JUDD TRUMP took his first ranking title with a 4-3 victory over Anthony Hamilton in the Paul Hunter Classic, late on Sunday night.

Judd has been in good form this season having won the pro-am Austrian Open a few weeks ago, and went through the weekend beating all players before him. Judd’s first four wins were against Andrew Pagett 4-0, ex-world champion Peter Ebdon 4-2, Michael Judge 4-0 and Anthony McGill 4-2.

He then met his good friend and fellow Grove player Jack Lisowski in the last eight. Jack, finalist in the recent PTC3 event where he beat Mark Selby, also had a good run in beating another top 16 player, Marco Fu 4-3, as well Adrian Gunnell 4-1, Robbie Williams 4-1 and world no 20 Ricky Walden 4-0.

Judd won the quarter final 4-0 and then went on to beat Shaun Murphy 4-2 in the semi-final before beating Anthony and taking the top prize of €10,000.

Matthew Selt lost 4-1 in his first round match to David Norris and Liu Chuang lost at the same stage 4-0 to Stephen Hendry. Liu Song had a convincing victory in round one, beating Joe Jogia 4-0 before losing a tight second round match to Stuart Bingham 4-3.

Zhang Anda lost another narrow match in the first round, losing 4-3 to Marco Fu. Amateur player Chen Zhe made it through to the second round after a good win against Ben Woollaston 4-1, but then lost by the same score to Andrew Pagett in round two.

Liu Song fully justified his inclusion in the Pro draw – he was a late replacement for the currently-suspended John Higgins. Song had three great wins, against Allan Morgan 3-2, in-form Barry Pinches 3-1 and Michael Holt by the same score, which included a break of 104.

Judd started in round 3 and defeated Thailand’s Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon 4-0, including breaks of 108, 76 and 69.

Jack Liswoski was drawn against the winner of the Grove’s pre-qualifying event, Ryan Casuton, in round one. Jack won 3-1 but went to lose by the same scoreline in round two to Andy Hicks.

Matthew Selt beat Lasse Munstermann 3-1 in his first game, but lost in round three to Martin Gould 3-0. Liu Chuang was defeated in round 1 by Brazil’s Igor Figueiredo 3-2. Zhang Anda also lost in round by the same scoreline, to Sam Baird.

Judd Trump continued his good early season form with three wins in the PTC4, only losing one frame in the process. He started with a 4-1 victory over David Grace and then followed this with 4-0 victories over Dermot McGlinchey and Anthony McGill, having made six 50+ breaks during the day. However Judd bowed out at the last 16 stage, losing 4-0 to Ronnie O’Sullivan.

Matthew Selt also made it to the same stage, beating Paul Davies 4-3 and then enjoying a great victory over Shaun Murphy 4-3 which included breaks of 100 and 76 for Matt. He then beat Chris Norbury 4-2 before losing to Barry Pinches 4-1.

Finalist at PTC3 Jack Lisowski carried on his recent good form with a 4-2 first round victory against Michael Walsey – Jack making breaks of 78, 82, 65 and 81 during the match. He fell at the next hurdle 4-0 to Mark Davis, in a match that was closer than the scoreline suggests – Mark won the last two frames 66-59 and 64-61.

Zhang Anda was a little unlucky to be drawn against the UK’s current form player Mark Selby, and battled hard before losing 4-2 – Mark making a 129 break in the winning frame. Liu Chuang also fell at the first hurdle, losing 4-3 to Joel Walker.

Chen Zhe made it through two pre-qualifying rounds to get to qualifying event, beating Oliver Brown 4-0 and Andrew Norman 4-3. He then came up against world number 29 Stuart Bingham and enjoyed the best win of his career so far, the Grove 17-year-old winning 4-3. Another tough game came after that and Zhe fell 4-2 to Barry Pinches.

After a quiet start to his first professional season, it was a fantastic weekend for the Grove’s Jack Lisowski who returned to his winning ways. Jack won six consecutive matches, starting out in the first round with a 4-2 win against Jimmy Michie which showed a glimpse of the form to come with breaks of 87, 70 and 75 for Jack.

He followed this up with a 4-0 win against Ben Woolaston and a 4-3 win over Stuart Carrington, hitting three more 50+ breaks in each match. In the fourth round Jack’s next opponent was fellow Grove player Matthew Selt, Jack overcoming this 4-2 and then beating Ian McCulloch 4-1 with three more 50+ breaks to reach the last four.

Jack’s next opponent was the current UK form player Mark Selby, but amazingly Jack held his nerve to edge Mark 4-3, being 1-3 down but making breaks of 58, 62 and 76 to take the last three frames and victory.

Sadly for Jack was not able to repeat his excellent performances in the final, losing 0-4 to Tom Ford. However Jack was very pleased with the weekend’s work. He said, “it’s obviously very disappointing to lose in the final but I am very pleased to have played so well, and I hope this tournament gives me a boost for the rest of the season”.

It was a good weekend for other Grove players too. Judd Trump reached the last 16, losing a close match 3-4 to Mark Selby. Judd had beaten Michael Holt 4-1, Mitchell Travis 4-2 and Michael White 4-3 to reach the fourth round. Matthew Selt also reached the same position before losing to Jack – Matt saw off Chris Norbury 4-1, James Wattana 4-2 and Joe Perry 4-3 to reach that round.

Liu Chuang started with a win against Robert Valiant 4-3 but then lost in the second round 2-4 to Michael White. Liu Song lost his first round match to Kyren Wilson 2-4, Zhang Anda was defeated at the same stage by Adrian Gunnell 3-4 and Chen Zhe lost in the first round as well to Rory McLeod 1-4. Zhe had come through two rounds of pre-qualifying, beating Oliver Wilson 4-1 and Raymond Fry 4-2.

