AFTER a decent Christmas break snooker is BACK!
The Championship League is underway now with players seeing it as the perfect warm-up for the Masters, which returns on January 12.
Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump, Kyren Wilson, Mark Allen – fresh off his massive win in Saudi Arabia – defending champion Mark Selby and the rest of the world’s top snooker players are all scheduled to appear.
Here’s everything you need to know for the tournament.
The Championship League takes place from January 3 to February 4, although there is a break in the middle while the Masters takes place.
There are seven groups then a Winners’ group – more on the format is below.
The dates are as follows:
All the big hitters are slated to play and seem ready to play.
That includes O’Sullivan, at the time of writing, who has pulled out of these type of events in recent months, but may want to get some form as we close in on the World Championships.
The Championship league is a round robin of eight groups of seven players.
SNOOKER's Class of '92 are fading away - with two English superstars ready to forge a new era.
Judd Trump has declared he’s ready to battle reigning world champion Kyren Wilson for “the next 10 years” or more.
Current world No 1 Trump admitted Wilson’s meteoric rise over the last twelve months has “pushed him forward” as a player.
The Class of ’92 refers to the legendary trio of Ronnie O’Sullivan, John Higgins, and Mark Williamson.
With 14 world titles among them, the three players have dominated UK snooker over the past three decades.
But as their powers begin to fade, Wilson and Trump appear ready to fill the rivalry vacuum.
Read more on snooker’s new big rivalry between Judd Trump and Kyren Wilson…
The top four from each group qualify for a play-off with the overall winner going straight into the Winners’ Group.
The bottom two are eliminated totally from the competition, while the other four move into the next group, where they are joined by three more players.
This format continues through all seven groups until the Winners’ Group is fulled.
The players are ranked by matches won, then most frames won, then least frames lost – if two players are tied, the player who won the head-to-head match finishes higher.
The play-off semi-finals are played between 1st and 4th and 2nd and 3rd, with the two winners meeting and then playing for a place in the Winners’ Group.
The overall winner secures a place in the 2025 Champion of Champions and earns a modest amount of prize money.
There will be no TV coverage in the UK but fans can stream all the action live on Matchroom Sport’s YouTube.
Table one will be on Matchroom Multi Sport and table two is on the Matchroom Pool channel.
Both of those are free to stream.
Alternatively, SunSport will blog select matches from the group stage and then the entire Winners’ Group and play-offs.
Friday, January 3
Group 1 league matches
Saturday, January 4
Group 1 league matches
Group 1 semi-finals
Group 1 final
*Wakelin, Day, Pang and TBC advance to Group 2*
January 6 & 7
Group 2 league matches and play-offs
January 8 & 9
Group 3 league matches and play-offs
January 10 & 11
Group 4 league matches and play-offs
January 20 & 21
Group 5 league matches and play-offs
January 22 & 23
Group 6 league matches and play-offs
January 24 & 25
Group 7 league matches and play-offs
February 3 & 4
Winners’ Group league matches and play-offs
