Congratulations to the Suzhou Team
Cao Yupeng, Chen Feilong and Yao Pengcheng!
Here are the results from yesterday quarter-finals and today semi-finals
| QF (Bo7) | ||
| Shaanxi | 4-2 | Xianyang |
| Xi’an | 4-3 | Hong Kong |
| Suzhou | 4-2 | Jiujiang Tianxi |
| Xinjiang | 3-4 | Mianyang |
| SF (Bo7) | ||
| Shaanxi | 4-3 | Xi’an |
| Suzhou | 4-0 | Mianyang |
Those are my screenshots of yesterday evening QFs
Marco Fu definitely is trying to play a lot faster, essentially not spending much time at aiming and relying on his instincts and experience.
Suzhou beat Shaanxi by 4-2 in the Final
FINAL frames scores : 31 – 76, 75 – 33, 101 – 26, 55 – 47, 9 – 73, 52 – 47
Shaanxi put up a good defence, but ultimately they fell short.
Fan Zhengyi was terribly unlucky in frame 4: having needed a snooker, he got it, potted all the balls up to the pink to trail only 48-47, then pocketed a fantastic mid-range black, only to see the white slowly following it in the same pocket.
In the last frame, Lei Peifan needed the final pink to force a decider, he missed it, Cao Yupeng potted pink and black for victory.
The losers got 75 000 CNY, the winners got 150 000 CNY.
Here are my screenshots of the Final:
… in rather random order for whatever reason… don’t ask.
And, of course the Awards and Trophy Ceremony
If I’m not mistaken, Marco Fu’s trophy was for the HB, a 129. All players reaching the semi-finals were awarded recognition for their performance.
The end …
… that was fun!
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
The next CBSA event is a junior event on August 14-18, with U21 and U14 sections. The formats for these are very complicated, involving some 6-reds matches, 15-red matches, groups and multiple-elimination… Before covid, the CBSA used to run 5 of these events per year, which was very good for the development of young talent. But this is the first since covid.
There are 2 wildcard places available for the Shanghai Masters.
Fan Zhengyi was a bit unlucky to go in-off, but he should have had a much simpler shot. It was the crucial moment.
Earlier, the two semi-finals were contrasting. Suzhou won easily, but Shaanxi had to fight hard against Xi’an. Ultimately Mei Xiwen got a lead over Zhang Anda, and closed down the frame.
It was a deserved win for Suzhou. Cao Yupeng has sometimes shown lack of self-belief: this will help him; Chen Feilong stayed in Darlington alone throughout the covid lockdown, trying (unsuccessfully) to stay on tour, so deserves some success; Yao Pengcheng is a younger player who can only benefit from this win. Shaanxi were guilty of carelessness at times in the tournament.
Yuan Sijun has played in 3 CBSA tournaments in 2023, after been abroad in the UK for 2 years. He won the Haining Open in June, and then reached semi-finals in Huangguoshu and Xi’an. Hopefully he hasn’t talked himself out of playing in future CBSA events. Of course, there’s no guarantee he will qualify for the upcoming WST events in Wuhan and Tianjin.