23.1.11

MUSICAL CHAIRS IN CHAMPIONSHIP LEAGUE

Ronnie O’Sullivan has withdrawn from the Championship League and will be replaced in group 3 this week by Stuart Bingham.

O’Sullivan finished runner-up to Mark Williams in group 2 but presumably has other commitments.

Group 3 thus features John Higgins, Shaun Murphy, Ali Carter, Bingham, Marco Fu, Peter Ebdon and Mark King.

King had been due to come into the event in group 4 but replaces Mark Allen, who was unavailable to play in group 3 but will play in group 4 alongside Stephen Hendry and Matthew Stevens.

Clear?

You can follow the results on the official site or on Matchroom Sport’s twitter feed here.

I shall also tweet in between commentaries.

For betting tips and general hilarity there is also Snookerbacker’s blog.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

does snookerbacker have a real name?

Anonymous said...

dave, off on a tangent

do you know what matches are televised in the shootout? if so, there doesnt seem to be much time at all for introducing players etc at all, or for a few blue ball shootouts

schedule of matches and times anywhere?

Dave H said...

I think the plan is to show all of them, although I haven't seen the order of play

Dave H said...

In fact the order of play os on worldsnooker.com

Wisely, it kicks off with Drago v Liang

Anonymous said...

thanks dave, though it was more the match times (if they are showing all) i was wondering, as i assume somebody timed them....with the amount of matches to appear and not much room for more than 4 matches in an hour....it seems its gonna be a crammed event with not much time to focus on results etc
ta

Matt said...

That should be good Drago and Liang two interesting players and drago making a century in 3 minutes

jamie brannon said...

So O'Sullivan could return in group five then?

Dave H said...

No, he's told the organisers he doesn't to take part again

Anonymous said...

thank ____ for that.

sick of the ronny merrygoround

good luck to all players who want to be in it right through and qualify (and not take up space others who really want to be there could be taking)

Anonymous said...

There's a misconception that Liang Wenbo is a fast player. He's a very very exciting player to watch, but he doesn't rush. His game is surprisingly measured. When he takes on a "suicidal" pot, he has decided that it's the right shot to go for with thought behind it. A misconception among snooker fans.

Anonymous said...

I supose a player of Ronnies stature would probably find championship league a bit beneath him- especially when he wins the main league every year. Why would he bother scrapping it out with the riff raff for 100 a frame?

Anonymous said...

David,

Could you please have a word wih Alan Chamberlain regarding his beard.
If the beard stays a an endangered species becomes extinct ok?
Obviously i'm joking but it doesn't do anything for the great man.

jamie brannon said...

Only 1.80 million tined in to the final session ofb the Masters, down by over a million on recent years.

It is the only snooker transmission to make the BBC2 chart of top thirty shows, for week ending January 16th.

To be fair, it wasn't a close final featuring players, who in the eyes of the casual fan are 'glamour players', although Ding should be by now.

Betty Logan said...

More than that it had no "British" interest so it's perhaps not surprising; anyone know how it compares to last year's which was close and featured O'Sullivan? Also, do we have any figures for the Chinese/global audience numbers?

jamie brannon said...

Firstly, that was meant to say are not 'glamour players'.

Last year, the final peaked at just over 3 million, with an average of about 2.9 million, if I recall correctly.

Personally, the lack of British interest is neither here or there, for me. I am patriotic when it comes to team sport, love to see England do well, but in primarily individual sports I think you should support the individual you like rather than which country that they are from.

Would also like to know what the global audience was, if you know Dave, let us know! I would guess it wasn't a world record, as if it was we would have been made aware.

Anonymous said...

stature?

not in the top 8
asks for blow jobs at press interviews
assualt
drugs


yeah, his stature!

Anonymous said...

i watched it all this year.

i only tuned in to a bit last year as it had the spotlight kid in it.