Top Trump wins Championship League

Judd Trump scooped the Championship League title last night with some great performances especially on the 2nd day. On the day he beat Martin Gould 3-2 from 2-0 down and lost 3-2 to Shaun Murphy in his final 2 round robin games, to finish 4th in the group by 1 frame or Ricky Walden, and play Shaun Murphy again in the semi-finals, after Murphy topped the group having only lost his first round robin game on Wednesday.


The other semi-final saw Stephen Maguire, who finished 2nd in the group with 4 wins from 6, but losing a little momentum from losing his final group game 3-2 to Ricky Walden who finished 5th, take on Martin Gould who finished 3rd with 3 wins from 6 after wins against Walden and Perry on day 2 saw him into the semi-finals.


The semi-finals didn't go according to the round-robin form book though, as 3rd place finished Martin Gould thrashed 2nd placed Maguire 3-0 in the semi-finals to avenge his 3-2 defeat in the group stages. He then played Judd Trump in the final after he avenged his defeat from just a couple of hours before 3-2 against Shaun Murphy. Having led 2-0, Shaun battled back well to force the decider well, but Judd potted some amazing balls in the decider and Shaun Murphy didn't really have a chance, as Judd took the win.


Martin Gould was completely outplayed in the final as Judd started off with a break of 119 to take the opening frame, and then early breaks of 36 and 34 were enough to put Trump 2-0 in front and 1 frame from the title. It looked like Trump would get there in the 3rd, as a break of 64 put him 58 points ahead with 59 on, but a superb 59 clearance from Martin Gould kept him in the match at 1-2. However, Judd Trump won in style in the 4th frame as a break of 109 gave the 24 year old the Championship League top prize for the 2nd time in his career and a place in next seasons Champion of Champions.


Judd played very well on the last day, and played with maximum professionalism throughout the day, particularly in his final group game with Shaun Murphy, where both players have to be given credit for giving it 100% despite both players already being through. It seemed like he was back to his best, and if he can carry that through to China then he has every chance of victory in the Haikou World Open next week.


I'll be back to preview that tournament over the weekend and I'm looking forward to it already.

Championship League Winners Group: Day 1 round-up

The Championship League winners group is looking very tight after the first day, with 4 players locked on 2 points from their opening games, while Stephen Maguire has had a decent day, with 3 points from his first 4 games, while Joe Perry is in trouble with 0 wins from his first 3 games, while defending champion Martin Gould has had 1 win from 3 games, though given the amount of frames he's won he still has a great chance.


Let's have a look at today's results then:


Ricky Walden 3-1 Joe Perry
Stephen Maguire 3-2 Judd Trump
Martin Gould 3-2 Shaun Murphy
Ricky Walden 3-0 Ryan Day
Judd Trump 3-2 Joe Perry
Shaun Murphy 3-1 Stephen Maguire
Ryan Day 3-2 Martin Gould
Judd Trump 3-1 Ricky Walden
Stephen Maguire 3-1 Joe Perry
Shaun Murphy 3-0 Ryan Day
Ryan Day 3-0 Judd Trump
Stephen Maguire 3-2 Martin Gould


Just a reminder of tomorrow's remaining round-robin games:


Ricky Walden Vs Martin Gould
Joe Perry Vs Shaun Murphy
Stephen Maguire Vs Ryan Day
Judd Trump Vs Martin Gould
Joe Perry Vs Ryan Day
Ricky Walden Vs Shaun Murphy
Judd Trump Vs Shaun Murphy
Joe Perry Vs Martin Gould
Ricky Walden Vs Stephen Maguire




Now for the table after proceedings on Day 1:


Maguire: Played 4  Won 3  Frames won 10  Frames lost 8  Points 3
Murphy: Pld  3  Won 2  Frames won 8  Frames lost 4  Points 2
Trump: Pld 4  Won 2  Frames won 8  Frames lost 9  Points 2
Walden: Pld 3  Won 2  Frames won 7  Frames lost 4  Points 2
Day: Pld 4  Won 2  Frames won 6  Frames Lost 8  Points 2
Gould: Pld 3  Won 1  Frames won 7  Frames Lost 8  Points 1
Perry: Pld 3  Won 0  Frames won 4  Frames Lost 9  Points 0




