Mark Williams dominant on first day of Group 4

Mark Williams was the dominant force on day one of the fourth Championship League group, winning all four of his games on the day. Williams of course only just scraped into this group, finishing fifth in group 5 after Joe Perry lost his final group game 3-0 on Tuesday. Wednesday was a much changed day for the Welshman as he started off with a 3-1 victory against one of the groups newbies Graeme Dott, before thrashing Michael White 3-0 in his second match. A double header followed in the evening session as Williams overcame another new face Ben Woollaston, and then beat Mark Selby 3-2 to end the day.

That defeat denied Selby a perfect day, winning his earlier two games 3-2 against Michael White and 3-0 over Ricky Walden, while Neil Robertson has also won two of his opening three games. Three centuries on the day helped the Australian to a whitewash over Woollaston and a 3-1 win over Ricky Walden before then losing out narrowly to Graeme Dott.

Dott started the day poorly with a 3-1 loss to Williams and a 3-0 defeat against Woollaston (Ben's only win on the day), but the win against Neil helped his fortunes before he played Ricky Walden in the evening session. Graeme could easily have won 3-0 but found himself 2-1 adrift after Walden stole the second and third frames. Dott managed to force a decider and had a big lead again before Ricky's chance came. Eventually he ran out of position on the pink and had to pot it with no way of obtaining black ball position, 7 ahead with 7 remaining. A long battle ended when Dott doubled the black to force a re-spotted black and after winning the toss and making Ricky play the opening shot, Dott doubled the black again to win the match 3-2, a double whammy for Walden.

That wasn't even the strangest thing that happened to Ricky today after his only win on the day came against winless Michael White. White got stuck in traffic after driving back to his hotel between matches and was docked two frames for being 20 minutes late. When he got there he couldn't pot a ball and Walden did the rest to seal the easiest 3-0 win he'll have for a long time.

Thursday's remaining Round Robin matches:

Neil Robertson Vs Mark Selby
Ben Woollaston Vs Michael White
Graeme Dott Vs Mark Selby
Mark Williams Vs Ricky Walden
Neil Robertson Vs Michael White
Ben Woollaston Vs Ricky Walden
Graeme Dott Vs Michael White
Ben Woollaston Vs Mark Selby
Neil Robertson Vs Mark Williams

Tomorrow's play begins with a key match between Neil Robertson and Mark Selby. With both on 2 points from 3 games, the winner of the match will almost be certain of their semi-final place, while the loser could still be sent into trouble.

Ben Woollaston and Michael White face off in a key match on the other table with both desperate for victories to avoid relegation, as they currently occupy 6th and 7th positions in the group.

Mark Selby then faces back to back matches when he takes on Graeme Dott, who could still use one win from his final two games, and if Selby loses to Neil Robertson he'll be in the exact same situation.

Mark Williams has already qualified for the knock-out stages and still faces a match with Ricky Walden, who certainly needs to step up a gear if he is to continue his participation in the Championship League 2016. Williams later match with Neil Robertson could well be a dead rubber if the Australian can beat either of Mark Selby or Michael White, who will certainly need to take a win from that game.

White's final game is against Graeme Dott, a match that could well be a relegation play-off depending on how earlier results go, while Ben Woollaston still faces another make or break match himself against Ricky Walden, before then playing fellow Leicester man Mark Selby in their final group games.


All in all, Williams is safe as far as knock-out phase participation is concerned but the way the fixtures line-up for day two of this fourth group, corresponding to the way the table currently sits it is anyone's guess as to who will finish where of the remaining spots, though a lot will become clearer after Robertson's match with Selby first up tomorrow and after the opening games of the three W's, Walden, White and Woollaston.

I'll be back on Friday with a round-up of the events on the final day of Group 4, before moving on to look ahead to the German Masters which starts just less than a week from now over in Berlin.