The last 128 and last 64 rounds of the European Masters 2016 were played in Preston, from 26 to 28 September 2016. The European Masters is a new event and the final stages will be played in Bucharest next week. All Grove players were involved but only Judd, Neil and Luca managed to book their place in Bucharest. It was unfortunate that Oliver Lines and Neil had to clash in the last 64.
All detailed results are on Cuetracker as usual

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.

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 …

Yushan, China – 25-31 July, 2016. It proved to be a bit of a strange tournament with a lot of top players going out as early as the last 64 or 32, one of them being Judd who was outplayed by former Grove player Zhang Anda. Neil was the only Grove player who had a deep run in the tournament: he reached the semi finals where he lost by 5-2 to an exceptionally brilliant Joe Perry.
The tournament was won by Ali Carter, his first ranking win since he beat cancer …

Neil, Judd, James Cahill and Li Hang were competing in the Riga Masters, from 22 to 24 June 2016. Chen Zhe had qualified as well but visa issues forced him to withdraw. Neil won the event, beating Michael Holt by 5-2 in the final. The event, that was part of the European Tour in previous seasons, is now a full ranking event … and Neil 12th ranking title.

The Preston Guid Hall hosted a full week of qualifiers from May 28 to June 4, 2016: the first rounds (last 128) of the Indian Open, the World Open (to be played in China) and the Riga Masters saw most players kick-off their season.
Only Oliver Lines qualified for the Indian Open main event. Neil and Judd didn’t enter.
Cao Yupeng, Neil, Yu Delu, Judd, Oliver Lines and James Cahill qualified for the World Open main event.
James Cahill, Neil, Judd, Li Hang and Chen Zhe qualified for the Riga Masters main …

Ponds Forge, Sheffield, 6-13 April 2016.
Every player outside the top 16 had to win three matches to qualify for the television stage of the World Championship 2016. This means that, of course, Judd and Neil qualified automatically, but all other Grove players had to compete in Ponds Forge. Only Zhang Anda managed to win his three matches and will play at the Crucible as a qualifier. The players don’t know their opponents yet, the draw will be made today.

All detailed results are on cuetracker.net as usual

Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, Wales – 15-21 February 2016
Neil made it to the final of the tournament but lost by 9-5 to Ronnie O’Sullivan. Judd and Yu Delu progressed to the last 16, losing to Joe Perry and Ronnie O’Sullivan respectively. None of the other Grove players went past the last 64.

The last 128 qualifying round for the China Open 2016 was played in Barnsley from 9 to 11 February 2016. Cao Yupeng got his last match carried over to the venue in March as he will play the World Champion. Judd, Neil, Li Hang and Yu Delu qualified for the event proper and will be in Beijing come March.
All the detailed results can be found on cuetracker.net

The German Masters 2016 qualifying rounds took place in Wigan from 15th to 19th of December 2015. The players had to win 2 matches to book their place in the tournament proper that will be played in the Tempodron, Berlin, early February. Judd, Wenbo and Anda will be in Berlin, having won their two matches. The biggest surprise of those qualifiers was probably Neil’s defeat to an amateur, Ashley Hugill. Neil wasn’t alone in his fate though, as as many as 7 out of the top 16 failed to qualify. …