7.2.10

TAKING STOCK

The Championship League returns tomorrow with just three places remaining in the final winners’ group that will produce a qualifier for next season’s Premier League.

Already through are Stephen Maguire, John Higgins, Judd Trump and Marco Fu.

Neil Robertson, Mark Williams and Peter Ebdon return for group 5 but Mark Allen is unable to play because he has been doing an exhibition in China.

That means an early call up for Ricky Walden alongside Jamie Cope, Dave Harold and Barry Hawkins.

Allen will return for group 6 on Wednesday with Joe Swail and Stuart Bingham.

The Championship League began in 2008 where it was shown on three betting websites. Such has been its popularity that it is this year being streamed on 12.

Uniquely there are no spectators, chiefly because there is no room for them. This means great shots and big breaks go unapplauded but the standard of snooker this year has been very high.

The venue is Crondon Park Golf Club in Stock, Essex where Bingham is a member (indeed I’ve spotted his name on the roll of honour for one of their competitions).

As there are still seven weeks (!) until the China Open, this is an ideal chance for the top 16 players to keep sharp and for those involved in World Championship qualifying to tune up their games for the most nervy part of the season by far.

More details at the official website here.

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dave

this is a great idea streaming the championship league Live on betting websites.

do you think now Barry Hearn is snooker chairman thats a possibility for Qualifiers.

110sport has let the fans down they promised qualifiers and apart from 2 tournament they haven't delivered that promise

Dave H said...

The situation with the qualifying is rather complex and will hopefully be resolved

However, that doesn't change the fact that Perform - who stream the Championship League - made an offer to stream the qualifiers that was turned down by the previous board, despite being world leaders in this field

Anonymous said...

If anyone is interested, and this is positively the last time for now I'll mention my blog Dave, I have a post today about the CL. The link is on the menu to the right - thanks Dave. Snookerbacker.

Anonymous said...

The Ding/Hendry 25 frame match was a disaster to be honest.
You couldn't watch the match due to endless mentions of "buffering" (a word I never heard of before the internet) and trying to get a bet with the in house firm 188bet.com was impossible.
The hype was one thing but the event itself was (in every way) a damp squib bordering on a total washout and, some might suggest a complete waste of everyones time and indeed money.

Anonymous said...

Snooker © The Fine Art Method
A secret is wasted if not shared
Dear Dave, a snookering luminary once told me that to miscue is tantamount to a fluffed golf shot from just outside the old fashioned "apron".
Now the modern and self appointed snooker coaches would tell you to "keep your head still" which is a comment meant in good heart without predjudice.
However, it says nothing for the rich embodiment of the sport spanning back over many generations and the skilled participants who once graced this planet.
Nowadays its all rhetoric and mumbo jumbo from the badged blazer and tie brigade who are fortunate to be a part of a sport with such a rich tapestry of success and exulted company from bygone days.
These are relevant matters in a modern world of sterile and clinical mediocrity. Mr hey you

Dave H said...

I didn't have a bet but I didn't have any problems watching the match

Anonymous said...

Mr Hey You Could you please start posting in plain English, your last comment you mentioned 'mumbo jumbo' something i find your post's are.

Anonymous said...

and was it rubbish?

Anonymous said...

the ? at 9:54 was directed towards Dave

Dave H said...

I didn't watch it all but I enjoy seeing Ding play well and the crowd didn't seem to think it was a waste of their time

Anonymous said...

So you enjoy watching Ding play well Dave and Hendry play crap!

Greg P said...

No-one enjoys watching Hendry play like crap.

It's just that the silly man won't retire.

Anonymous said...

i wish i was 10th in the world out of the many millions who play this cuesport and people thought i should retire.

Anonymous said...

Hendry is still top 16, why should he retire? I think he's been showing some snippits of form lately.

Anonymous said...

