Grove Leisure » Chen Zhe

World Championship 2017

monique — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 07:53:50 +0000

It wasn’t a great Championship for the Grove, as none of the players went past the last 16 in the biggest event of the season.
It actually started on April 5, 2017, in Ponds Forge, with all Grove players, except Neil and Judd who were seeded, needing to win three matches to reach the television stages at the Crucible. Only Luca Brecel managed that, with Li Hang and Yu Delu coming close.
The main event started on April 15. Judd arrived at the Crucible as pre-tournament favorite but went out in the last 32 to Rory McLeod. Judd was unfortunate to suffer a shoulder injury a couple of days before the start of the event. Even so, it was an extremely disappointing defeat. Luca also lost in the last 32: from 7-2 up he was pegged back to 9-9 by an extremely determined Marco Fu, who used all his experience to eventually win by 10-9. Neil reached the last 16, were he fell at the hands of … Marco Fu, in a match that was close, extremely tense and error ridden.

Neil had come to the tournament, admitting that being addicted to video games has damaged his career, and determined to make it right. It takes courage and honesty to open up that way, and, although he came short this time in Sheffield, his game showed signs of improvement. He wasn’t impressed with his own performance against Marco though …

Those results also mean that James Cahill will lose his professional status at the end of the Championship and will need to re-qualify, via the Q-School if he wants to pursue a career as a snooker player next season.

All detailed results are on Cuetracker as usual.

Welsh Open 2017 – Judd makes it to the Final

monique — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 17:22:31 +0000

The Welsh Open 2017 was held in Cardiff, Wales, from February 13 to 19, 2017.
It was a tournament full of shocks with all but 6 of the top 25 surviving the last 32, and only 3 of the top 30 making it to the QF. Yet it was Judd Trump v Stuart Bingham in the Final, and it was Stuart who came out the winner by 9-8 . The Ray Reardon Trophy was presented by the six times World Champion and Welsh Legend himself.

Judd went 4-0 down, as bad a start as one can get, but battled valiantly, so much so that he went 8-7 up … but Stuart was’nt to be denied and responded by winning the very scrappy 16th frame to force a decider, which he took helped by a break of 55. Maybe key to this match was that Judd didn’t score as heavily as he can: there wasn’t a single century in the match; in fact Judd only had three breaks over 50, his highest break of the match was 68. Judd was first in in most frames, but was unable to win any in one visit.

All other Grove players had an early exit. Apart from Judd, Neil was the only one to win a match in Cardiff and he won just the one, going out to Lee Walker in the last 64.

All detailed results are on Cuetracker as usual.

China Open 2017 – Qualifiers

monique — Sat, 28 Jan 2017 16:28:20 +0000

The China Open 2017 last 128 round was played in Preston from January 24 to 27, 2017. All players who entered needed to win one match to book their spot in the main event to be played in Beijing in March 2017. Neil didn’t enter the event. Judd has his match held over because he is the defending champion. All other Grove players were involved: Zhang Anda, Yu Delu and Li Hang are through to the last 64 and China bound. Zhang in fact beat Oliver Lines. And James Cahill didn’t play badly at all but was pitched against the freshly crowned Masters Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan… All results are on Cuetracker as usual.

Scottish Open 2016 – Judd and Yu Delu reach SF

monique — Mon, 19 Dec 2016 11:34:21 +0000

The Scottish Open 2016 was played in Glasgow, from December 12 to 18 2016. Judd and Yu Delu reached the Semi Finals, and, for Yu Delu it was his first. This run allowed him to climb from 59 to 46 in the rankings, basically securing his future as a pro next season. Yu lost to Marco Fu, the eventual winner. Judd also reached the semi finals, losing to a ruthless John Higgins, whilst Neil had made it to the last 16, halted by Marco Fu in the deciding frame of an outstanding high quality match.

Yu Delu had won every match up to the SF in a deciding frame. In his QF match he was facing former Grove player and English Open 2016 Champion Liang Wenbo. In frame 8, Yu had missed the final black off the spot, a routine ball, and the one he needed for the match. That’s got to hurt! Decider time it was, and tense is an understatement for what it was:

All detailed results are on Cuetracker as usual.

