The 2021 Championship League was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place from 18 July to 13 August 2021 at the Morningside Arena in Leicester, England. The event featured 128 players and was played as three rounds of round-robin groups of four, before a best-of-five final. It was the 17th edition of the Championship League and the first ranking tournament of the 2021–22 snooker season. It was one of two Championship League events held over the season, with a following invitational event held as the 2022 Championship League.
Kyren Wilson was the defending champion, having defeated Judd Trump 3–1 in the final of the September to October 2020 edition of the tournament. Wilson's title defence ended in Stage Three, where he finished third in his group. David Gilbert won the tournament, defeating Mark Allen 3–1 to win his first ranking title. Allen made the highest break of the event, a 146.
The 2021 Championship League was hosted from 18 July to 13 August 2021 at the Morningside Arena in Leicester, England.[1]
128 players took part in the event. The competition began with 32 rounds of group matches with each group consisting of four players.[2] Two groups were played to a finish every day during three blocks, from 18 to 23 July, from 26 to 30 July and from 2 to 6 August, using a two-table setup in the arena. The groups were contested using a round-robin format, with six matches played in each group. All matches in group play were played as best-of-four frames, with three points awarded for a win and one point for a draw. Group positions were determined by points scored, frame difference and then head-to-head results between players who were tied. Places that were still tied were then determined by the highest break made in the group.[3]
The 32 players that topped the group tables qualified for the group winners' stage, consisting of eight groups of four players. The eight winners from the group winners' stage qualified for the two final groups, with the final taking place later on the same day. The winner took the Championship League title and a place at the 2021 Champion of Champions.[4][5][6]
Prize fund[]
The breakdown of prize money for the tournament is shown below.[7]
The first stage was held over 32 groups with 128 participants between 18 July and 6 August.[8]Peter Lines won group eight over Mark Williams after winning their match 3-0, despite losing to Jak Jones.[9]Noppon Saengkham won all three of his matches, including over four-time world champion John Higgins to win group 9. This was Saengkham's first professional match since being forced to withdraw from the 2021 World Snooker Championship due to a positive case of COVID-19.[10] World number 115 won group 24, with wins over John Astley and Stephen Maguire. Former UK Championship winner Maguire finished bottom of the group.[11] Defending champion Wilson lost just two frames as he won group 16.[12]
The second stage was held over 8 groups with 32 participants between 9 and 12 August.[13]Tom Ford won group A, after he completed a whitewash over world number one Judd Trump.[14]Ali Carter won group E over two former world snooker champions Shaun Murphy and Graeme Dott, winning all three of his group matches 3-1.[15]Ronnie O'Sullivan, who had won group 32, withdrew from the event, and was replaced by second placed Mark Joyce.[16] Joyce, however, finished bottom of group H, won by David Gilbert.[17]
The final two groups, and the final was played on 13 August.[18] Allen won the first of the stage three groups, completing 3-0 victories over Ford and Wilson, as well as a 3-1 win over Bai Langning.[19] During his win over Wilson, Allen made three century breaks of 127, 124 and 146 (the highest of the tournament), where Wilson scored just two points.[20] Despite a loss in the opening match to Cao Yupeng, Gilbert won the second group after victories over Carter and Ryan Day.[21] The final had Allen win the opening frame with a break of 102, before Gilbert won the remaining three frames with breaks of 59 and 57.[22] This was the first ranking event win of Gilberts 22-year career, having appeared in four previous finals.[23] Gilbert commented after the match that he was "only used to loser's speeches".[24][25]
Tournament draw[]
Stage One[]
Stage One consisted of 32 groups, each containing four players.[26]
There was a total of 74 century breaks made during the tournament. The highest break was made by Mark Allen, who made a 146 in his stage three match against Kyren Wilson.[34][35][36][37]
146, 137, 127, 124, 124, 123, 115, 110, 103, 102 – Mark Allen
Mark Allen (NIR) (146)
David Gilbert (ENG)
