2023 BetVictor Championship League Invitational Line-Up
The 2023 BetVictor Championship League Snooker Invitational is underway at the Morningside Arena, Leicester. Seven groups will be played out over the course of the coming months. Each group winner will then meet in Winners’ Group from March, 1 to March, 2 with a spot at the 2023 Champion of Champions on the line alongside the usual prize money.
Dates
Group 1/Group 2 – Monday, 19 December to Thursday, 22 December
Group 3/Group 4 – Tuesday, 3 January to Friday, 6 January
Group 5/Group 6 – Tuesday, 7 February to Friday, 10 February
Group 7/Winners’ – Monday, 27 February to Thursday, 2 March
Who is playing?
Group 1 – Ali Carter, Jack Lisowski, Jimmy Robertson, Jordan Brown, Matthew Selt, Ryan Day, Stuart Bingham
Group 2 – Barry Hawkins, Jamie Jones, Robert Milkins
Group 3 – Kyren Wilson, Mark Selby, Ricky Walden
Group 4 – John Higgins, Judd Trump, Zhao Xintong
Group 5 – David Gilbert, Mark Williams, Neil Robertson
Group 6 – Anthony McGill, Luca Brecel, Zhou Yuelong
The draw for the 2023 World Grand Prix is now confirmed, following the conclusion of the BetVictor English Open. The top 32 players on the one-year ranking list qualify for the first event in the 2023 Players Series, to run from January 16 to 22 at the Centaur Arena at Cheltenham Racecourse.
Ronnie O’Sullivan will start the defence of his title with a tough test against Barry Hawkins – a repeat of the 2013 World Championship final. Other stand-out first round ties include Judd Trump against Hossein Vafaei, Shaun Murphy to face Ali Carter and Gloucestershire’s local favourites Jack Lisowski and Robert Milkins to go head to head.
The draw is:
Mark Allen (1) v David Gilbert (32) Lyu Haotian (17) v Joe O’Connor (16) Zhou Yuelong (9) v Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (24) Robert Milkins (25) v Jack Lisowski (8) —————————————- Noppon Saengkham (28) v Mark Selby (5) Ronnie O’Sullivan (21) v Barry Hawkins (12) Mark Williams (13) v Jamie Jones (20) Ding Junhui (4) v Stuart Bingham (29) —————————————- Kyren Wilson (3) v Robbie Williams (30) Shaun Murphy (14) v Ali Carter (19) Sam Craigie (22) v Tom Ford (11) Gary Wilson (6) v Anthony McGill (27) —————————————- Luca Brecel (7) v Joe Perry (26) Hossein Vafaei (23) v Judd Trump (10) Xiao Guodong (18) v Neil Robertson (15) Ricky Walden (31) v Ryan Day (2)
The match schedule will be announced soon.
Ronnie could really do with a good run in this one and he finds himself in a particularly difficult quarter…
Thrill-a-minute snooker returns to the Morningside Arena in Leicester next month for the BetVictor Shoot Out, with top stars including Mark Selby, Shaun Murphy, Mark Allen, Mark Williams, Jack Lisowski, Kyren Wilson, Ding Junhui, Zhao Xintong, Jimmy White and defending champion Hossein Vafaei in the field.
The world ranking event runs from January 25 to 28 and features a unique set of rules which guarantees drama. Each match lasts a maximum of ten minutes, with a 15-second shot clock for the first five minutes and ten seconds for the last five.
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In all there are 128 players in the field, with a random draw for each round. Notable first round matches include:
Shaun Murphy v Hossein Vafaei – Wednesday January 25th, afternoon session Mark Williams v Craig Steadman – Wednesday January 25th, afternoon session Jack Lisowski v Mark Allen – Wednesday January 25th, evening session Ken Doherty v Stephen Maguire – Wednesday January 25th, evening session Mark Selby v Mark Davis – Thursday January 26th, evening session Stuart Bingham v Reanne Evans – Thursday January 26th, evening session Ricky Walden v Gary Wilson – Thursday January 26th, evening session
Six places have been given to promising young amateur players who have won events this year. The WPBSA invited players are:
Too bad Ronnie and Selby might play each other in the second round of the WGP, though Ronnie has no one to blame but himself for his poor seeding. On a related note, Ronnie and Selby have never played a best of 7 match against each other in a ranking event.
I guess Ronnie is off to Dubai for 10 days over Christmas, and I also found it interesting to hear that the film crew that is making the documentary about him was still following him around and filming this past week…
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Too bad Ronnie and Selby might play each other in the second round of the WGP, though Ronnie has no one to blame but himself for his poor seeding. On a related note, Ronnie and Selby have never played a best of 7 match against each other in a ranking event.
I guess Ronnie is off to Dubai for 10 days over Christmas, and I also found it interesting to hear that the film crew that is making the documentary about him was still following him around and filming this past week…