11.11.09

O'SULLIVAN TO PLAY IN CHAMPIONSHIP LEAGUE

Ronnie O'Sullivan will compete in this season's Championship League regardless of whether or not he wins the Premier League.

The world no.1 will enter the event in group 2 next January. It is played down the road from his Chigwell home at Crondon Park Golf Club in Essex and shown free on the internet through various betting websites.

The first group sees world champion John Higgins, last season's CLS winner Judd Trump, Stephen Maguire, Shaun Murphy, Mark Selby, Ryan Day and Ali Carter do battle.

O'Sullivan joins the fray in the following group alongside Neil Robertson and Marco Fu.

Stephen Hendry, Mark Allen, Ding Junhui, Liang Wenbo and Steve Davis are among the players entering in the later groups.

The players will compete for a £200,000 total prize fund with a place in the Premier League up for grabs for the ultimate winner.

Unlike the last two years, all matches will be best of five frames so this time around a draw is not possible.

The action starts on January 4.

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

Snooker is going the way of greyhounds - nobody wants to watch it in the flesh but there's a ready made TV audience willing to bet on it.

Anonymous said...

839, i think you have hit the nail on the head.

scotland has many snooker fans, but even they didnt turn out to watch a comp with hendry and jimmy white and alex higgins in it. there are reasons for it.

when its a ws event, people blame ws.

when it was a 110 event not many blamed them

thing is, snooker has less die hard fans and there are things folk like to do more than watch snooker these days, as choice is growing in all we do.

but watching it like cushion potatoes is the way forward for your average fan

and yes, like a lot of greyhound venues, its online and on tv rather than go watch.

Trevor said...

anyone else think its interesting that ronnie has decided to play in this.usually he wouldnt play in this type of tournament.

Dave H said...

He wanted to play in it last year as well. The problem's going to come if he wins the Premier League and then wins the CLS, or indeed if any other player wins them both.

Anonymous said...

Maybe it's a sign that players want to play in 15 red events with proper rules?

Trevor said...

was thinking that dave.it kind of defeats the purpose doesnt it.ah well if any player did win both im sure they wont complain will they.

Greg said...

Why? This is like Man Utd choosing to play in the 1st round of the FA Cup. Or a talented person applying for a job at the BBC.

Dave H said...

What else would Ronnie be doing while this is on?

Answer: practising in the club.

Better to practise against world class players and be paid for it.

jamie brannon said...

I agree Dave but why he does he miss so many other events though like these Pro Challenge events, and he is yet to feature in the World Series? I thought he missed this one as he is the only player guranteed his Premier League place, I hope that is still the case.

Anonymous said...

Good to see that the draw option has been discounted, and I don't think there is anything wrong with generating gambling interest. Having each match as a two horse race is likely to increase interest from the gambling fraternity in my view (well i am one). Ronnie's participation can only also add to the event.

Trevor said...

yes dave and if you win it its another title for the record books or as i have been reading on here some people will think its not important because its a non ranking event.

jamie brannon said...

This is decent title to have actually, but I was wondering do these matches count in regards to the individual head to heads?

Dave H said...

No. Too short.

jamie brannon said...

Glad to hear that as it would imbalance the records, but I think the racing post count Premier League games, personally don't think they should.

Trevor said...

best of 5 is not that short though.the premier league head to heads are counted and that is only best of 6. so why not there games.

jamie brannon said...

According to World Snooker, Pukka Pies have come in to sponsor UK. Good news for the players and the sport, but hopefully they may lay on some pies as the food at the TIC has been woeful.

jamie brannon said...

Yes but they were best of 4, so maybe now they should be but I think anything less then best of 9 should be discounted.

Betty Logan said...

Why are best-of-fives deemed too short to count in head-to-heads? The Grand Prix had them one year so have results from a ranking tournament been discounted as well?

Anonymous said...

treveo

best of 5 can be either 3, 4 or 5 frames

PL 6 frames is 6 frames and not anything else (in group matches)

big difference if you count the average frames in a best of 5 will be 4 and the total frames in a group stage PL match is 6.....i make that means these matches are on average 2/3 of the length of a PL match

hardly comparible imho

Trevor said...

off topic i know.dave any idea of any announcement on that 7th ranking event?.

Trevor said...

i agree with betty best of 5s were in the grand prix and they were counted no problem.i remember mark selby made a 147 in a best of 3 match in the jiangsu classic i suppose that shouldnt count either then?.

Dave H said...

The Grand Prix was counted because it was a ranking event.

Selby's maximum counted because that had nothing to do with the length of match.

Trevor said...

it doesnt make sense surely for the sake of all these being professional tournaments dave they should count.

Anonymous said...

Jeez its hard work keeping up with all these snooker stats, some count some don't, surely they should all count.

Anonymous said...

surely they shouldnt

some tables at exhibitions that ronnie plays at seem to have pockets that house baby elephants

good for 147s though

Anonymous said...

they shouldnt all count unless theyre all on templated tables

Anonymous said...

If they were professional tournaments, then they should count.