Former Championship League winner David Gilbert advances

David Gilbert reached the last 32 of Championship League Snooker with a last-gasp victory in Group 13 on Thursday.

The Englishman has fond memories of the tournament, securing his maiden ranking title in this event two years ago.

Gilbert could only draw his opening round-robin tie against tour rookie Ishpreet Singh from India.

A subsequent 3-0 defeat of fellow Englishman Sean O’Sullivan set up a grandstand finale against Yuan Sijun.

Yuan had already enjoyed whitewash victories over Singh and O’Sullivan to take control of the group and needed just a point from his outing against Gilbert.

With the match 2-1 in the latter’s favour, it all came down to the final frame of the group and it was Gilbert who prevailed to pinch top spot.

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The outcome of Group 31 in the Championship League was more straightforward, meanwhile.

China’s Cao Yupeng dominated proceedings, losing just a single frame across his three wins over Steven Hallworth, Ian Burns, and Lyu Haotian.

Stage One of the Championship League, which has taken three weeks to complete, finally concludes at the Morningside Arena on Friday with the remaining couple of groups.

Scottish Open champion Gary Wilson is in Group 9 alongside Mink Nutcharut, John Astley, and Ma Hailong.

In Group 14, Ricky Walden will be joined by David Lilley, Peng Yisong, and Liu Hongyu.

Stage 1 draw

Group 1 (July 10)	Group 2 (July 11)	Group 3 (June 26)	Group 4 (July 12)
Michael Holt	Judd Trump	Craig Steadman	Shaun Murphy
Scott Donaldson	Xu Si	Sean McAllister	Tian Pengfei
Rod Lawler	Jimmy White	Adam Duffy	Lukas Kleckers
Alfie Burden	Reanne Evans	Ashley Carty	Andrew Pagett

Group 5 (June 29)	Group 6 (June 30)	Group 7 (July 6)	Group 8 (July 7)
Kyren Wilson	Mark Williams	Ali Carter	Robert Milkins
Andy Hicks	Dylan Emery	Jackson Page	Dominic Dale
Josh Mulholland	Ken Doherty	Long Zehuang	Muhammad Asif
Louis Heathcote	Daniel Holoyda	Ryan Davies	Alex Taubman

Group 9 (July 14)	Group 10 (June 28)	Group 11 (June 27)	Group 12 (July 12)
Gary Wilson	Ryan Day	Hossein Vafaei	Barry Hawkins
John Astley	Michael White	Aaron Hill	Zhang Anda
Mink Nutcharut	Himanshu Jain	Martin O’Donnell	Sanderson Lam
Ma Hailong	Jiang Jun	Fergal Quinn	Jamie O’Neill

Group 13 (July 13)	Group 14 (July 14)	Group 15 (July 4)	Group 16 (July 3)
David Gilbert	Ricky Walden	Stuart Bingham	Jimmy Robertson
Yuan Sijun	David Lilley	Matthew Stevens	Ben Woollaston
Sean O’Sullivan	Peng Yisong	Allan Taylor	Liam Graham
Ishpreet Singh	Liu Hongyu	Duane Jones	Peter Lines

Group 17 (July 5)	Group 18 (July 11)	Group 19 (July 10)	Group 20 (July 8)
Zhou Yuelong	Joe Perry	Noppon Saengkham	Matthew Selt
Ashley Hugill	Jamie Clarke	Mark Davis	James Cahill
Oliver Brown	Andy Lee	Jenson Kendrick	Andres Petrov
Rebecca Kenna	Stuart Carrington	Ross Muir	Sydney Wilson

Group 21 (June 27)	Group 22 (June 28)	Group 23 (July 7)	Group 24 (July 6)
Chris Wakelin	Joe O’Connor	Fan Zhengyi	Pang Junxu
Oliver Lines	Robbie Williams	Sam Craigie	Wu Yize
Anton Kazakov	Zak Surety	Fergal O’Brien	Hammad Miah
Liam Pullen	Alfie Davies	Ahmed Aly Elsayed	Stan Moody

Group 25 (July 8)	Group 26 (July 5)	Group 27 (June 30)	Group 28 (July 4)
Si Jiahui	Jak Jones	Jordan Brown	Anthony Hamilton
Mark Joyce	Jamie Jones	Julien Leclercq	Ben Mertens
Mohamed Ibrahim	Rebecca Kenna	Joshua Thomand	Ryan Thomerson
Haydon Pinhey	Dean Young	Barry Pinches	Xing Zihao

Group 29 (June 29)	Group 30 (June 26)	Group 31 (July 13)	Group 32 (July 3)
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh	Graeme Dott	Cao Yupeng	Xiao Guodong
Elliot Slessor	David Grace	Lyu Haotian	Martin Gould
Victor Sarkis	Daniel Wells	Ian Burns	Alexander Ursenbacher
Florian Nuessle	Andrew Higginson	Steven Hallworth	Rory McLeod

Featured photo credit: WST