Mark Allen annihilated the field in the fourth Championship League event to power his way into March’s Winners Group.
The Northern Irishman was arguably one of last week’s best players at the Masters despite only reaching the quarter-finals.
Allen came to within a whisker of beating Neil Robertson and looked in very good form, which he replicated to good measure in the last two days at Crondon Park.
Played behind closed doors and streamed on 31 online betting websites, the Championship League offers professionals a unique opportunity to gain valuable match practice as well as earn a pretty dime for each frame they manage to win.
World Open champion Allen certainly made the most of the opportunity by winning all six of his best of five round-robin encounters to the loss of only three frames.
This included a hat-trick of 3-0 triumphs over Judd Trump, Mark Selby and Martin Gould – and he managed to repeat the feat over the latter in the semi-finals.
The final was the 26 year-old’s biggest challenge as Stephen Maguire took him all the way to a decider – but Allen quickly dispelled any fears he might not be able to turn his dominance into reward by quickly wrapping up the match in the fifth.
Allen had already fired in five centuries in the two frenetic days of action but Maguire compiled perhaps the rarest break in snooker – a 146 in his defeat to Barry Hawkins.
Despite only recording three wins in the group, Maguire still qualified for the semi-finals in second place before seeing off Ricky Walden 3-2 in the last four.
Hawkins managed to finish fifth to extend his stay in the tournament but world numbers one and two Selby and Trump have both been eliminated having finished bottom of the pile.
They, along with Allen, will be replaced by Peter Ebdon, Ryan Day and Joe Perry for Group five.