It all looks very close and a touch confusing, and there isn't really any easy games for me to really rate who has the best chance of making the semi-finals. Normally in these circumstances you'd say that Maguire should be through, already having 3 points, which is usually enough, but with 4 players on 2 it could be a lot closer if he doesn't get another win tomorrow. Murphy and Walden obviously have slight advantages over Trump and Day who are all on 2 points, with Shaun and Ricky having an extra match tomorrow to get the 2 wins they'd need to be certain, with Murphy looking in the best situation if he could get 1 more win tomorrow and not lose too heavily in his other 2 matches, though he won't be looking at it like that. Martin Gould will need at least a couple of wins from his 3 remaining games and looking at how many frame wins he's got already, while Joe Perry really needs to win his remaining 3 group games and hope other results go his way.


As I've already stated it all looks incredibly close for tomorrow to see who gets into the semi-finals but once it's all sorted out, the likes of Maguire and Murphy (with 2 centuries today) looked to have been playing well today and I think they both have very good chances of winning, while there a few outsiders who can also go on and win it. Whatever happens it makes for a very exciting ending to Championship league snooker at Crondon Park in 2014.

Championship League Winners Group 2014 Preview

Today and Thursday see the culmination of what will be 16 days of snooker in total at Crondon Park in the Championship League. The event is broadcast on the internet only, on the World Snooker and usual betting streams, and the format has seen 7 groups of 7 players with the winner making up a 7 man strong winners group. The men involved in the winners group are: Ricky Walden, Joe Perry, Judd Trump, Stephen Maguire, Shaun Murphy, Martin Gould and Ryan Day.


Here are the fixtures for the round robin games:


Wednesday 5th March:


Ricky Walden Vs Joe Perry
Judd Trump Vs Stephen Maguire
Shaun Murphy Vs Martin Gould
Ryan Day Vs Ricky Walden
Joe Perry Vs Judd Trump
Stephen Maguire Vs Shaun Murphy
Martin Gould Vs Ryan Day
Ricky Walden Vs Judd Trump
Joe Perry Vs Stephen Maguire
Shaun Murphy Vs Ryan Day
Judd Trump Vs Ryan Day
Martin Gould Vs Stephen Maguire


Thursday 6th March:


Ricky Walden Vs Martin Gould
Joe Perry Vs Shaun Murphy
Stephen Maguire Vs Ryan Day
Judd Trump Vs Martin Gould
Joe Perry Vs Ryan Day
Ricky Walden Vs Shaun Murphy
Judd Trump Vs Shaun Murphy
Joe Perry Vs Martin Gould
Ricky Walden Vs Stephen Maguire


Semi- Finals:
Group Place 1st Vs Group Place 4th
Group Place 2nd Vs Group 3rd


The Final




Here's what I make of the chances of the 7 players battling out for the title of 2014 Championship League winner and a place in the 2014 Champion of Champions:


Ricky Walden: Ricky was the winner of the first group, playing some decent snooker, but nothing special and I did wonder at the time how he won the final against Judd Trump. His form has been nothing special since then with a quarter-final at the Masters and a Last 16 at the Welsh Open in the only 2 tournaments he's been in since. Looking at the other players in the group and some of the momentum they'll be bringing in with them, it's hard to see Ricky making the semi-finals, especially as he could be a touch short on match practice and will need a good start.
Predicted Finish: 6th in the group


Joe Perry: Joe was the winner of group 2 in a very impressive group performance only losing 1 group game, before getting a decent semi-final win and beating Trump 3-0 in 30 minutes in the group final. He's played very well all season and has backed that up recently by making the Welsh Open semi-finals and the German Masters quarter-finals, losing on both occasions to Ding Junhui. I think Perry is certainly a dark horse for the win this in the next couple of days, having been in good form all season and starting to beat some of the best players again.
Predicted Finish: Losing semi-finalist


