Stephen came into day 2 of the group leading the way with three wins from three. His only loss in the group came in his first match of the day against Mark Williams who made a superb 137 break in the decider to see him off there. Otherwise he had a narrow 3-2 victory against Joe Perry which included a 112 break in the opening frame from Stephen, as he missed the last red on a maximum 147 attempt. The group was closed out with a 3-1 win against Ricky Walden which saw Maguire finish top and Walden in fourth so the pair met again in the semi-finals just an hour afterwards.
Elsewhere on the second day of the round robin stages, Joe Perry was handed a 3-0 win against Marco Fu without potting a single ball after Fu arrived late to Crondon Park for the match. Further losses for Fu later in the day against Mark Selby and Mark Williams saw the Hong Kong player finish bottom of the group. Perry also failed to win another match on the day, missing his chance in the decider with Maguire and then coming straight back out to a 3-0 whitewash loss against Michael White. This saw Perry finish in sixth place and eliminated alongside Fu, as Mark Williams escaped after his two wins on the day an extra two frames won across six matches proving the difference.
Mark Selby and Michael White both completed victories in their final two matches on day two in order to qualify for the semi-finals in second and third position in the table, meaning they were to play each other in the knock-out round.
Selby came from behind to win the opening frame of that match and didn't look back from there, as he wrapped up a 3-0 win inside of 40 minutes to book his place in the group three final.
Maguire meanwhile was equally as ruthless with yet another century on the way to a 3-0 win against Ricky Walden in the other semi, just an hour and a half after making two centuries against Ricky in the round robin stages.
In the final, Mark Selby started off with a century break to lead 1-0 but lost the next the next two to fall behind before forcing the deciding frame. Stephen needed a couple of chances in the decider but he didn't give Selby a chance to win the match, as the Scot sealed the group victory.
Tomorrow of course we are straight back into things for group 4 of the league. Mark Williams, Michael White, Ricky Walden and Mark Selby are the four men that continue from the third group and they are joined by reigning UK champion Neil Robertson, 2006 World champion Graeme Dott and Ben Woollaston who has moved into to replace Stuart Bingham who was due to start in this group but has now been moved to start later on in the seventh group.
It will be interesting to see how Graeme and Ben go as they play their first competitive snooker of 2016, and both are qualified for next weeks German Masters so this will be a good warm up for them.
I think the major threats for the actual group win are going to be Neil Robertson, a danger for any tournament he enters, and Mark Selby who has lost in the knock out rounds of groups 2 and 3 to the group winner and he is playing very well without having a win to show for it.
Relegation wise Dott and Woollaston are not quite at the same level as some of the others in this group so they may struggle, but Ricky Walden struggled despite making it into fourth place and Mark Williams was lacklustre at times and incredibly fortunate to pull it out of the fire and finish fifth in group 3. Who knows how he'll play over the next two days.
Michael White could be an underdog for the group win after winning four of his six matches in the round robin stage of group three, the only two losses he suffered coming against Ricky Walden after Walden made to centuries and the other was from 2-0 up against eventual group winner Maguire.
If I had to pick one name again for the group win I would stick with Mark Selby.
Come back at the same time tomorrow to see how Mark and the other six players are faring at the halfway stage of Group 4.
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