Alexander Ursenbacher and David Lilley were the latest players to emerge from Stage One of Championship League Snooker in Leicester.
Two more groups took place on Wednesday at the Mattioli Arena with the players competing in the 2024/25 snooker season’s opening ranking event.
An extremely tight Group 26 saw five out of the six round-robin fixtures drawn with 2-2 scorelines.
The only player to break the trend was Ursenbacher, the Swiss beating neighbour Florian Nuessle of Austria 3-0 in his last outing to progress.
Ursenbacher has had a disappointing few seasons but is still only 28, and he will be buoyed by topping a group that also included former ranking event winners Graeme Dott and Matthew Selt.
Proceedings were much more straightforward in Group 27, with Lilley dominating the day by winning all three of his games.
The Englishman got off to the perfect start with a resounding 3-0 victory against Liam Graham and followed it up with a second whitewash success against Paul Deaville.
Final opponent Yuan Sijun had the opportunity to leapfrog his way into first but needed to beat Lilley in the remaining round-robin affair.
But despite losing the first frame against the Chinese competitor, Lilley took the following three to safely progress.
On Thursday, eight more players will vie for a spot in the last 32 and Stage Two of the competition later this month.
Among them is Kyren Wilson, the sport’s newest world champion who is set to make his first appearance of the campaign.
Wilson will face Scott Donaldson, Baipat Siripaporn, and Daniel Womersley in Group 1.
In Group 14, meanwhile, Hossein Vafaei will be challenged by Louis Heathcote, Manasawin Phetmalaikul, and Josh Mulholland.
Wednesday, June 19th – Results
Group 26
1. Matthew Selt 2-2 Florian Nuessle
2. Graeme Dott 2-2 Alexander Ursenbacher
3. Graeme Dott 2-2 Florian Nuessle
4. Matthew Selt 2-2 Alexander Ursenbacher
5. Alexander Ursenbacher 3-0 Florian Nuessle
6. Matthew Selt 2-2 Graeme Dott
Group 27
1. Yuan Sijun 3-0 Paul Deaville
2. David Lilley 3-0 Liam Graham
3. David Lilley 3-0 Paul Deaville
4. Yuan Sijun 2-2 Liam Graham
5. Liam Graham 2-2 Paul Deaville
6. David Lilley 3-1 Yuan Sijun
Championship League Snooker
Stage One Draw
Group 1 | Group 2 | Group 3 | Group 4 |
Scott Donaldson | He Guoqiang | Shaun Murphy | Mark Williams |
Group 5 | Group 6 | Group 7 | Group 8 |
Ali Carter | Gary Wilson | Robbie McGuigan | Jak Jones |
Group 9 | Group 10 | Group 11 | Group 12 |
Ma Hailong | Jackson Page | Ryan Day | Jack Lisowski |
Group 13 | Group 14 | Group 15 | Group 16 |
Si Jiahui | Hossein Vafaei | David Gilbert | Fan Zhengyi |
Group 17 | Group 18 | Group 19 | Group 20 |
Chris Wakelin | Stuart Bingham | Long Zehuang | Stuart Carrington |
Group 21 | Group 22 | Group 23 | Group 24 |
Neil Robertson | Joe O’Connor | Michael White | Martin O’Donnell |
Group 25 | Group 26 | Group 27 | Group 28 |
Matthew Stevens | Alexander Ursenbacher | David Lilley | Wu Yize |
Group 29 | Group 30 | Group 31 | Group 32 |
Ben Woollaston | Jamie Jones | Ashley Carty | Thepchaiya Un-Nooh |
Stage Two
Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D |
Scott Donaldson | David Gilbert | Long Zehuang | Mark Williams |
Group E | Group F | Group G | Group H |
Ali Carter | David Lilley | Jackson Page | Martin O’Donnell |
Stage Three
Final Group 1 | Final Group 2 |
Ali Carter | Jackson Page |
Final (bo5)
Ali Carter 3-1 Jackson Page
Featured photo credit: WST
I appreciate your work. I’m glad to see David Lilley win his group with 3 straight wins.
Thanks for reading.