Judd Trump: Judd was the winner of group 3, having also been in the finals of groups 1 and 2, and he's played some decent snooker in the last month or 2, and hasn't played particularly badly all year, but he seems to have been lacking a bit of the cutting edge he had around a year or two ago, and also lacking a large portion of luck this year. If the luck could just turn Judd's way for the next couple of days, it could kick start his season with 4 ranking events still to play, and if he could gain some confidence here, he could use it to go on and win a big one. He made the German Masters final at the start of February and had it not been for some Ding brilliance he could well have taken the title there. I think he'll go far this week.
Predicted Finish: Group Winner


Stephen Maguire: Stephen won group 4 of the Championship League at his first attempt, avoiding the same embarrassments of last year when he played on 6 groups only not to make the winners group. Maguire's been playing ok but not great recently, though he was suffering from back problems in Wales last week where he was knocked out in the last 16. If he has been able to recover enough to get some good practice in for this one then he has every chance of winning this, though things could crash and burn for him if he hasn't been able to shake off the pain of last week.
Predicted Finish: Group runner-up


Shaun Murphy: Shaun won group 5 of the Championship League about a month ago, just a couple of days after winning the Gdynia Open. Shaun is probably one of the form men of this group, though he hasn't made it past the Last 16 in a full ranking event this season, and after a surprising Last 32 defeat at the Welsh Open from 3-1 up, he will want to put all that behind him with a good performance. Shaun's been working hard ahead of the month of snooker, but he won't just be regarding this as match practice, he'll by trying 100% for the win. I'd be slightly surprised if he didn't make the group semi-finals.
Predicted Finish: Losing group semi-finalist


Martin Gould: Martin group 6 of the Championship League, and is the defending champion from last year so he clearly is a big fan of the short format at Crondon Park. However, I was pretty surprised when he won group 6 after playing pretty badly all season, and then he followed it up with a loss in the China Open qualifier and a Last 64 loss in the Welsh Open, so he is clearly struggling and with a winners group full of top players, he might not be able to turn things around in the next 2 days.
Predicted Finish: 7th in the group


Ryan Day: Ryan was the winner of group 7 just yesterday, and has played pretty well in the 4 groups he was involved in. Often the group 7 winner has been able to take some of their momentum into the winners group and have a good run, and I wouldn't be surprised if Day managed this as well, especially as he has been playing some decent stuff away from Crondon as well, making the German Masters semi-finals. I think he has a great chance of making the semi-finals, but unfortunately so does everyone else in the group, so it will be very tough for the Welshman.
Predicted Finish: 5th in the group




Anyway, whatever happens it will be a good couple of days of snooker at Crondon Park, and I'm looking forward to watching as much of it as I can unfold on the streams as the Championship League is one of my favourite little events for some strange reason.

Prince of Wales Ronnie O'Sullivan has broken the back of the snooker system

Ronnie O'Sullivan won the Welsh Open title last night for the 3rd time beating 4 time ranking winner of the season so far Ding Junhui 9-3 in the final.


Ding was nowhere near his best in the opening session having several chances to win several of the frames, but he couldn't seem to take any of them, going from a position where he could have been at 4-4 had he taken his chances, to 1-7 down after the first session of 8 frames, and Ronnie (who'd made a couple of 90 breaks) only 2 frames from taking the title. The final session started off with Ding Junhui showing us how close the final could've been had he taken his first session chances making 2 centuries to close the gap to 3-7. He had another chance in the next to steal the frame from Ronnie, but he couldn't take it and O'Sullivan put himself a frame from victory at 3-8. Ronnie O'Sullivan then went on and won the match in only a way that Ronnie O'Sullivan could win a match and a tournament, with a maximum 147 break. It showed how sublimely Ronnie had been playing and brought the roof off of the Newport Centre, especially when he had to play the last red left handed, from the right side cushion in the top half of the table, and play a deep screw shot to get back on the black. Despite playing the black left-handed he played the shot to perfection, and better than 99% of tour players would have played it with their "stronger hands".