UK Championship 2016

monique — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 14:27:05 +0000

York Barbican, November 22nd 2016 – December 4th 2016
Neil Robertson was de Defending Champion, and had chosen to skip the Northern Ireland Open in order to prepare for his defence, but surprisingly he was knocked out in the last 128 by Peter Lines who beat him by 6-3. Judd also made an early exit at the hands of the Lines family: Oliver beat him by 6-2 in the last 64 … Oliver went on to reach the last 16 where his run ended at the hands of Marco Fu.
Yu Delu knocked out World n°2 Stuart Bingham in the last 64, but was beat by Luca Brecel in the next round. Zhang Anda also reached the last 16, losing to the eventual Champion Mark Selby. The most successful Grove player was Luca Brecel, who made it to the QF, just as he had 4 years ago. He was stopped by Shaun Murphy.

All detailed results are on Cuetracker.net as usual.

Northern Ireland Open 2016

monique — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 10:39:44 +0000

The tournament was held at the Titanic Exhibition Center in Belfast from November 14 to November 21, 2016 and was won by Mark King, who beat Barry Hawkins by 9-8 in the final. Neither Judd nor Neil took part, both wanting to take a break in order to prepare for the all important UK Championship. None of the Grove players involved went past the last 32, Luca and Zhang Anda being the only two who reached that stage.

All the tournament detailed results are on Cuetracker as usual

English Open 2016 – Judd makes the final (again!)

monique — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 15:50:00 +0000

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 ranking list.

Most Judd’s matches in this tournament can be found on youtube.

Here is the final:

Other than for Judd’s excellent run, it was a miserable tournament for the Grove team, with none of the other players getting past the last 32. Neil lost at that stage to Xiao Guodong, by 4-3, despite leading 3-0 at a point and making 2 centuries… The only consolation – if there is one – is that Neil wasn’t alone in his fate: Mark Selby, Shaun Murphy, Ding Junhui, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Allen, Ali Carter, Marco Fu, Kyren Wilson, Stephen Maguire, Anthony McGill … all fell by the wayside at that stage as well, or even earlier.

All detailed results are available on Cuetracker

International Championship 2016 – Last 128

monique — Sun, 02 Oct 2016 10:21:32 +0000

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

With the longer format – this was best of 11 – most matches were won by the highest ranked player, but that doesn’t mean it was always easy.A prime example of that was Neil’s match against young Sam Craigie. It was extremely high quality, and Neil looked in real danger when he found himself 5-3 down. Experience and sheer will to win got him through. After the match Neil came on twitter praising his young opponent and claiming this was the best safety game he had to play against for a long time.

Here is the match, well worth watching:

James Cahill went down by 6-4 to Ronnie O’Sullivan but not without a fight! James won the first frame before Ronnie took five frames on the bounce, needing just one more for the win. That’s when James found something and pegged him back at 5-4. Ronnie however took the 10th for the win, but he was made to work for it!

All detailed results are on Cuetracker as usual

Shanghai Masters 2016 – Qualifiers

monique — Sat, 03 Sep 2016 06:42:53 +0000

The qualifying rounds of the Shanghai Masters 2016 were held in Barnsley from August 30 to September 2, 2016. These are the only qualifiers still played under a true tiered system. None of the Grove players involved managed to book their place in the final stages. Neil and Judd, of course, will be in Shanghai as top 16 seeds. All the results, as always, are on cuetracker.

Paul Hunter Classic 2016

monique — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 17:24:35 +0000

The Paul Hunter Classic 2016 was held in Fürth, Germany, as usual and ran from August 24 to August 29, 2016. It is now a full ranking event, but still involves amateurs and still has the same format as the former PTCs. It was a rather down-key event, as most of the top 16 players gave it a miss, including Judd and Neil, and it wasn’t on television, only on streaming. It was won by Mark Selby, but the highlight of it was probably Jimmy White reaching the QF for the first time since … a very long time, as well as Thepchaya Un-Nooh making a 147, after missing two on the last last season. This BTW earned him nearly twice the winners prize money!

As for Grove’s contribution, none of the players involved reached the final day. Credits to James Cahill though who reached the last 32 where he lost to the eventual winner, Mark Selby, having brought the match to a deciding frame.

All results are available on cuetracker as usual