It's been three and a half weeks since the snooker boys left Crondon Park and the Championship League of 2016 but tomorrow it all starts again as group five gets underway. So far, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Judd Trump, Stephen Maguire and Mark Williams are into the Winners Group after winning the opening four groups between, and it is not long now until we will have all seven names to start off the Final group.
As it stands the seven guys that will contest group five on Monday and Tuesday this week are Neil Robertson, Mark Selby, Graeme Dott and Ricky Walden who move on from group four, along with the three new additions of Mark Davis, Kyren Wilson and David Gilbert. As I write this though, Neil Robertson is of course in Cardiff playing in the Welsh Open final, so he may well withdraw from the competition which would free up a spot for someone else. However, at this stage that is merely speculation.
If Robertson does play it will only be his second group, along with Graeme Dott, both of whom joined in group four and were knocked out in the semi-finals after negotiating the round robin stages.
Mark Selby was the runner-up of both groups three and four and joined the competition in group two where he was knocked out in the semi-finals by Judd Trump after winning all six of his round robin matches so for me he is one of the favourites to take victory in group five.
For all of Ricky Walden's struggles this season he is still in the Championship League and fighting hard. He started out in the very first group of the competition and has yet to finish above fourth position after the round robin stages. In groups one and three he finished fourth before losing in the group semi-finals and in groups two and four he has finished in the lucky loser fifth position where you miss out on the knock out stages but get to come back for the next group.
Mark Davis comes into this after winning the Seniors just a few weeks ago and he seemed to be in decent form when I watched him at the Welsh Open so I think he has a great chance to make the top four.
Kyren Wilson fell at the first hurdle in Cardiff being beaten 4-3 from 3-0 up so he will be hoping to get that huge disappointment out of his system this week in Essex. The form of China qualifier against Anthony Hamilton will be what he hopes to bring more of out here.
David Gilbert has not really done all that much since making the International Championship final and he has to be one of the top contenders to get relegated by finishing in the bottom two of the group at the end of the round robin stages.
Selby and Robertson (so long as he definitely turns up) will be the top contenders to win the group, especially Mark after his near misses in the earlier groups that he has played in.
Group six is all set to follow with four players moving on from this group being joined by German Masters champion and former Championship League winner Martin Gould, Michael Holt and Ali Carter.
I will be back throughout the week with updates after each days play on where we stand in the groups.
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