It showed the genius of the man that is Ronnie O'Sullivan, who many people now believe is currently the best British sportsman, which begs the question as to how this man (who is the best player by a country mile in his chosen sport) was not nominated for sports personality last year, and if he doesn't get nominated this year I think there will be an even bigger up roar than there was last year. However, Ronnie's performances in Wales this week also show how he has mastered the snooker system to his advantage, something that no other player on tour has been able to do. Ronnie does a fantastic job of picking and choosing his events to ensure that he is not only fresh when it matters, but so that he is happy in himself and able to find a balance between his snooker, his family and social lives. In fact you could see yesterday in the Welsh Open final that he was probably the happiest he has been playing snooker, and enjoying playing the game, more than he has done for many, many years. What Ronnie does is play some of the smaller PTC events in Europe, whilst making sure that he is fresh and ready for the big UK events like the UK Championship, Masters, Welsh Open and the World Championship. Meanwhile, while Ronnie has his feet up at home or is out for a nice relaxing run, the rest of the snooker players are slogging their guts out travelling here, there and everywhere to win a race that has this season become about coming 2nd place to either Ronnie, Ding or Neil Robertson. Are the very top players benefiting from playing every week? In most cases the answer is no! Only on a few occasions do you see players play themselves into good form, and that mostly still comes from their hard work and dedication off of the table. With players playing so much though, do they put in enough practice? In some cases the answer could again be no. Having won 3 ranking events prior to Christmas, Ding Junhui was so tired by the UK Championships, that after that he went home to China and had 2 weeks complete rest and came back for the Masters terribly unprepared and lost in the opening round. The same thing happened to Neil Robertson before last seasons World Championship, having won the China Open to not practice as much as he knows he should have and (you guessed it) lost in the opening round. So out of the top players in the world, there really is only one player that has it right and that is Masters, Welsh Open and Champion of Champions winner Ronnie O'Sullivan.




Just a final grumble from me on this event now. I'm starting to get a little bit sick and tired of watching every event and seeing a few things. Firstly, I'm sick and tired of seeing the same players play every game on the TV table, regardless of who they are playing, before they get knocked out. The Welsh Open personified this with only having 1 TV table from the Last 64 to the Final, with Barry Hawkins being able to get to the semi-finals without actually being on TV for 1 minute of his campaign. TV companies need to find some sort of rotation policy so that regular fans aren't stuck with seeing the same names day in day out on the Televised table(s). Another grumble, this time about table conditions. I'm sick and tired of seeing the same poor table conditions at every event, without anything seemingly being done by the governing body to get it sorted despite research being done left, right and centre to find the cause of kicks and bad bounces, and the BBC even showed a feature at The Masters with Shaun Murphy having done extensive research in to what causes kicks, yet still slow progress is being made. In fact the main table was even seen to have a slight roll on more than one occasion in the semi-finals which wasn't being caused by finger marks. Finally, to bring the rant to a close, I'm going to just say a few words on the format. It's shocking that a respected world ranking event in the UK has to be played over a best-of-7 frames format from the Last 128 to the Last 16 with the quarter-finals being best-of-9 frames. This is really only for one reason and that is to fit it all in, with 4 tables and a roll-on roll-off system also being deployed. To me, until the semi-finals it really did feel like we were watching a slightly higher market PTC event, and when the Welsh Open is moved to Cardiff next year I hope they have a serious think about the format and structure of the event.




Other than that I really enjoyed a good week of snooker, and I'm now looking forward to the next thing on the snookering agenda which is the Championship League winners group on Wednesday and Thursday.

Ronnie O'Sullivan and Ding Junhui set up "dream" Welsh Open final

Ronnie O'Sullivan and Ding Junhui were able to set-up a magnificent Welsh Open final, and the final I predicted before the tournament even started, with brilliant performances in their respective semi-final matches yesterday.


Barry Hawkins started off with a century in his semi-final against Ronnie yesterday, but then had to suffer as O'Sullivan won 2 frames on the black with sublime clearances and made 3 centuries as a helpless Barry Hawkins had very few chances and suffered a 6-2 defeat.