Snooker © The Fine Art Method
A secret is wasted if not shared
Hello Dave
How are you lad! This note is really to Mister 8:12 PM and of course an apology to Mr 9:48 PM. The post in question (8/12) is not by “The REAL Mr hey you” the holder of snookers only copyright coaching method. I am really sorry the imitator isn’t more knowledgeable on snooker technique.

For some reason this other person has difficulty being himself; and has used the “Fine Art” quite a few times previously. I must add that mister imitator has never said anything derogatory, but instead is full of merriment and harmless fun.

For the record Dave! “Keeping your Head Still” whether in snooker or golf is a fallacy; but the benefits of NOT moving on the shot are positives in both games.
Mr hey you

jamie brannon said...

I used to think Hendry shouldn't retire, but looking back it would have been fantastic statement if he retired immediately after winning his 7th World title.

Anonymous said...

Snooker © The Fine Art Method
A secret is wasted if not shared
Hello Dave
About Stephen Hendry retiring! It makes good blogs Dave, and long may it continue. Stephen is experiencing “Not Winning” and the longer it continues, the less likely Stephen is of finishing.

Hendry won six “Worlds” with only the help of a fielder. Struggled on the seventh when in the present despondent state he is in now.

The lad knows that he still has what it takes but has made the mistake of trying to be “Better” instead of improving what he already had. Stephen has the “Something” you can’t buy or be taught the experience of winners.

To play a difficult pot with perfect position and take criticism is the sign of a good student. 60% of all successful pots are played with less than a perfect cue action. Mr hey you

Anonymous said...

no it wouldnt have Jamie !

Anonymous said...

..and more rubbish from mhy with the 60% quote

jamie brannon said...

You say that, but I feel now people don't realise how good Hendry was back then as maybe they just think standards have improved and that Hendry's best in the 1990's wouldn't have lived with today's standard. If he had called it a day then there would be a mystique around him as to whether he would still have carried on dominating. Also his strike rate in events would be better. In any sport it is sad to see legends struggling. I wouldn't want to see Federer just carrying on if he spent most of his time languishing in the 10-20 bracket of world tennis.

Anonymous said...

jamie i know him personally and have done for years. I am well aware how good he is and was.

jamie brannon said...

If he retired in 1999 then his legacy and strike rate would be comparable to that of Phil Taylor. This will I'm sure be of no importance to him, but I feel his leagacy has been marginally sullied by failing to win major titles in his thirties in the way Higgins and O'Sullivan have and are still doing.

Dave H said...

His legacy is strengthened by the fact he did it all by the time he was 30

Stephen wouldn't admit this - and it may be subconscious - but I think he took his foot off the gas after winning the seventh because he put so much into it and, after that, he had nothing left to prove

jamie brannon said...

Well he was still a threat in the early 2000's. However, maybe he did what you say, but the depth of standard has risen. Also in the late 90's and early noughties the overall standard was as high as any point in the game's history. Phil Taylor once said that he wanted to get past Hendry,s mark of seven world titles, which he has now doubled. It's futile comparing two different sports, but it is strange how darter's can maintain a higher standard for longer than snooker players when neither game is physical.

I can accept your viewpoint about his legacy, but if he had called it a day then he would be backing up the point you make that he had nothing left to prove.

Although he is not my favourite player now I find it a bit sad when he is struggling to beat journeymen that he would have had for his breakfast in his heyday.

Anonymous said...

its easy to say that in hindsight Jamie, but knowing him, id say most of what youve said about him isnt right, and thats even when youve got the benefit of hindsight.

if hed been brilliant this past few years and still in the top 4 you wouldnt be saying that, but hindsight gives you the ammo.

just a long list in the things i disagree on with you!

jamie brannon said...

It is understandable though that he has carried as few sportspeople ever bow out on top, although Joe Davis springs to mind! When I was a Hendry fan in the nineties a little part of me thought he could get to that mark, as that was the type of aura he permeated to me as kid growing up.