Snooker

Unbelievably Jak Jones got to the playoff final again in Group 4. That's 4 times in a row in the Championship League, and he's lost all of them. Today he barely had a chance as Selby easily won 3-0 with runs of 84, 134, and 80.

Selby goes through to the final group of 7. The Championship League invitational event resumes on Monday 20th January with Group 5.

He's back!!! Zhao Xintong wins event 6 of the European Q Tour in Mons, Belgium to secure his 2 year WST tour card for next season when he will regain his professional status. He wins his 4th Q tour event and pockets another £3000, going nearly 8000 rankings points ahead of 2nd placed Dylan Emery with just one event left.

Xintong beat Ehsad Heydan-Nezhad in the final 4-1. Ehsad made the performance of his life to get to the final, and is now in a playoff place for one of the other 3 tour cards available.

Florian Nuessle, the Swiss no.1 amateur, and the best performing amateur in this season's Shootout, got to the semi-final before losing 4-0 to Zhao. He's also in a playoff place.

Ukranian former professional Julian Boiko may have fallen off the tour but he seems to get invited to most WST ranking events anyway. Boiko made a 147 break in his victory in the last 64, but lost in the next round. Nevertheless, Boiko is also in one of the 16 playoff places.

I very much hope Jak Jones can remain consistent enough to pick up enough points & get into the top 16 before qualifying for the World Championship starts. I will agree it's probably a tall order to do so for him, but I think he has the tools to do it

Championship League Group 5 turned out to be the Matthew Selt show. Selt lost his first match 3-2 to Neil Robertson, and showed petulant behaviour yet again as he shook hands with the referee, but refused to shake Robertson's hand, and walked out without even looking at his opponent.

Selt recovered from his early set back and petulant behaviour to reach the playoff final, and he beat Judd Trump 3-0 with 2 centuries and a 95 break to qualify for the final group of 7.

Some effort that from Matthew Selt.
He needs to pipe down somewhat though. Let his cue do the talking.

Robbo should have told him to keep his hair on

Judd Trump made no mistake this time in Championship League Group 6, dispatching Joe O'Connor 3-0 in the playoff final with 3 century breaks of 113, 103 and 101. Judd becomes the 6th man through to the final group of 7.

Jack Lisowski, in his group match with Jak Jones, and Joe O'Connor, in his group match with Tom Ford, both failed to make a 147 by missing the final black.

Dangerous Dave Gilbert has made a 147 though in his Championship League tie against Zhou Yuelong. Top work by the Angry Farmer .

Xiao Guodong became the last player to qualify for Championship League final group of 7, beating David Gilbert 3-2 in a thrilling playoff final. Xiao was leading 2-1 but Gilbert made a 101 break to level the scores. In the deciding frame, Xiao was in first with a break of 59 but missed, and opened the door for Gilbert to clear up and win the frame, Gilbert missed the last red, a tricky pot into the middle, and left it for Xiao to complete his victory.

The Championship League makes way for the German Masters next week. The final group is from February 4-5, it clashes with the Welsh Open qualifiers, but that's not a problem because Joe O'Connor and Ricky Walden both failed to make it.

A heartwarming story indeed .
Good luck to him.

BBC News - Disabled snooker player David Church 'blown away' by donations - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ceve729x4vdo