Ding Junhui was also in superb form though in his match with Joe Perry today, dominating the early stages of the match to go from 1-0 down to 1-3 ahead at the interval. Perry soon put Ding under pressure though with 2 good frames to level at 3-3, before Ding Junhui took control again with a 2 superb breaks of 55 and 88 to move 5-3 ahead, before a 69 from Perry made it 4-5. Then we saw one of the better breaks of the tournament as Ding pulled off several pots when many players would have played safe, to keep the break going as he went on to make a match winning total clearance of 118.


Yesterday's semi-final results:
Ding Junhui 6-4 Joe Perry
Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-2 Barry Hawkins




Final Preview:


Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Ding Junhui - Ding Junhui and Ronnie O'Sullivan have been a cut above every other player not only this week, but throughout the season as Ronnie has won the Masters and the Champion of Champions so far this season of the selected events that he has entered, while Ding Junhui has entered much more, and won 3 ranking events in a row earlier in the season taking the Shanghai Masters, Indian Open and International Championship titles, before winning his 4th of the season last month at the German Masters. Both have pulled out sublime snooker this week, that I believe only these 2 players can produce, which makes this final an even bigger prospect. Both have been brilliant when they needed to be, with Ding making 2 centuries to come from 4-2 down to beat Joel Walker 4-3 in the quarter-finals and going up another couple of gears from 3-3 in the semi-finals to win 6-4. As for Ronnie, he hadn't been at his sublime best all week, but hadn't needed to be until last night when he went up about 3 gears sensing the threat that Hawkins could produce, and ultimately leaving him helpless as O'Sullivan produced the snooker of the week. We all know the benefits that Ronnie has been able to reap by skipping events this year, but Ding has also been quite tactical, missing the Championship League events and the last Euro Tour event, making this his first event since he won the German Masters. Ronnie has been playing some of the best snooker of his career at the moment, and I think only  highly improved Ding Junhui both tactically and mentally can get anywhere near him, and if he can put O'Sullivan under pressure we will have a real game on, which Ronnie hasn't really had all week. I predicted this final at the events start, and then tipped Ding to win it back then, and I believe he could pull off what many would consider an upset today, but it certainly wouldn't surprise me.


Prediction: 9-7 to Ding Junhui


Whatever happens it will be a really entertaining final to end this good week of snooker from the Newport centre in Wales. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I will.

Ronnie breazes past Higgins to make semi's, comeback Ding beats young Walker

Ronnie O'Sullivan thrashed a very below par John Higgins yesterday afternoon to ease his way into the Welsh Open semi-finals in Newport, where has set-up a repeat of the World Championship final with Barry Hawkins, who played some sublime snooker to whitewash the man that ended the last Welsh hopes - Marco Fu.


The first semi-final this afternoon though will see Joe Perry, who beat an under performing Mark Selby 5-1 yesterday evening whilst also playing pretty well himself. He'll be up against Ding Junhui, who is searching for his 5th ranking title of the season, after Ding came back from 4-2 down against impressive young Joel Walker, making consecutive centuries in frames 8 and the decider to win the match.


Quarter-Final results:


Ding Junhui 5-4 Joel Walker
Joe Perry 5-1 Mark Selby
Barry Hawkins 5-0 Marco Fu
Ronnie O'Sullivan 5-1 John Higgins


Semi-finals Preview: (Picks in bold)


Ding Junhui Vs Joe Perry - Both players have played well and had some good victories this week, Perry has had the much tougher route so far beating Stevens and Bingham in deciders and thrashing a very below par Mark Selby who gave him lots of chances. One thing Perry won't get a lot of today is chances, just as many players have found out this season, including Joe in the German Masters quarter-finals. Ding has been scoring well all year, and again this week digging in when he's needed to and showing his class in times when things haven't looked so good. I fancied him to win the event before the start, and think he can go and finish it off now.
- I'm going for 6-3 to Ding Junhui as my correct score tip.


Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Barry Hawkins - Much like the 2013 World Championship final when these 2 met, I think this match will be a lot closer than everybody thinks it will be. Barry Hawkins has played really well in his last 3 matches, especially last evening when he made very light work of a tough opponent in Marco Fu, making 2 centuries along the way, and his good scoring has been a feature of his Newport week so far. Ronnie hasn't really needed to be at his best so far this week, but has still looked very good without being at his absolute best. Barry will offer O'Sullivan his biggest test so far by far, and I think this will be a high quality, entertaining and close match. 
- 6-4 to Ronnie O'Sullivan is my tip.




One thing you can guarantee is that whoever todays winners are, Sunday's best-of-17 final will be a very entertaining contest.

O'Sullivan, Selby through comfortably while Higgins beats Trump in thriller.

Ronnie O'Sullivan and Mark Selby had pretty easy 4-1 wins on Thursday to make the quarter-finals, while John Higgins beat Judd Trump 4-3 in an absolute classic contest to set-up a quarter-final with O'Sullivan. Meanwhile, carrying the last hopes of Wales on his shoulders in Newport, Mark Williams was knocked out by Marco Fu in a good performance for the Hong Kong man.


Defending champion Stephen Maguire suffered a shock though as he was knocked out 4-3 by young Joel Walker, while my tournament tip Ding Junhui suffered no such troubles as he whitewashed young Scott Donaldson.


Thursdays Last 16 results:


Mark Selby 4-1 Ali Carter
Joe Perry 4-3 Stuart Bingham
Joel Walker 4-3 Stephen Maguire
Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-1 Ricky Walden
Ding Junhui 4-0 Scott Donaldson
John Higgins 4-3 Judd Trump
Barry Hawkins 4-2 Liang Wenbo
Marco Fu 4-2 Mark Williams




Quarter-Final Preview:


Ding Junhui Vs Joel Walker - Joel Walker really has had some brilliant wins this week, but he has said that he's going to need to start scoring heavier if he has any chance against Ding Junhui this afternoon. Ding probably hasn't been at his absolute best, but he's also not that far from it and he should be powerful enough in every department to punish Walker if he can't take his chances, especially as Joel won't be getting many chances. Can only see one winner here in this big ranking event quarter-final.


Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs John Higgins - In prospect here we have probably the match of the whole tournament so far, between two of the worlds best ever players. Higgins didn't have much confidence coming into this, but he won his first 3 matches 4-0 and then had a great win yesterday against Judd Trump, where he was better than Judd in every department. Ronnie meanwhile came into this event a little bit rusty and has gradually upped his game as required, and he will need another big push today to beat a John Higgins on the comeback trail after a few poor months. We're into the best-of-9's now which will help both players, and I can only see this match being 5-4 either way. 


Mark Selby Vs Joe Perry - Both players have been playing well in this event, and it's good to see Mark Selby coming close to his best form ahead of a busy 2 months ahead. Selby has been good in both departments of safety and scoring this week, making 2 tough looking Last 32 and Last 16 matches look easy. Joe meanwhile, has had 2 tight wins in the Last 32 and Last 16 to get here, and will need to up his game another notch to have any chance tonight against Mark, and take his chances when they come or Selby will make his life very difficult in all areas.


Barry Hawkins Vs Marco Fu - This is another incredibly close match in prospect between 2 players that have played some really great snooker this week, but also gone under the radar to get to the quarter-finals. Fu was quite superb yesterday against Williams, taking his chances when they came along, and really punishing Williams, as he will need to do today to Hawkins. Barry also seems like he's been playing well, away from the TV cameras (and this match will be played away from them again tonight) scoring well, especially in his nice comeback from 3-1 down against Jack Lisowski, but also from 2-0 down yesterday against Liang Wenbo. However, he is going to need to up his game again to beat an in-form Marco.


Whatever happens today, we have some amazing quarter-finals today that will produce some equally exciting semi-finals tomorrow, and a cracking final on Sunday. I hope you all enjoy a great weekend of snooker.