The Welshman Jamie Clarke, 27 years old, 49th in the world table, starred in the second big surprise in the Championship League, event of the 2022/23 World Snooker season scoring for the ranking, which started on June 28 and will end on the 29th of this month at the Morningside Arena, in Leicester (England), by eliminating from the competition the Englishman Judd Trump, 35 years old, current runner-up in the world and number two in the hierarchy.
A draw (2-2) in the third game of Group 2, between Clarke and Judd, was enough for Jamie to advance to the 2nd stage of the tournament, after a 3-0 triumph over another Englishman, Sean O’Sullivan , and another draw (2-2) against the Chinese Peng Yisong. Clarke was winning by 2-1, which virtually guaranteed him qualification – with a huge ball of happiness (a ‘chorizo’) and Judd still rescued the equality, but it was already insufficient to avoid elimination.
The ‘Ace in the Pack’ (Judd), won by Ronnie O’Sullivan by 13-18 on May 2 in the World Cup final in Sheffield – the same event he already won in 2019 – stayed, as did Mark Selby (Ben Woollaston won his group), for the first stage of the tournament, which distributes 328 thousand pounds in prizes (€382 thousand) and whose 2nd stage will take place, on the same stage, from the 25th to the 29th of this month.
In the other groups, Stuart Bingham (2015 world champion) joined fellow Englishmen Ronnie O’Sullivan, Robert Milkins, Chris Wakelin, Anthony Hamilton and Ricky Walden among the qualifiers. As well as Shaun Murphy (2005 world champion) and David Gilbert.
In the 2nd phase of the competition are also the Chinese Zhao Xintong, Lu Ning, Yuan SiJun, Lyu Haotian and Xiao Guodong, the Irish Aaron Hill and Michael Judge, the Belgian Luca Brecel and the Northern Irishman Jordan Brown.
Thursday and Friday, the 21st and 22nd of this month, the Welshman Michael White, the Belgian Julien Leclercq and the English Jack Lisowski and Mark Joyce will fight for another place in the 2nd phase of the Championship League, while in another group only one place will be left for Northern Irishman Mark Allen, Himanshu Dinesh Jain, Stuart Carrington and Jenson Kendrick.
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