Championship League

This article is about the snooker tournament. For the darts tournament, see Championship League Darts.

Championship League

Tournament information
Venue	Crondon Park Golf Club
Location	Stock
Country	England
Established	2008
Organisation(s)	Matchroom Sport
Format	Non-ranking event
Total prize fund	£205,000
Current champion(s)	Matthew Stevens

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]

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 years Premier League Snooker.^[1]

Winners

^[1]

Year	Winner	Opponent	Final score	Season
2008	Joe Perry	Mark Selby	3–1	2007/08
2009	Judd Trump	Mark Selby	3–2	2008/09
2010	Marco Fu	Mark Allen	3–2	2009/10
2011	Matthew Stevens	Shaun Murphy	3–1	2010/11

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Turner, Chris. "Matchroom Championship League". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. http://www.cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/league.html#ChLg. Retrieved 1 March 2011. 

External links

• Official website