Championship League is a non-ranking snooker tournament, devised by Matchroom Sport. All tournaments have been held at the Crondon Park Golf Club since its debut in 2008.[1] Martin Gould is the reigning champion.
History and format
The event was introduced in 2008 by Barry Hearn to provide additional competition and a qualifier to the Premier League Snooker. 25 professionals take part, there is no audience and every match is broadcast via internet only.[1] Players earn money for every frame won and there are also prizes for being a semi-finalist, runner-up and winner of each group, with more money involved in the winners group.
In the first two years all matches in the group stages were the best of four, meaning that the matches could ended in a draw as all the four frames were played, and the semi-finals and final was best of five. From 2010 all matches are best of five.
The competition runs over eight group, each consisting of seven players. From the league stage of the first seven groups the top four qualify for a play-off, the winner of which qualifies for the winners group. The bottom two players of each league are eliminated and the remaining four moves to the next group, where they are joined by three more players until the seventh group. The winners play in the final group with the overall winner taking a place in that year's Premier League Snooker until 2012,[1] and in that year's Champion of Champions from 2013.
There has been only one maximum break in the history of the tournament. Shaun Murphy compiled it at 2014 event against Mark Davis in their league stage match of group two.[2][3]
Winners
[1]
References
External links
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Martin Gould
Marco Fu
Mark Allen
Matthew Stevens
Ding Junhui