SHAUN Murphy made the most of his second chance in the Championship League as he beat Mark Selby 3-0 in the Group Two final to qualify for the Winners Group.
The 2005 world champion, who earlier in the week lost to Judd Trump in the Group One final, made breaks of 120 and 82 en route to victory against the ‘Jester from Leicester’.
Following his victory, Murphy said: “I’m chuffed, really pleased and this tournament is a great event in its own right.
“I’ve had four days of very competitive match practice and really feel sharp for the Masters next week. It’s also nice to take the pressure off and know I’ve given myself a good chance of getting into the Premier League.
“It’s not right that people just think of this as a warm-up to the Masters as it’s a great event and all the players have been here have had a great opportunity to sharpen up.
“It’s very tough playing four long days in a row but it’s a side of snooker you see more of with the PTC events and people are now playing multiple matches on one day.
“When this tournament started (in 2008) to play three or four times in one day was unheard of but all the players enjoy it now.”
Each group features seven players with each man playing the other six once in a round-robin basis. Every match is the best of five and the winner gaining a point. At the end of the league phase the top four advances to that group’s semi-finals where the two winners meet in the final.
Players are awarded £100 per frame in the round robin stages, and this increases to £300 per frame for the play-offs. In addition, £3,000 goes to the play-off winner, £2,000 to the runner up and £1,000 each to the two semi-finalists.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2012 (times are approximate)
DAY TWO
FINAL
FINAL – TABLE ONE – MARK SELBY 0-3 SHAUN MURPHY
22-120 (Murphy 120), 7-105 (Murphy 82), 30-77
SEMI-FINAL STAGE
SF TABLE ONE – MARK SELBY 3-1 NEIL ROBERTSON
15-109 (Robertson 109), 91-42 (Selby 91, Robertson 42), 69-64 (Selby 47), 121-7 (Selby 121)
SF TABLE TWO – SHAUN MURPHY 3-0 MARK DAVIS
95-0 (Murphy 95), 136-0 (Murphy 136), 84-0 (Murphy 57)
LEAGUE PHASE
THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2012 (times are approximate)
DAY TWO
TABLE ONE
Shaun Murphy 2-3 Neil Robertson
73-27 (Murphy 63), 0-125 (Robertson 115), 61-26 (Murphy 42), 63-71 (Murphy 62, Robertson 71), 40-70 (Murphy 43, Robertson 40)
Matthew Stevens 3-1 Stuart Bingham
62-7 (Stevens 37), 1-89 (Bingham 55), 99-26 (Stevens 60), 107-0 (Stevens 76)
Mark Selby 3-2 Stuart Bingham
87-24 (Selby 87), 76-42 (Selby 44, Bingham 42), 24-59 (Bingham 58), 15-57, 72-29 (Selby 60)
Mark Williams 0-3 Mark Davis
24-73 (Davis 40), 0-63 (Davis 43), 0-70 (Davis 52)
TABLE TWO
Mark Selby 3-2 Mark Williams
72-0 (Selby 51), 20-62 (Williams 56), 0-73 (Williams 72), 72-0 (Selby 68), 69-48 (Selby 69)
Neil Robertson 3-2 Mark Davis
60-51 (Robertson 52, Davis 43), 52-58 (Robertson 45, Davis 40), 1-81 (Davis 81), 82-33 (Robertson 74, Davis 33), 62-59 (Davis 57)
Mark Williams 0-3 Shaun Murphy
18-73 (Murphy 73), 0-100 (Murphy 100), 1-59 (Murphy 37)
Mark Selby 3-1 Neil Robertson
116-12 (Selby 116), 0-64 (Robertson 42), 56-0 (Selby 56), 83-0 (Selby 83)
Shaun Murphy 1-3 Matthew Stevens
54-64 (Murphy 54, Stevens 64), 12-114 (Stevens 105), 71-55 (Murphy 70, Stevens 55), 24-55
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11 (times are approximate)
DAY ONE
TABLE ONE
Mark Selby 3-1 Shaun Murphy
78-40 (Selby 34), 36-74, 75-55 (Selby 68), 70-5 (Selby 70)
Mark Williams 3-2 Neil Robertson
83-10 (Williams 56), 33-71 (Robertson 63), 0-78 (Robertson 74), 98-0 (Williams 98), 81-13 (Williams 81)
Mark Selby 3-1 Mark Davis
11-110 (Davis 86), 64-52 (Selby 40, Davis 52), 62-54 (Davis 40), 77-35 (Selby 31)
Neil Robertson 0-3 Stuart Bingham
45-55, 4-107 (Bingham 95), 67-70 (Robertson 49, Bingham 37)
Mark Selby 3-2 Matthew Stevens
71-6, 125-0 (Selby 54, 69), 0-101 (Stevens 101), 56-63 (Selby 56, Stevens 62), 78-0 (Selby 77)
Mark Davis 3-0 Stuart Bingham
67-40 (Davis 42, Bingham 40) 106-6 (Davis 100), 59-13
TABLE TWO
Mark Davis 3-1 Matthew Stevens
69-0 (Davis 49), 116-4 (Davis 91), 0-70 (Stevens 42), 61-25 (Davis 31)
Stuart Bingham 1-3 Shaun Murphy
45-59 (Murphy 37), 86-20 (Bingham 57), 30-67 (Murphy 50), 32-78 (Murphy 56)
Matthew Stevens 2-3 Mark Williams
78-53(Stevens 56, Williams 39), 13-61 (Williams 51), 13-72 (Williams 67), 54-31, 7-68 (Williams 63)
Shaun Murphy 3-0 Mark Davis
90-10 (Murphy 90), 90-24 (Murphy 35), 81-1 (Murphy 45)
Mark Williams 0-3 Stuart Bingham
0-110 (Bingham 72), 8-73 (Bingham 65), 1-68 (Bingham 44)
Neil Robertson 3-2 Matthew Stevens
50-72 (Robertson 48, Stevens 70), 71-0 (Robertson 47), 34-64 (Stevens 36), 62-54 (Robertson 36, Stevens 48), 143-0 (Robertson 143)
CENTURY BREAKS
143 – Neil Robertson v Matthew Stevens (11/1/12)
136 – Shaun Murphy v Mark Davis (12/1/12)
121 – Mark Selby v Neil Robertson (12/1/12)
120 – Shaun Murphy v Mark Selby (12/1/12)
116 – Mark Selby v Neil Robertson (12/1/12)
115 – Neil Robertson v Shaun Murphy (12/1/12)
109 – Neil Robertson v Mark Selby (12/1/12)
105 – Matthew Stevens v Shaun Murphy (12/1/12)
101 – Matthew Stevens v Mark Selby (11/1/12)
100 – Mark Davis v Stuart Bingham (11/1/12)
100 – Shaun Murphy v Mark Williams (12/1/12)