Tuesday, 1 March 2016

Championship League: Matt Selt wins group 7 to set up Winners Group

Matt Selt has won the seventh and final qualifying group of the Championship League at the Crondon Park to set the line up for the winners group in stone for the two days of play on Wednesday and Thursday.

Selt won his final two group games on day two of the group after winning two from three on day one, before starting Tuesday with a whitewash defeat to Dominic Dale.

It was Liang Wenbo who did most of the running on the day finishing with three wins from his final three round robin games on the day, to make it five consecutive after losing his opening game in group seven on Monday. The Chinaman finished top of the group in dominant style and then saw off Kyren Wilson in a semi-final deciding frame.

Wilson had only scraped through to the knock out stages by a frame of Stuart Bingham after the world champion won his final two group games and Kyren lost his final two.

Michael Holt meanwhile became the only person to play an entire set of round robin fixtures and not get a single win, as he finished with six defeats from six in group seven and propped up the table.

Mark Davis took on Matt Selt in the other semi-final after Davis finished in second place on frames lost from Selt. It was Matt who was the 3-1 victor on the day to set up a final with Wenbo.

Liang would have gone in a slight favourite against Selt based on the form of the two days and after he took the opening two frames that decision would have been justified. However, he missed his chances from there and Selt was able to take advantage to take all of the final three frames and turn it around to win the group.

 
What it all means is that the seven players that will make up the winners group are Ronnie O'Sullivan, Judd Trump, Stephen Maguire, Mark Williams, Mark Selby, Ali Carter and Matt Selt.
 
 
The resounding favourite will be Ronnie O'Sullivan given the simple fact that he is unbeaten in 2016 after winning group one of this competition, the Masters and the Welsh Open. In the form he is right now no one can stop him and that has been proved in style already.
 
Judd Trump is someone though that is yet to have a go (unlike players like Selby and Mark Williams) and Trump is a former Championship League winner and after winning his group at the first time of asking also, then he will want to win this group in the hope that it leads to bigger things in the remainder of the season.
 
Mark Selby comes to Crondon Park having only won his group (group five) in the same week that he took his first title of the year by winning the Gdynia Open in Poland. He has been striking the ball beautifully for a while and has to be another strong contender.
 
Messrs' Williams and Maguire may have played well in the Championship league but have failed to find that spark in any ranking competitions this year and while they are certainly contenders it is hard to see them winning this if Selby, Trump and O'Sullivan play like they can and have been at times this season.
 
Carter and Selt are the clear underdogs, though it would be easy to underestimate Carter because of where he is in the rankings through not fault of his own. Selt meanwhile is on the rise and it will be easy to see how he shapes up against players that on paper are probably a class above him.
 
We all know that Ronnie will take some stopping though, and I will be back with an update tomorrow at the halfway point of the group to see if anyone looks like doing so.


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