Championship League Snooker 2010: Tournament information

Back again for a third season, the 2010 Matchroom Championship League promises to be the best yet as joining the rest of the field will be world number one Ronnie O’Sullivan, while there has also been an important change to the format.

Click below for more details on the competition and note that I will update this post as and when more news becomes available…

When?

The dates in full are as follows (click the group for fixtures):

Group One – Monday, January 4 and Tuesday, January 5
Group Two – Wednesday, January 6 and Thursday, January 7
Group Three – Monday, January 18 and Tuesday, January 19
Group Four – Wednesday, January 20 and Thursday, January 21
Group Five – Monday, February 8 and Tuesday, February 9
Group Six – Wednesday, February 10 and Thursday, February 11
Group Seven – Monday, March 22 and Tuesday, March 23
Winners’ Group – Wednesday, March 24 and Thursday, March 25

Who?

For 2010 the field will be bigger than ever, indeed the top 12 players in the world are already confirmed!

Already confirmed are:

Group One (official world rankings in brackets)

Judd Trump (defending champion, 30)
Stephen Maguire (2)
Shaun Murphy (3)
John Higgins (4)
Ali Carter (5)
Ryan Day (6)
Mark Selby (7)

Group Two

Four players from Group One and…
Ronnie O’Sullivan (1)
Marco Fu (8)
Neil Robertson (9)

Group Three

Four players from Group Two and…
Stephen Hendry (10)
Mark Allen (11)
Joe Perry (12)

Format

As stated on the Matchroom Sport website:

“Matchroom Sport work in association with digital media specialists Perform, who broadcast live screening of each of the matches via a number of bookmakers’ websites.

This year’s Championship League event will be the biggest so far with a total prize fund of more than £200,000.

Each group features seven players competing in a round-robin basis playing the other competitors once in a five-frame match.

Players will be awarded one point for each frame won in the league phase to determine their position in the league table.”

An interesting change there which along with the £100 per frame prize will go some way to ensuring that players give it their all throughout matches. Also note that with one extra frame in the matches, there will be no possibility of a draw this season.

“The player finishing top meets the man who came fourth, while second plays third with the two winners meeting in the final.

The winner of the final advances into the Winner’s Group, while the runner-up, two losing semi-finalists and player who came fifth in the league move into the next group where they are joined by three new players.

However, the players who come sixth and seventh in each of the league tables are eliminated from the competition.

Dead frames will not be played in either the league or knock-out stages. In each league any unplayed frame money, from the league section only, will be added to a ’High Break Pot’ which will be awarded to the highest break in that league.

Players also win £100 per frame won in each group match plus there will be additional prize money for the play-offs and the final league.”

Fixtures:

To be confirmed.

How to watch

While spectators will not be able to watch the event at the venue, as last year the action will be televised live by several online betting sites. These are yet to be confirmed but in 2009 were:

This list will be updated as and when the 2010 broadcasters are confirmed.

Results

Result and information can be found here at Matchroom Sport.