Sadly none of the Grove players taking part made it through to the final stages this time but three players – Liang Wenbo, Jack Lisowski and Yu Delu – made it through to the final qualifying round.

Wenbo started in round 3 and beat fellow China player Xiao Guodong 5-2 before losing 0-5 to Peter Ebdon. Jack also started at the same stage and beat Dave Harold 5-3 before a defeat to Dominic Dale 2-5.

Delu came through there qualifying rounds, defeating Kacper Filipiak 5-0, Mark Joyce 5-2 and Jamie Burnett 5-1 before losing 1-5 against Stephen Hendry in the final qualifying round.

Liu Song lost 1-5 to Sam Craigie in round two. The China Open starts on 26 March in Beijing and Grove players Judd Trump, Ronnie O’Sullivan and Stuart Bingham will be taking part in the first round.