This is what happened yesterday in Leicester, as reported by WST … and if Matchroom.live is to be believed it happened in Gibraltar as well where , apparently, table 2 can be found 😎

Stevens And Hamilton Through

Matthew Stevens kicked off his 30th season as a professional by qualifying for the second stage of the BetVictor Championship League ranking edition at the Morningside Arena in Leicester on Tuesday.

Stevens, a former UK Championship and Masters winner, finished top of Group 15 after winning his opening two matches, leaving him in an unassailable position going into his final contest.

The Welshman opened his account with a 3-1 victory over Allan Taylor before a hard fought 3-0 win against Duane Jones, which culminated in Stevens claiming a 46-minute third frame on the black.

The top seed in the group, 2015 World Champion Stuart Bingham, had been held to a 2-2 draw by Jones before suffering a 3-1 defeat to Taylor, who highlighted his victory with a break of 129.

It meant Bingham was unable to win the group heading into his final encounter with Stevens, who went into the match safe in the knowledge he had already done enough to qualify. Bingham won 3-1 and finished third behind Taylor.

“I was a bit in and out today,” Stevens said. “I started well in my first match but I was lucky that Duane struggled against me and let me off the hook, which made the difference in the end. But all in all, I felt okay.

“We’ve got tournaments coming up so I’ll carry on playing now and try and put some graft in.”

Experience told in Group 28 as 52 year-old Anthony Hamilton secured qualification for the last 32 stage.

Hamilton, the 2017 German Masters champion, completed a 3-0 whitewash over Chinese tour debutant Xing Zihao by successfully obtaining the three snookers he needed in the last frame before winning it on a re-spotted black.

Hamilton, who had made a 116 break against Xing, added a second century, 110, during his 2-2 draw with Australian Ryan Thomerson. The group’s other results left the veteran needing just a point from his last match with Belgian Ben Mertens and he duly took a 2-0 lead before Mertens hit back to force a 2-2 draw, finishing off with a 131 total clearance.

I mainly watched table 2. The Sheriff was his reliable self – he’s always been a good scorer – and totally deserved to win the group. Ben Mertens probably celebrated with Luca Brecel until the day before yesterday … he was quite out-of-sorts. He produced a mixed bag of excellent pots and unexpected mistakes. He saved his best for last, but it was too late. Xing Zihao played better that I expected after Lewis’ comments. He’s obviously very young and not at all accustomed of the professional environment but he showed some really good stuff.

This what awaits us today:

Chris Totten is taking the last spot in Group 17 (table 1). The spot was still “TBA” when the draw was published and was probably destined for the Africa Champion, provided they could make it.

In other news… we finally know a bit more about the outcome(s) at the exhibition tournament in Shanghai, as this appeared on twitter

Here is the said clearance (obviously an amateur video)

And another one, probably recorded by the same person, showing Judd at the table … playing a fantastic last red