3, 2, 1 - Go! - Snooker Championship League

The beginning of a New Year means that Snooker's Championship League is ready to kick off. And what a better way for the lads to start their journey to getting a spot in this year's Premier League, than on a Monday?

At Crondon Park in Essex, the first two Groups of players are ready to cross their cues for the following four days (Group One on January 9 and 10 and Group Two on January 11 and 12).

As always, there are no more than seven Groups, each consisting of seven players. Each Group will see a winner, winner that will advance into the "Winners' Group". Here, the last seven lads will fight for a safe place in the 2012 Premier League.

The rules: each match will be played under the "best of 5", on a round-robin basis , players being awarded one point for each match they win. At the end of day two, the play-offs (semi-finals and final) will kick off, only the ones who have earned enough points being able to grab a place.

Last year CL winner - Matthew Stevens

It's pretty simple, you win as many matches as you can and then you have a chance to play in the play-offs. However, since we are talking about seven players per Group, there's a high possibility to have more than one player with the same amount of points, so in order to determine their position in the league the organisers will see how many frames they won and how many they lost.

At the end of each Group's stage we shall have one winner who's getting a place in Winners' Group, the rest of the players (qualified on second, third, forth and fifth place) getting a place in the following Groups' stage. 

So, let's say you qualified as a runner-up (second place) of Group 1. What will you do next? You are getting a spot in Group 2 where you have the chance to play and maybe even be the group's winner.
The remaining of the players that occupy positions six and seven will not feature in any of the groups' future matches.

At the end of each Group's final, the winner is going home with £3,000 , the runner-up with £2,000, while the losing semi-finalists are getting £1,000. Also, for each frame he wins a player is getting £100.

So, that's about it. Now let's see who's playing who in tomorrow's Group One:

TABLE 1
12pm - Matthew Stevens v. Mark Selby
1.15pm - Ali Carter v. Mark Davis
Not before 3pm - Mark Selby v. Shaun Murphy
4.15pm - Mark Davis v. Andrew Higginson
Not before 7pm - Mark Selby v. Judd Trump
8.15pm - Shaun Murphy v. Andrew Higginson

TABLE 2
12pm - Shaun Murphy v. Judd Trump
1.15pm - Andrew Higginson v. Matthew Stevens
Not before 3pm - Judd Trump v. Ali Carter
4.15pm - Matthew Stevens v. Shaun Murphy
Not before 7pm - Ali Carter v. Andrew Higginson
8.15pm - Mark Davis v. Judd Trump
*all hours are UK time

The matches can be followed online if you have an account on one of these betting sites, or on www.sportlemon.tv