Gould Wins Group Six

Martin Gould overcame Barry Hawkins 3-2 to win Group Six at Championship League Snooker and make his way through to the Winners’ Group in March.

Finishing the group in third place, Gould beat Mark Davis 3-1 in the semi-finals before going 2-0 up against Hawkins in the final match. The Hawk battled back with runs of 80 and 63, but 2013 champion Gould took the match with telling breaks of 34 and 42 in the decider.

Londoner Gould said: “It’s nice to have won the group. I made five or six breaks over 70 in the first six frames I played today. I had a bit of a lull in the last group game but I felt good in the semis and the final.

“There’s some big names in the final group but I’m just going to treat it the same way as I treated this group and go there for a bit of fun. I’ll look at it as if I’m getting paid to practise and what better practice can you have against the top boys in the world?”

Hawkins has now played in four groups and lost in three finals and a semi-final. He will be back next time to contest Group Seven.

Gould will join Mark Selby, Stuart Bingham, Neil Robertson, Jack Lisowski, and Judd Trump in the Winners’ Group, which takes place at Barnsley Metrodome on March 13th and 14th. They will be joined by the winner of Group Seven which plays out over the 11th and 12th March.

Having finished fifth in the round robin group table, David Gilbert will return to compete in Group Seven along with Mark Davis, Stephen Maguire and Barry Hawkins. They will be joined with Ding Junhui, John Higgins and Michael White.

SEMI-FINALS
Barry Hawkins 3 – 1 Stephen Maguire
32-90 (Maguire 75), 68-46 (Hawkins 57), 73-0 (Hawkins 62), 63-20

Mark Davis 1 – 3 Martin Gould
56-58, 78-0 (Davis 78), 0-93, 0-75 (Gould 75)

THE FINAL
Barry Hawkins 2 – 3 Martin Gould
29-83, 14-65, 84-0 (Hawkins 80), 68-12 (Hawkins 63), 0-76