Yesterday we got one British veteran, Mark Davis, andone young Chinese prospect, Chang Bingyu, through to the second stage of the 2021 Summer CLS.
Davis And Chang Top Groups
Mark Davis and Chang Bingyu won their respective groups to progress to Winners’ Week of BetVictor Championship League Snooker.
Both won their last matches 3-0 to take top spot in their groups and will now return to the Morningside Arena in Leicester for Stage Two in August.
Davis went into his final match of Group 12, against Anthony McGill, knowing he would need to win 3-0; a 3-1 success would only be enough if one of his frames was won with a break of 112 or better. That was because Yuan Sijun had already beaten McGill and Billy Castle, crafting a run of 111 in the process. Davis also had a win over Castle to his name, and he had drawn 2-2 with Yuan.
However, it didn’t come down to that, as Davis took advantage of an out-of-sorts McGill to wrap up a 3-0 success. It meant Yuan finished second with Castle third and McGill finished bottom without registering a point.
“It is the perfect way to start the season,” said Davis. “I have to be honest, Yuan Sijun played the better stuff in our group. I did well to get 2-2 out of my first match and cued better after that, but I made some silly mistakes which I just tend to do now at my age. You dig in, try your best and hopefully that is enough.
“We all know how good Anthony is so it probably helped me that he had nothing to play for, because he just wasn’t with it. I feel fortunate but it doesn’t always work out that the best player gets through.
“I felt ok in the final match. At 2-0 I had a chance early on and started to feel it because it was a good chance and I messed it up. I knew it it went 2-1 it was a slim chance, having to win the frame and make 112, but once I am 2-0 up I have two options; win the next frame or the one after with a big break. Luckily for me it wouldn’t go in for Anthony and I managed to fall over the line in the end.”
On table two, Chang Bingyu beat Dean Young in the final match of the day to leapfrog Chinese compatriot Pang Junxu to top spot in the Group 31 table. Chang ended the day unbeaten after beating Young and Luca Brecel and drawing with Pang, who finished second. Brecel took third position, while Young ended bottom of the table.
BetVictor Championship League Snooker continues on Monday with Martin Gould and Ken Doherty among those in action. Live scoring along with league standings and the match schedule is available at www.ChampionshipLeagueSnooker.co.uk
Coverage of Table 1 begins at 12 noon (UK time) and is live on FreeSports (UK), DAZN, Zhibo.tv (China) and Viaplay, with Table 2 live globally at Matchroom.Live. Full broadcast details can be found at https://championshipleaguesnooker.co.uk/watch/
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GROUP 12 TABLE
Pld W D L +/- PTS Money Won Mark Davis 3 2 1 0 6 7 £3,000 Yuan Sijun 3 2 1 0 5 7 £2,000 Billy Castle 3 1 0 2 -3 3 £1,000 Anthony McGill 3 0 0 3 -8 0 £0
GROUP 31 TABLE
Pld W D L +/- PTS Money Won Chang Bingyu 3 2 1 0 5 7 £3,000 Pang Junxu 3 1 2 0 3 5 £2,000 Luca Brecel 3 1 0 2 -3 3 £1,000 Dean Young 3 0 1 2 -5 1 £0
That’s a very honest assessment by “Dark Mavis”, who is always fair to his opponents, as indeed Yuan had been the better player on the day. Both of them deserved to progress. Both of them were better that many winners we have seen earlier this week and ultimately, as Mark pointed out, it might be the fact that this match was a “dead” one from McGill’s point of you that decided the group outcome. It’s a real shame.
In the other group both Chang and Pang played well, and the match where they faced each other was enjoyable and quite clever stuff. Both are thinkers which is not very common for players that young. Most young UK players are essentially “potters”, not these boys. Luca Brecel, who recently won a tournament in Belgium, was disappointing … as he so often is. Dean Young was nowhere near the level required to be a pro. This is not an attack on the young lad, it’s just an observation and not a happy one. It just shows once again how much the gap has widened between the pro and amateur games, especially in the UK.
And here is another observation: the Scots have all been very poor so far. Maybe they suffer from the heat even more than everyone else?
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
The Scots may suffer the heat, or perhaps just the extra travelling. Of course it’s very difficult in the first match of the season, especially when best-of-4 matches don’t really give any chance to settle down. Dean Young will probably take some time to play his best. But I did expect Brecel to do better – he’s done well in this format before, and he had a 147 in his tournament win in Belgium.
Both Chang Bingyu and Yuan Sijun stayed in the UK throughout the summer (Yuan at Q School), and the dedicated practice put them in a good position. It’s a weakness of the structure that Mavis needed a 3-0 win against a player who had already been eliminated hours earlier, who put up little resistance. The organisers have not addressed this, nor have they changed the prizemoney awards to make each match relevant to both players.
The improved algorithm for ordering the matches would have led to: McGill-Castle, Davis-Yuan, McGill-Yuan, McGill-Davis, Yuan-Castle and finally Davis-Castle. This wouldn’t have solved the problem of an unequal match at the end, although Castle would have been fighting for £2000, rather than the £1000 McGill was fighting for (at least for the first 2 frames).
But the organisers were quite pleased with their ‘exciting’ finish (“Mark Davis has done it!!”), and at least it gave them someone to interview.