Final stages – 2-6 February 2011, Berlin

Mark Williams held off a strong Mark Selby comeback in Berlin to claim his 18th ranking title with a 9-7 victory.

Williams led the Leicester man 7-4 in the evening session but Selby rallied strongly to level at 7-7. A tense 15th frame swung back and forth in front of the sell-out crowd in the Tempodrom, but crucially Williams pinched it and a break of 82 saw the world number two claim the title and the €50,000 winner’s cheque. Mark also beat Marco Fu, Joe Perry and Anthony McGill on his way to the title.

Mixed fortunes for our other players; Jack Lisowski and Liu Song, having made the final 32, were required to take part in a wildcard stage at this event.

Jack beat Belgian wonderkid Luca Brecel 5-2, but Song was defeated by Welsh amateur Daniel Wells by the same scoreline. It was a very tough draw as Daniel has had an excellent season is probably the best player outside the Main Tour at the moment.

5-2 turned out to be an unlucky combination for Jack and also for Judd Trump as they then lost their next matches by this scoreline, to Ricky Walden and Stephen Hendry respectively. The Grove can reflect on an excellent tournament for its young players who will consolidate their positions in the rankings with the victories earned to date.

Qualifying Event – 14-17 December 2010, Sheffield

A great qualifying tournament for the Grove’s players with three players making it through to the final televised stages for the first time.

Jack Lisowski was one of two players to win all three qualifying matches played, beating James McBain (who beat Jack in the Shanghai Masters qualifiers earlier in the season) 5-2, and then qorld no 35 Mike Dunn and world no 31 Marcus Campbell, both by scorelines of 5-3. Jack was delighted with his performance, telling us it was an “early Christmas present to himself”!

Liu Song also celebrated his return to the professional tour with three qualifying wins. Song beat Bjorn Haneveer 5-3, Jamie Burnett 5-4 and former world champion and world no 28 Ken Doherty, also by 5 games to 4.

Judd Trump, currently ranked 26 in the world, only had one qualifying match but overcame a tricky opponent in Jimmy Robertson 5-3, after falling 0-3 behind at one stage.

Matthew Selt had two wins in the first two qualifying rounds against Ben Woollaston and David Gilbert, both by 5-3, but then unfortunately lost 2-5 to Stephen Lee.

Zhang Anda lost 2-5 to Alfie Burden in the first round and Liu Chuang lost by the same scoreline in the same round to Jamie Jones.

All Main Tour players ranked 33-96 took part in the first and second rounds in qualifying this time, giving one less match to play for some of the Grove players, although qualifying matches are now the best of 9 instead of 7.