Six Grove players were in action for qualifying for the first major ranking tournament of the year, the Shanghai Masters.

Liu Song found himself in the draw at the expense of John Higgins, and took advantage by winning his first match against Ben Woollaston 5-3, including breaks of 91 and 84. Song was unable to keep this up however and went out in the next round 3-5 to James Wattana.

Liu Chuang was always going to find his first match tough against Michael White after Michael made breaks of 100 and 101 to take the first two frames. Chuang did rally with an excellent break of 111 in the fourth frame but could not keep this up, losing 2-5.

Jack Lisowski lost 3-5 to James McBain in round one and Matthew Selt, starting in round two, lost a very close match 4-5 to Alfie Burden.

Zhang Anda brought back echoes of his excellent run at the World Championships, reaching the last qualifying round after beating Jak Jones 5-4, Paul Davies 5-1 and Stuart Pettman 5-3. However it wasn’t to be a first “home” final for Anda and he lost in the last 48 2-5 to Matthew Stevens.

It was left for Judd Trump to fly the Grove flag in Shanghai this year. Judd knocked in breaks of 111, 76, 66 and 54 to beat Tom Ford 5-1 in the final qualifying round, to take his place in the last 32 where he will meet Stephen Maguire. The final stages take place in Shanghai on 6-12 September.

Thursday

Chen Zhe was once again the first Grove player to take part, in the amateur qualifying round, and made a winning start, beating Shahrukh Nasir by 4 frames to 2. Zhe made breaks of 41 and 40 to go 2-0 and finished with a 75 in the decisive frame.

Friday

Liu Song started his tournament with a 4-0 victory against London youngster Danny Douane but then had a tricky second round match against world no 28 Gerard Greene who came out on top 4-1.

Saturday

Chen Zhe’s first round opponent was Nick Jennings who won the tie 4-1, although Zhe did manage to get a break of 92 in the second frame.

Two Grove players – Matthew Selt and Zhang Anda – met in the first round, with Matthew winning 4-0. However Matthew was unfortunate in the second round losing 4-1 to Kuldesh Johal.

Main Tour debutant Jack Lisowski had a very tricky first round tie, being drawn against world no 23 Stephen Lee, and was edged out 4-3 depsite making a break of 97 in the fourth frame.

Judd Trump made it through to the last 32 after beating David Gilbert and World No 19 Joe Perry but was defeated on Saturday evening by Liam Highfield 4-2 in the third round. Judd did set the highest break of the tournament so far against Joe Perry, with a superb 144.

The final Grove player taking part was U-21 Asian Champion Liu Chuang. Chuang beat Reanne Evans 4-2 in the first round; Reanne was taking part in her first professional match and there was additional media attention for both players. Chuang then beat Ben Harrison 4-0 before being unlucky enough to meet Mark Selby, who was on fire that day, overcoming Chuang 4-0 with breaks of 127, 111, 59 and 55.

Thursday

Chen Zhe was the first Grove player to take part, in the amateur qualifying round, and was unfortunate to lose 4-3 to Stephen Ormerod having raced into a 3-0 lead.

Saturday

Zhang Anda went out in his 1st round match to Alfie Burden, 0-4.

Two Grove players found themselves drawn against each other – Liu Chuang edging out Jack Lisowski 4-3. Chuang started with breaks of 46, 70 and 62, and Jack came back with 85 and 77 but wasn’t able to win the deciding frame.

Liu Chuang then came up against Barry Pinches and lost 3-4, being beaten 24-73 in the deciding frame.

Liu Song beat Robert Milkins in the first round 4-3, including breaks of 59 and 79, but then was defeated in the last 64 by Paul Davison by the same scoreline, 3-4.

Matthew Selt also won his first round game 4-3, against Craig Barber, but was then defeated 4-2 in the second round by Xiao Guodoung.

Judd Trump had the most success of the Grove players on the Saturday. He played and won all three matches – 4-1 against Jack Jones in the first round, including breaks of 55, 83, 68 and 111; 4-3 against Liam Highfield in the second round and 4-2 against Paul Davison in the third round, in a match which finished around 2am.

Sunday

Judd was up at around 8am to get ready for his morning match against Mark Williams in the last 16, but probably could have done with a bit more rest as he was defeated 4-0.

Mark Williams went on to beat Barry Pinches, Jamie Cope and Stephen Maguire to become the first ever PTC winner. The second PTC event takes place in Sheffield from 9-11 July.

Anda showed why he is one of the game’s hottest prospects after getting within a few shots of a phenomenal upset. World number 10 Hendry had been cruising at the start of this clash leading 4-0 but Anda’s fearless battling qualities, witnessed in his four qualifying matches last month, got him back to 5-4 down for Sunday’s finale.

Hendry, who was last crowned world champion in 1999 when Anda was just seven, began the evening with a break of 50, only to see the frame stolen when Anda coolly knocked in an 86.

The Scot soon settled and a 65 helped him gain a two-frame advantage to lead 7-5 but the sloppy errors continued and the “Mighty Mouse” nabbed the 13th after 30 minutes of compelling combat.

Four frames followed for Anda, which included a 76, but he was unlucky not to secure the match in the 17th as the tension mounted inside the Crucible.

Hendry though was left to fight another day after his highest break in the tie of 89 set up his remarkable and gritty comeback, completing the job with a 55.

Anda told us: “I am very excited about the draw. Stephen Hendry is a snooker legend and it will be a dream and an honour to play him at the World Championships. I hope I will be able to give him a good game and I am looking forward to it very much.”

Ronnie O’Sullivan will meet another Chinese player, Liang Wenbo, in his first round match.

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