Snooker Championship League (group 1) - Selby attacks first place

Mark Selby the first to enter the "Winners` Group"

Yesterday was a very important day for "The Jester from Leicester", mainly because he succeeded in being top of his group! Yep, you’ve guess it; he is the first of the seven winners to reach that point that we all call “Winners` group". A very well deserved victory for the "Shark" of snooker, as he played very well through the semis and the final. He had some trouble in his last match played against John Higgins prior to the semis, for he was being lead 2-0 and he needed just one frame to get in the last four that were playing in the play-offs, but in the end he put himself together and fired in winning not one frame but two and so secure a place into the next round.


But let’s see what the whole gang done the day before today, ok?
Well, unfortunately for two players the run towards the Premier League ended, because as you know the players who come on sixth and seventh place are being eliminated. Their names? Stephen Maguire and Graeme Dott. Both of them lost all their matches yesterday and as you may remember they didn’t win too many in the first day of the competition, so things weren’t very bright in this department. :-(

Ali Carter was just one step away from the victory

Shaun Murphy came in on fifth place, due to the fact that he won 3-0 to Stephen Maguire but lost 1-3 to Ali Carter, this meaning that we are going to see more of him, since he will team up with the guys from Group 2, who are playing as I type these words.


For Higgins, Selby, Williams and Carter the semis were a sure thing as "The Wizard of Wishaw" finished top of his group with 5 points (he defeated Stephen Maguire 3-1, Ali Carter 3-1 and Mark Selby 3-2) closely followed by "The Welsh Potting Machine" with 4 points (he crashed Ali Carter 3-0, Graeme Dott 3-0 and Stephen Maguire 3-1), "The Captain" also with 4 points (although he didn’t have such a good day yesterday as he lost two of his matches and only won the one played against Shaun Murphy 3-1, but as you might recall he finished with maximum points in the first day of this competition so that result has helped him a lot) and “Mark the Shark" with 3 points (he defeated Graeme Dott 3-1).


After a very tiring day, the semis were going to be a hard thing to do, but a professional must always deliver the best, so the four mighty snooker knights fought as hell to reach the final. This happned for Selby, who defeated Higgins in a very tight battle 3-2 and for Carter who whitewashed Williams 3-0.

Higgins after a tiring snooker day

So drums were being heard in the background as Selby and Carter were preparing for an epic final. A very long one if I may add :-)) Well, they were playing very carefully, because with "the best of 5" that also means the first to three wins the match, things can get out of your hand very quickly just because you weren’t careful enough and went missing a chance. Carter succeeded in taking the lead at 2-0 and he almost smelled the victory when Selby fought back and took over the next two frames and the third one for that matter. As always Selby succeeded in making a full recovery and found the strength to carry one and win this battle. A very enjoyable one, in my opinion ;-)


Today the second group will start their quest for the "winners` group" section :-P, with the likes of Ali Carter, Mark Williams, John Higgins and Shaun Murphy along with three other wonderful players. Below you’ll find the complete schedule.


Table 1 (all times are approximate)


Table 2 (all times are approximate)
*all hours are UK time


You can take a glance at what’s going on in snooker for yourselves, by clicking here and then select the snooker competition. ;-) See you tomorrow! :-)