2008 Championship League champion Joe Perry came through Group 2 of 2014 edition yesterday to join Ricky Walden in the Winners Group.
Perry overcame Judd Trump 3-0 in the final with breaks of 73, 68 and 70 to be the second player this week to book his places in the finals.
The Englishman had finished second in the round-robin stage after five wins from six matches before edging close friend Neil Robertson 3-2 in the semi-finals.
Trump had finished top of the group, also with five wins but a slightly greater frame difference, and took out Shaun Murphy 3-1 in the last four – the latter having made a 147 break in his opening bout on Wednesday.
The defeat for the ‘Juddernaut’ was his second in a group final in a row having lost to Walden 3-2 on Tuesday.
However, the former world no.1 won’t be too displeased as he has already collected a tidy £9,500 from the event – and stands to earn more as he moves forward to the third group later in January.
In addition, Trump has been able to gather some momentum as he builds on a poor start to the season, with the prestigious Masters tournament starting on Sunday.
It was only a matter of time before the 24 year-old was going to return to somewhere near his best and the CL has proved a helpful aid.
As for current world no.1 Robertson, the Australian is almost two-thirds of the way into what could be an incredible century of centuries this season alone.
The UK champion has made 65 so far, including five in Crondon Park that also consisted of a 144, and this vein of scoring form has so much time from now until the end of the season to achieve the remarkable feat.
To put it into context, he has already beaten the record for a single campaign set by Trump during 2012/13.
