Yesterday was the last day of stage one and here is the report shared by WST:
Allen And White Book Last Slots
Mark Allen topped Group 12 and Michael White came through Group 8, as phase one of the BetVictor Championship League came to a conclusion in Leicester.
Both players go through to phase two which starts on Monday next week.
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The champion of the first ranking event of the new season will be crowned next Friday, July 29.
Allen started his day with a 3-0 victory over India’s Himanshu Jain, making a top break of 65. The BetVictor Northern Ireland Open champion followed up with a 3-1 success over tour rookie Jenson Kendrick, closing the match out with a run of 68 in frame four. And Allen made it three wins out of three as he saw off Stuart Carrington 3-1. A break of 142 from Allen in the second frame was the second highest of the tournament so far.
White, who has returned to the pro tour this season after two years as an amateur, made two breaks of 68 in an opening 3-0 defeat of Mark Joyce. The Welshman then lost 3-1 to the group’s top seed Jack Lisowski to leave the outcome in the balance, heading into the final round of matches.
White got the victory he needed as he fired breaks of 68 and 69 in a 3-0 defeat of Julian LeClercq. Lisowski could have topped the group by beating Mark Joyce in his last tie, but he lost the first two frames and ended up on the wrong side of the 3-1 result.
Stage two gets underway at 12pm on Monday, with Mark Williams, Stephen Maguire, Lu Ning and Aaron Hill lining up on table one in Group E. Table two hosts Group F, featuring Hossein Vafaei, Jimmy Robertson, Lyu Haotian and Michael Judge.
and the table as published
Note that this table is incorrect. In group 12, Jain won a match, and should be second on four points. It makes a diffrence in prize money, and ranking points. I left a message to Matchroom about it.
I mainly watched Group 8. Julien Leclercq, playing his first match as a professional, impressed when he secured a draw against Jack Lisowsi, and nearly made a century in his first professional frame. Against Mark Joyce, however he struggled. The match against Michael White was closer than the score suggests. The commentators were very positive about Julien: the talent is obvious but it’s still a very raw talent.
Michael White on the other hand was impressive from start to finish. Jack Lisowski needs to “shake” a few cobwebs off and Mark Joyce was… Mark Joyce, slightly on the slow side and solid.
In Group 12, Himanshu Dinesh Jain, one of the Asia-Oceania Q-School laureates, managed to get a win and to finish second in the group. From what I saw, Jain is a very capable player. Group 12 was quite slow. The afternoon session over-ran and the second match of the evening was still in progress when the action concluded on table 1. The last match of group 12 was therefore played on table 1, and Mark Allen, on social media, reflected that it was playing diffently, and much better than table 2.
Today we see the return of best of 9, knock-out snooker with the second week of the 2022 European Masters qualifiers.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 