The International Championship proper was played in Daqing, China, from Sunday 23 October to Sunday 30 October and was won by Mark Selby who beat Ding Junhui by a severe 10-1 in the final. Once again it was Judd who got the best result among the Grove players: he reached the semi finals where he lost by 9-4 to Ding Junhui. Neil lost in the last 16, Li Hang in the last 32, Luca Brecel and Oliver Lines – who had to play Neil – in the last 64.

Judd reached the final of the first event of the Home Nations Series, the English Open 2016, played in Manchester from October 10 to October 17, 2016, his second final in 8 days. He lost by 9-6 to Liang Wenbo. This defeat put an end to a 14 consecutive wins run. Although Judd was certainly disappointed, he should be able to take a lot of positives from the last 3 weeks: he demonstrated outstanding consistency, remarkable stamina and a very solid all-round game. He is now third in the World …

Judd beat Ronnie O’Sullivan by 9-8 to win the inaugural European Masters 2016 in Bucharest, on the day of 10th anniversary of the passing of the much moved Paul Hunter. It’s Judd’s 6th ranking title. It was a thrilling final. Judd trailed for most of the match, despite being the better player all along; he had 3 centuries. But Ronnie used all his experience, battling qualities and break-building skills to counter Judd’s extraordinary long potting and scoring powers. So it did come to a decider, much to the delight of …

The last 128 qualifying round for the International Championship 2016 was played in Preston from 26 to 29 September, 2016. All Grove players entered. Neil, Judd, Luca, Oliver and Li Hang won their match and will be in Daqing at the end of October