Selby cements spot in winners’ group

The Final
Mark Selby 3-1 Kyren Wilson
23-53, 90-24 (54, 36), 72-70 (Selby 36, Wilson 33), 131-0 (131)

Semi Finals
Mark Selby 3-0 Michael Holt
78-45 (Selby 34, 43, Holt 39), 123-0 (123), 104-31 (100)

Kyren Wilson 3-2 Mark Davis
90-18 (30), 85-0 (85), 0-85 (85), 28-83 (48), 70-52 (65, 48)

Mark Selby booked his spot in the final winners’ group of Championship League Snooker as he got the better of Kyren Wilson to join Judd Trump, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Williams, and Stephen Maguire next week.

Wilson, making his debut, took the opener before Selby levelled it with breaks of 54 and 36. The Leicester man took the lead in a scrappy third before compiling a 131 for victory, which also took the £500 high break prize.

Commented Selby, “It is always tough in these groups but I am happy to get through as I would have pulled out if I hadn’t beaten Kyren in the final. It is nice to get the win and get to Winners’ Group.

“I played well in patches but it is difficult to maintain it in every match and in best of fives you don’t have to do too much wrong to be beaten. I have lost two previous group finals so it is nice to win and get through to what will be a tough Winners’ Group.”

Earlier Selby had beaten Michael Holt in the semi-finals while Wilson had edged past Mark Davis. Selby carries £6,900 forward to the final group.

Taking place at Crondon Park Golf Club in Essex, Championship League Snooker features seven players with the winner moving forward to the final all-winners group and the bottom two players leaving the competition.

With Graeme Dott taking leave of absence to compete in the Gdynia Open on Friday, Group Six looks like Wilson, Davis, Holt, Fergal O’Brien, Martin Gould, Dominic Dale and Ali Carter.

The Championship League Snooker event is a venture between Matchroom Sport and Perform where 25 of the game’s elite players compete with all matches broadcast on a host of betting websites.

Each group features seven players with each man playing the other six once in a round-robin basis. Every match is the best of five and the winner gains one point with the loser getting zero.

At the end of the league phase the top four advances to that group’s semi-finals where the two winners meet in the final and the winner advances to the Winners’ Group in March.
The losing finalist, two losing semi-finalists and player finishing fifth move into the next group where they are joined by three new players and the process is repeated.

Group Six commences tomorrow at 11.00am. Live scoring can be found at www.worldsnooker.com