Allen And White Book Last Slots
Mark Allen topped Group 12 and Michael White came through Group 8, as phase one of the BetVictor Championship League came to a conclusion in Leicester.
Both players go through to phase two which starts on Monday next week – for the schedule click here and for details of how to watch the action live click here. The champion of the first ranking event of the new season will be crowned next Friday, July 29.
Allen started his day with a 3-0 victory over India’s Himanshu Jain, making a top break of 65. The BetVictor Northern Ireland Open champion followed up with a 3-1 success over tour rookie Jenson Kendrick, closing the match out with a run of 68 in frame four. And Allen made it three wins out of three as he saw off Stuart Carrington 3-1. A break of 142 from Allen in the second frame was the second highest of the tournament so far.
White, who has returned to the pro tour this season after two years as an amateur, made two breaks of 68 in an opening 3-0 defeat of Mark Joyce. The Welshman then lost 3-1 to the group’s top seed Jack Lisowski to leave the outcome in the balance, heading into the final round of matches.
White got the victory he needed as he fired breaks of 68 and 69 in a 3-0 defeat of Julian LeClercq. Lisowski could have topped the group by beating Mark Joyce in his last tie, but he lost the first two frames and ended up on the wrong side of the 3-1 result.
Stage two gets underway at 12pm on Monday, with Mark Williams, Stephen Maguire, Lu Ning and Aaron Hill lining up on table one in Group E. Table two hosts Group F, featuring Hossein Vafaei, Jimmy Robertson, Lyu Haotian and Michael Judge.