Championship League Group Two

Joe Perry won Championship League Group Two

Joe Perry is the second man through to the Winner’s Group of Championship League after whitewashing Judd Trump with a ruthless performance on Thursday evening. The Cambridge potter punished Trump every time he was let in and breaks of 73, 68 and 70 to secure Group Two.

Perry had earlier defeated practice partner Neil Robertson 3-2 in the semi-finals although Robbo did make the highest break of the match, a 137 clearance. Trump beat Shaun Murphy 3-1 win the other semi-final with a top run of 61 although Murphy did make a 131 break in the second frame.

The big stories from the group came from those losing semi-finalists in a fascinating group stage section on Wednesday.

Murphy made his second ever match play 147 maximum break as he fought back from 2-0 down to beat Mark Davis 3-2 in one of the opening matches on Wednesday afternoon. It was Murphy’s second ever maximum and the first since the qualifying campaign for the 2001 Masters tournament. The break is also the first ever maximum to be made in the Championship league since its inception in 2008.

Robertson meanwhile created history as he surpassed the record for the most century breaks in a season which had been set at 61 by Judd Trump last season. The match in question was a superb 3-0 victory over Perry on where he made breaks of 129, 131 and 144. His current list of centuries this season stands at 65 after making two more on Thursday.

Championship League will return on Monday 20th January following the Masters and Trump, Robertson and Murphy will be joined by Graeme Dott, Matthew Stevens and Ryan Day for the start of Group Three.

The two players to be eliminated from Group Two were Ali Carter and Barry Hawkins, the latter losing all six of his matches.