John Higgins has won the 2023 Championship League Group 5, beating Matthew Selt in the Final.
Here is the report shared by WST:
Higgins Wins Group Five
John Higgins won Group 5 of the BetVictor Championship League Snooker Invitational, beating Matthew Selt 3-1 in the final at the Morningside Arena, Leicester to progress to the Winners’ Group.
In the semi-finals, Higgins made light work of Xiao Guodong in a 3-0 win. The Wizard of Wishaw showed his class to deliver his best showing of the day with breaks of 135, 83, and 75.
Neil Robertson faced Selt in a high-quality affair in the other semi-final. After losing the first frame, Selt responded with a brilliant 133 in the second and 85 in the third to lead 2-1. Robertson forced a decider but Selt took it to prevail 3-2.
Higgins, who won the ranking event version of this tournament last year, took the opener in the group final with a classy 65 clearance. The Scot then doubled his lead before Selt pulled one back with a run of 80. A break of 57 in frame four helped four-time Crucible king Higgins secure the result.
Higgins said: “I am pleased to get through. I thought I was lucky to get in the semi-finals, the way the results went. I’ve had a decent record here. It’s good to get through it. I am pleased to be in Winners’ Group. It gives me another chance. It’d be good to get another title.”
Action continues on Thursday from 11 am with Group 6 where Joe Perry, Anthony McGill, and Zhou Yuelong enter proceedings.
Here are the results, except for the final
Higgins won this event last season, he now has the opportunity to defend his title. Mark Selby and Mark Williams have withdrawn from the event and were replaced by Xiao Guodong and Noppon Saengkham. Matthew Self, who started in Group 1, is still in this and will now play in Group 6. He must have earned some good money from this event already!
Today, Joe Perry replaces Luca Brecel who withdrew
Meanwhile, in Australia, the 2023 WSF Championship has reached the QF stage. This is the line-up:
All the players still in the draw are young. Fergal Quinn is the oldest of the lot and he’s only 22. All the others are still teenagers. Two of them have been professionals before: Gao Yang (18) and Iulian Boiko (17). There were far too young when they turned pro. If one of them gets back on the tour they should do much better than during their first two years as pros.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
If Stan Moody wins,
a player should only be able to choose one Championship in he future.
or if the junior player wins a tour place the first Championship, then he is not allow to play the latter.
(merely to prevent dispute.
and it is not fair for other players on the side(Last 64 till semi-final) of Moody and produce some sort of advantage on the other side.)
If a player, like Stan, has paid their entry fees, booked hotels and pay for travel – a long expensive one in this case – with intentions to play in both events, they should be allowed no matter what. There is still money and a big title for the grabs for Stan. In the final both will know that they already qualified for the main tour. You can’t punish a player for doing well.
And what happens if Stan Moody wins? It must be very difficult to play against him now, knowing that he has already qualified for the tour and is under no pressure. The others are under extreme pressure, knowing they have an excellent chance (perhaps their best ever chance) to get on tour.
Incidentally, from what I have seen, the table conditions didn’t look good – certainly not what they would expect to find in professional snooker, or even academy tables. That will be partly down to the weather, and partly the re-covering policy.
Pity for Xiao.(Nice in group but whitewashed in Semifinals)
WSF Championship… What happens when Moody becomes he champion? He got a tour card from junior already.
Probably the runner-up will get the tour card. Can’t see any other outcome.