Here are the snooker planet news of the day
Matthew Selt has won the 2025 Invitational CLS Group 5 (report by WST)
SELT SOARS TO WIN GROUP
Matthew Selt whitewashed world number one Judd Trump 3-0 in the Group Five final to earn his place in the Winners’ Group of the BetVictor Championship League Invitational in Leicester.
Results / Tables and fixtures1
Former Indian Open champion Selt produced a hugely impressive display to brush aside table topper Trump in the final. Breaks of 102, 102 and 95 saw him clinch victory in a rapid 35 minutes.
Trump had finished first in the group after amassing five wins from six. He was a 3-2 victor over Joe O’Connor in the semi-finals, while third placed Selt beat the record breaking Jak Jones 3-1.
Jones made history by beating Selt’s record for most ever centuries in a professional tournament, which was previously 24. He’s now made 26 in this year’s Championship League Invitational.
Trump, Jones, O’Connor, and Tom Ford advance to Group Six, where they will join David Gilbert, Jack Lisowski, and Noppon Saengkham. The action resumes tomorrow, Wednesday, 22nd January, as all seven players compete for a coveted spot in the Winners’ Group.
Oh God!!!2
Meanwhile in Morocco, the 2025 Junior and Women‘s WSF Championships are nearing their conclusion.
The Women are at the semi-finals stage and the line-up is the one you would have expected from the start considereing that Reanne Evans hasn’t entered the event. It will be Mink Nutcharut vs Rebecca Kenna followed by Bai YuLu vs On Yee Ng.
The Women Challenge cup event is also at the semi-finals stage and it’s interesting because three out of four of the players still competing are from Morocco. The fourth one is from Poland. No British player in sight. Morocco is not an Islamist state but it is a country where Islam is the main faith. Seeing young women competing in a big international sports competition, and getting to the latter stages, may inspire more girls to take on sports, and in general, to see themselves as worthy persons, equal to boys. I have to say that I have watched women snooker involving Moroccan girls in the past and I was quite surprised by what was going on in the associated chat. Or rather by what was NOT going on. Unlike what so often happens when Brit males follow a women’s game online, the Moroccan men commentating on the chat were praising the good shots, supporting of the girls and encouraging their efforts, and this, despite the fact that the level was not very high, particularly if compared to what we see on television in the pro game.
The Juniors are at the quarter-finals stage. At the time of writing, the QF matches have just started. They feature 8 players from 8 different nations: England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Poland, Hong-Kong and China.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 