Championship League Snooker 2009: Day Three Results

Hot on the heels of Group One yesterday which was won by Mark Selby, today sees the start of group two and the entrance of Mark Williams, Mark Allen and Peter Ebdon to the Championship League…

Again, for details of the tournament please click here to visit my post from the other day and for the latest scores from the Matchroom Sport website, please click here.

Match commentary

11am matches

I was unable to watch the opening two matches of the day but they have seen good wins for Ding Junhui and Joe Perry as both look to make up for their late night disappointment yesterday. Indeed after losing to Carter last night in the semi-final, Ding quickly gained his revenge with a 3-1 win and will be hoping to top the group for a second time.

12:30pm matches

A dramatic conclusion to the match between Ali Carter and Mark Williams as despite a 71 break from Mark, it was not enough to clinch the frame as Ali cleared with 31 to win 73-71! This gave Ali a 3-1 win and is a much needed boost after his loss to Ding this morning.

Mark Allen meanwhile defeated Peter Ebdon in a scrappy match to get his campaign off to a good start. Strange to see that from the first four matches we have had no draws when group one saw plenty!

2pm matches

Stephen Hendry gets off to a good start against Mark Allen, taking the opening frame after a long tactical exchange, while Ding Junhui marches on with an 85 break against the man who beat Hendry this morning, Joe Perry.

A storming long red from Hendry at the start of frame two sees him in again, but he could never really get into ideal position and now Allen has a chance to counter. Though he doesn’t take it, Hendry in attempting to snooker Allen behind the green makes the fatal error of underhitting the shot and leaving himself in all sorts of trouble. He finally hits it at the fourth attempt and there are now just 14 points between the two players with three reds remaining.

A 61 from Joe Perry levels up his match against Ding meanwhile, a match that seems to be of a higher quality than the Hendry/Allen affair which has seen both players waste good opportunities to take frame two. Eventually though Allen leaves the brown available to the right-centre and it’s 2-0 to Stephen.

Breaks of 33 and 70 put Ding 2-1 up now…and Hendry secures his first win of the group with a 106 break against Allen, the 726th century break of his career. Allen can count himself unlucky though as he had the first chance with all the balls at his mercy, but a terrible kick on 3 gifted Hendry with the chance.

Ding completes a 3-1 win over Joe Perry, he with a clearance of 56 to snatch the final frame, he looks ominous again…while Allen takes the last against Hendry to earn himself a £100 consolation.

3:30pm matches

Good starts for Carter and Williams as they win the opening frames of their matches, though a poor safety from Williams in the second lets Ebdon in for 1-1.

Mark soon restores though, a brilliant break of 116 makes it 2-1. Probably the best break I have seen all week that. The fourth frame was not so free flowing but he wins that as well and secures his first win of the year. Ali Carter also completes a win against Joe Perry, still no draws so far today!

6pm matches:

Ding looks to continue his fine form against Stephen Hendry now and an early 57 leaves him as a strong favourite for the opening frame. A poor split and a missed red to the left-centre has given Hendry a chance to counte, but he misses a simple pink, goes in-off and Ding gets the red he needs to seal the frame. 1-0.

A couple of poor long-range efforts from Hendry and Ding is in again and a break of 123 makes it 2-0, while Mark Williams and Mark Allen are level at 1-1 in the other match.

Just brilliant from Ding, further runs of 87 and 125 give him a 4-0 win and Stephen Hendry could only sit back and watch. Finally we have a draw though, the two Marks ending up 2-2.

7pm matches:

Stephen doesn’t have to wait long to try to make up for his hammering at the hands of Ding, but as has been the case all day really, his long-potting looks well below-par and I think it is going to be something of a struggle against Peter Ebdon, another man who is not looking great.

Better news for Mark Williams though, he takes the first frame against Joe Perry with a break of 66 and looks in good shape to qualify for the semi-finals if he can keep it up.

Hendry takes the opening frame, scrappy stuff though he did get a nice long-red that started off what would turn out to be a frame-winning break of 51.

Joe Perry has levelled it up with Mark Williams on table one, those two racing along…and now a 105 from Perry sees him go into the lead at 2-1.

Hendry needs a couple of chances but he’s doubled his lead to 2-0. He’s not playing too well really but in amongst the balls he’s scoring quite well and that’s the difference at the moment. Dave Hendon described Peter Ebdon as looking ‘a little bit desperate’ and you have to agree with him, he looks to be well out of form unfortunately and heading for a third defeat of the day.

And there’s the win for Hendry, at least it should be, 79-0 ahead with just five reds remaining…though from needing three snookers, Ebdon has remarkably got all three and can now win the frame himself! And he does, that’s a great effort from Peter and Stephen must be kicking himself. Under a lot of pressure now in the final frame is Stephen.

Mark Williams has snatched another draw now, taking a scrappy last frame against Joe Perry.

And despite needed several chances to do so, Hendry now has definitely sealed a second win of the day by defeating Peter Ebdon 3-1. He will e hugely relieved but in truth both were pretty poor and it is hard to see either winning many more matches if they play like that.