I will have daily updates with results and as it stands league tables (possibly scrawled onto my famous notepad) throughout the seven groups and winners group.

Looking at group one, as all seven guys in the group are playing in the following weeks Masters, this group gives them an opportunity to get back on the table after Christmas, with some nice practice with every player playing at least six best-of-five frame encounters. Judd Trump was in the best form prior to Christmas and he is the defending Championship League champion. I fully expect Judd to make the semi-finals but whether he wins the group or not is another question, because some people are of the opinion that he likes to play the groups as by staying in longer, you can take a greater amount of financial incentive, but I'm not necessarily saying he will do that this time. Stephen Maguire was also in good form, but you wonder with the Scot whether he would've been working that hard over Christmas and how motivated he will be in this event, as he is more likely to be eyeing it up for good practice. Neil Robertson is another guy that you expect to play well, but he probably won't be too interested in winning the group as a primary outcome, as he looks to just get in some good preparations for a long run at the Masters.

As for Barry Hawkins, Stuart Bingham, Marco Fu and Shaun Murphy you know that they will be eyeing good Masters preparation as well, but these are also the types of players who enter every single tournament with the primary goal of doing as well as they possibly can, and the idea of pure match practice is one that will come as a secondary outcome of being in this event and I fully expect one of these four guys to run out as the group one winner, as that is often the way that the early groups go, as the best players on paper and in form don't always win. Marco Fu has been struggling a bit prior to Christmas and he may be one of the players that struggles over the course of the two days if he doesn't get off to a good start. Stuart, Barry and Shaun are quality players along with Marco and I expect them all to be strong in the opening group.

The key to the Championship League is getting a good start and a good run of the fixtures, because if things aren't going your way on day one, day two could come around and it could be too little too late pick up a place in the semi-finals or avoiding elimination. In terms of group one fixtures: Barry Hawkins plays three games on day one and has the evening off, while Neil Robertson and Shaun Murphy play one game in each of the first second and third sessions to finish day one having also played three games. Marco Fu meanwhile also plays four games  on day one, but two of those four come in the final session of the day in the evening, and Bingham and Maguire also have to play four games on day one and two on day two which means they have to get off to a good start early on to give themselves a chance. Finally, Judd Trump has a similar day to Robertson and Murphy playing just the three games.

If I had to predict a group one winner I'd go with Stuart Bingham because he is the most likely to get off to a good start on day one in order to consolidate a semi-final place.

As I mentioned earlier I will be back after day one with an update showing the results, the day one table and with details of who needs to do what in the final round robin games on Tuesday, so if you have an interest in the event, stick with this blog as I'm a huge fan of the Championship League, and will cover the whole event in full this year because I see no reason not to.