The 2026 Championship League Snooker Ranking Edition … so far.

The Championship League Snooker Ranking Edition is the first ranking event of the season, and it has been that way for some years now. A lot of fans dislike the event, I’m not one of them. Yes, it does go on forever, and, yes, it’s not the easiest tournament to follow … but, in my opinion at least it has its merits.

For a start, it’s open to all pros, and everyone starts at the same stage. No qualifiers behind closed doors here. All matches are streamed on Youtube, absolutely all of them. This makes this event a good opportunity for fans of the sport¹ to watch every player in action, notably the rookies on tour.

No matter how well, or how bad, they perform, players are guaranteed three matches as a minimum. That makes it a good opportunity for rookies to gain experience against pros of different strength, playing various “styles” of snooker.

As always, all the detailed results can be found on snooker.org.

Here is, in short, what happened so far:

Ian Burns won Group 2. He won all his matches. He lost just one frame all day. Mark Williams was due to play in this group but withdrew.
Dylan Emery won Group 3. Only three matches were played. This group was supposed to feature Kyren Wilson. Kyren though withdrew after learning that his house had been burgled. Here is what he shared on social media.
Iulian Boiko won Group 4. Both him and Lan Yuhao played 3 matches, finished on 7 points, won 2 matches, drew 1, won 11 frames, lost 3. Eventually, who had made the highest break was the decisive factor. That’s harsh … especially considering that this event is ranking. It may not be big money but it could still be decisive come the end of the season.
Chris Wakelin won Group 5. Both him and Luke Pinches, Barry’s son, finished on 6 points, but Chris prevailed, having won more frames than Luke. It was a bizarre group. Strangely enough, Chris lost his first match against French amateur Brian Ochoiski by 3-1 and Luke Pinches was only in the draw because Sam Craigie withdrew.
Dean Young won Group 8. Dean was the only amateur in that group, a group that featured Theppy, the 8th seed in the event. Reanne Evans featured in that group. She finished last, with two losses and a draw … against Theppy, strangely enough. Now, possibly, Theppy was only just back from Thailand and still jet-lagged …
Elliot Slessor won Group 9. Elliot was undefeated, he won two matches and drew one. Also featuring in this group was Robert Milkins, twice a ranking event winner. Rob finished last though, winning just two frames all day …
Zhang Anda won Group 10, with three wins out of three.
Ali Carter won Group 12, with two wins and a draw. Jamie Jones also featured in that group, and he also won two and drew one. Ali Carter though lost only 3 frames all day whilst Jamie lost 4 frames.
Gary Wilson won Group 14. He was the only undefeated player in that group.
Pang Junxu won Group 15 despite winning just one match. It was a very “close” group, with four of the six matches ending in a draw.
Lei Peifan won Group 16. Lei and Ishpreet Singh Chadha were the only players to win matches in that group. Both won two matches, but crucially Lei defeated Ishpreet Singh Chadha in the last match on the day in that group.
Liu Hongyu topped Group 17. He was the only undefeated player in that group. New professional, Paul Norris, who will turn 60 in about a month, had a difficult debut to say the least … he didn’t win a match and, actually, won just one frame all day.
Hossein Vafaei won Group 18, with two wins and a draw. Rookie pro, Oliver Sykes also had a difficult professional debut. He won just one frame all day, that, bizarrely, came against Hossein, the eventual Group winner.
Stephen Maguire won Group 19. Every player involved in that group lost one match, just one … each… On Yee Ng was involved in that group and she finished last. It’s a harsh outcome as she only lost one match, against Maguire the eventual group winner, she got a draw in the other two matches and she showed some good things TBF. She lacks cue power§ and she could be more aggressive maybe. Her determination can’t be questioned though.
Scott Donaldson won Group 20. Bai Yulu was playing in this group and finished last. After the worst possible start, a 3-0 defeat to Yuan Sijun, the highest ranked player in the group, in the very first match on the day, Bai managed to get two draws, one of those against the eventual group winner. Harsh.
David Gilbert won Group 21. He got 2 wins and a draw. Bizarrely the draw came against Mahmoud El Hareedy, from Egypt who got his tour card by becoming “All Africa Snooker Champion” last year. Last season, Mahmoud won only one match, in the first round of the 2026 German Masters qualifiers, against Amir Sarkosh…
Jak Jones won Group 22. Now this is an odd one! The only player who was undefeated in that group on the day was Alfie Burden … who finished last 😳. The other three players involved in the group all had one win, one draw and one defeat. It all came to frame difference for them.
Jimmy Robertson won Group 23, with one win and two draws. The key factor was that he was the only undefeated player in that group.
If anything, Group 24 was even “closer”. All four players won one match, just one. Xu Si prevailed because he remained undefeated. Julien Leclercq and Michael Holt had one win, one draw and one defeat. Julien earned the second place on frame difference. Craig Steadman was last with two defeats.
Group 25 was really extraordinary. Every match, other than the first one finished on a draw. Jackson Page, who had beaten Ashley Hugill by 3-1 in the first match to finish on the day, won the group.
Chang Bingyu won Group 27 . He only lost one frame all day, to Jamie Clarke. Four of the six matches ended on a 3-0 score, the other two on a 3-1 score. No draw in this group…
He Guoqiang won Group 28 in similar fashion. He lost just one frame, to Liu Yang who came second in the group. Liu Yang is a new professional, 22 years old. This group originally featured Anthony Mc Gill. Anthony withdrew though and was replaced by Dylan Smith, a 18 years old amateur from England. Dylan won just one frame, the very first played on the day. He won it in style though … with a break of 78.
Group 29 proved to be even more extraordinary. In that group, three players, Noppon Saengkham, Liam Davies and Ben Woollaston, finished with two wins and one defeat, all three had played 11 frames, won 7, lost 4. The break to got Noppon the win, a 123, came in the last match on the day and that was actually the only match he lost … 😳
Stan Moody won Group 30, with two wins and a draw. He made breaks of 52, 59, 68, 70, 73, 109 and 135 in the process… not too shabby!