I didn’t see much of the action yesterday as life came in the way of snooker but, from what I could watch group 22 was probably the most interesting group in the tournament so far. All four players in that group are under 30 years old. All are extremely capable. Harvey Chandler, who replaced Craig Steadman, has been a pro for two years in 2018/19/20. He’s a very talented player, but not a very consistent one… to say the least. When playing well, he’s brilliant to watch. Harvey often travels to North Africa to play and promote the game. It was a very strange group, a very close group. Three players finished the day undefeated. Only Oliver lines lost … twice. This means that four of the six matches ended up in draws. The decisive factor was the 130 break that Joe O’Connor made during his first match, early in the afternoon, in only the second frame he played on the day, and the first he won.

Here is the report by WST:

Joe O’Connor made a crucial clearance in the last frame of the day to draw 2-2 with Aaron Hill and finish top of Group 22 at the BetVictor Championship League.

Leicester’s O’Connor goes through to the second group stage which starts on June 28th. In his first match of the day he made a break of 130 during a 2-2 draw with Harvey Chandler, and O’Connor followed up with a 3-1 victory over Oliver Lines. Meanwhile, Hill had identical results, which meant that the last match of the group would be decisive.

Ireland’s Hill led 2-1 and the contest was in the balance in the fourth frame until O’Connor, having trailed 38-32, made a vital break of 40. That left the pair tied on points, so the group was decided on the highest break, and O’Connor’s 130 eclipsed Hill’s best effort of 74. 

Michael White topped Group 23 to become the fourth Welshman this week to qualify for phase two, following success for Ryan Day, Mark Williams and Matthew Stevens. 

White made breaks of 83, 74 and 98 to beat Dean Young 3-0, then fired 122 and 94 in a 3-0 defeat of Ryan Davies. Stephen Maguire may have started the group favourite, but his hopes were dented by a 3-0 reverse against Davies, and a 2-2 draw in his last match against White wasn’t enough.

Results / Fixtures

Group 23 was dominated by Michael White who scored heavily. All the positions in the table were already set before the last match began, which is very unusual in this format. The last match in that group was a completely “dead” affair. A big factor leading to this unfortunate situation was Stephen Maguire’s 3-0 defeat at the hands of 22 years old amateur Ryan Davies in the first match he played in the afternoon. Mags scored just 25 points in that match. Seriously, what happened there? … and this is a genuine question as I didn’t see the match. Ryan is a very good amateur, a very heavy scorer on his day, but still ???