The new season got under with the Wuxi Classic; the first round was played at The Capital Venue, Gloucester (formerly South West Snooker Academy) from 27 to 29 May, 2013. All Grove players have entered. With the new flat structure, all were in action. Jack, Yu Delu, Sleepy, Hang, Wenbo and Judd have qualified. In Wuxi, on June 17, Yu was first in action but lost to a very solid Stuart Bingham. On day 2, Jack, Wenbo and Hang booked their spot in the last 32 whilst Judd and Sleepy lost.
In last 32, Wenbo lost to Matthew Stevens, Jack lost to Mark Williams. Welsh curse! Hang also lost to Xiao Guodong in the last match of day 3.

Last 128 – best of 9

Jack Lisowski 5-1 Hammad Miah
The match was much closer than the score suggests, and Hammad was often first in the frames, but Jack managed to win three very close frames and this was key to his victory. Jack had 67 and 71, whilst Hammad had 54 (in a frame he lost …)

Yu DeLu 5-4 Sanderson Lam
Most frames were one-sided and Yu had 92, 55 and 79 to finish the match. But a lot of credit must be given to Sanderson, an amateur, who forced a decider from 4-2 down and gave Yu a really tough challenge.

Stuart Bingham 5-3 Li Yan
Li Yan fought hard and came back from 4-1 down to 4-3, but eventually Stuart was the strongest player. Shame Li had to lose, but encouraging for the season to come.

Matthew Selt 3-5 Chen Zhe
Sleepy started strongly, hitting 70 and 93 in the first two frames. He ran to a 4-0 lead before Matt rallied to 3-4. But Sleepy held his nerves and a good 62 helped him to clinch the match.

Jamie Cope 5-1 Zhang Anda
Anda won the first frame with a break of 53 but that was as good as it went for him. Jamie hit 93 and 100 in the next two and although the remaining frames were closer, he also won all of them.

Judd Trump 5-0 Phil O’Kane
Judd wasted no time in whitewashing his amateur opponent with breaks of 129, 109, 80 and 108 whilst Phil just scored 18 points over the whole match. Not bad for someone who didn’t practice much …

Liang Wenbo 5-2 Fraser Patrick
There were only two breaks over 50 in the match, one for each player and it was essentially about good matchplay, something Fraser excels at, so Wenbo will be happy with this win.

Before the MSI, the frames were shared and it was basically one visit snooker: Mark had 52 and 68 whilst Hang had 71 and 60. After the MSI, things turned more hard fought and scrappy and Hang showed a superior matchplay ability to take the match.

Last 64 – best of 9

Stuart Bingham 5-2 Yu Delu
Stuart was extremely solid as he scored 105, 67, 51, 62 and 87 on his way to win the match. Yu managed to take the third frame despite Stuart’s 51, which is a credit to his fighting spirit but he couldn’t contain his opponent in this form.

Chen Zhe 2-5 Ben Woollaston
Be fore the MSI the contest was close and that was reflected was the 2-2 score. After the MSI though Ben stepped up a gear, dominated the match and outscored Sleepy, restricting him to only 40 points in the last 3 frames.

Jack Lisowski 5-0 Tian Pengfei
Jack needed only 55 minutes to defeat Tian, scoring 100, 52 and 69 in the process.

Li Hang 5-2 Judd Trump
Hang played very well, in a very calm, composed way to come out the winner out of the Grove clash. He played positively when it mattered without taking risks unduly. He scored heavily also as breaks of 62, 54 and 62 brought him to a 3-0 lead. Judd rescued the last one before the MSI, in several visits. He also took the first after the MSI with a good 60. But Hang kept his calm and finished the job with a 67 in the last frame.

Liang Wenbo 5-4 Jamie Jones
This was a hard fought, close game with never more than a frame between the two. Wenbo only had one break over 50, a 82, Jamie had three of them but ultimately it was winning the close ones that proved key to the match and it’s what Wenbo did.

Last 32 – best of 9

Matthew Stevens 5-3 Liang Wenbo
Up to 3-3, the match was extremely close: there was never more than a frame between the players. Eventually Matthew prevailed, taking the last two.

Mark J. Williams 5-4 Jack Lisowski
It was a good game between Jack and Mark and it went to a decider. Jack had the better start mainly helped by a better potting and he lead 3-1 at MSI. Mark though wasn’t going to roll over and, as frames went scrappier, he made his superior tactical skills count.
There was nothing tactical in the beautiful 71 break he constructed in the decider – pure floater art. Mark had the only century of the contest, a 104 in frame 5.

Xiao Guodong 5-4 Li Hang
A very long match, a very close decider … and unfortunately a defeat for Hang. Hang fought hard from 2-4 down to force the decider and it was all about hard match play but eventually Guodong prevailed.