Again, I didn’t watch anything yesterday but I’m feeling much better today and hopefully normal service will resume soon. Meanwhile, here is the WST report on what happened yesterday:

China’s Long Zehuang dominated Group 19 at BetVictor Championship League on Saturday, winning all three of his matches to reach the second stage.

Long played his first season on the pro tour in 2023/24 and enjoyed promising results, notably reaching the last 16 of the Shoot Out and the last 32 of the World Open. He is looking to build on that in his second season and is off to a fine start.

A break of 73 helped him to beat Lei Peifan 3-1 and he then saw off Alfie Davies by the same scoreline before wrapping up the group by beating Jamie O’Neill 3-1 with breaks of 68, 78 and 98.

Group 20 went to Stuart Carrington, finishing ahead of top seed Pang Junxu. Carrington beat Gong Chenzhi 3-1 with a top break of 107 then whitewashed Gerard Greene 3-0. That left Carrington just needing to avoid defeat in his final showdown against Pang, and he managed a 2-2 draw to seal his progress. 

Results / Fixtures

Jamie O’Neill was replacing Noppon Saengkham who withdrew.

Stuart Carrington made a 107 in the last frame he played yesterday. It was his only century of the day but the 100th of his pro career. He became the 83d player to have made 100 centuries or more in professional matches. Well done Stuart!

I watched a bit of the Long v Lei match this morning. This was hard match snooker, but not negative snooker and, in that match at least, both were playing well. Long only turned pro in 2023, at the age of 26, hence a bit older, and probably more mature, than most Chinese rookies. He has beaten some very good players during his first professional season, notably Theppy and Si Jiahui. Also, it seems that he likes this format. Last season, as a rookie, he played in this event and qualified for stage 2 as well. He bowed out in stage 2 … undefeated.