Milkins And Saengkham Top Groups
Robert Milkins and Noppon Saengkham moved through to the final eight of the BetVictor Championship League Snooker – Ranking Edition at the Morningside Arena in Leicester.
Milkins headed into Winners’ Week looking to replicate the form which saw him claim the BetVictor Series bonus for the 2022/23 campaign. He was pitted against Pang Junxu, John Astley, and World Championship semi-finalist Si Jiahui, as they battled it out for a spot in the final day on Friday.
Early on, Milkins found his groove to claim all three points with a 3-0 win over Astley, before a 2-2 draw with Si left the BetVictor Welsh Open champion on four points. Si rounded off the afternoon with a victory over compatriot Pang.
Pang and Astley took a point each from their encounter, to mathematically leave both players out of the picture. However, Astley’s 3-1 win over Si dented his hopes of progression.
In the final match, Milkins took an early 2-0 lead over Pang to ensure it was him that topped the group. Pang did battle back to take the final two frames for a draw, but for Milkins it was already job done.
Milkins said: “I will need to be even sharper in the next phase. I felt 100 times better than I did in the opening stage. I could win another ranking event, it’s mad, isn’t it? I will have to improve a lot though.”
In Group C, Saengkham headlined with Ashley Carty, Daniel Wells, and Liu Hongyu all battling it out for their spot in Friday’s final action of the opening ranking event on the calendar. Saengkham downed tour debutant Liu 3-0, before Carty got the better of Wells 3-1 to leave it tight at the top after Saengkham and Wells played out a draw to complete the afternoon.
Liu’s opening loss didn’t deter the teenager, who bounced back with three points against Carty and a point against Wells. Those results left the picture quite clear going into the final match of the session, with Saengkham requiring a point against Carty, who needed all three to progress to the next stage.
Saengkham took a tight first frame but a more comfortable display in the second saw the Thai star press home a 2-0 advantage, which was enough to top the group. Carty took the third, but Saengkham won the final frame with a break of 76 to round a 3-1 win off.
Tomorrow sees Shaun Murphy, David Gilbert, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and James Cahill battle it out on Table 1 live on Viaplay Xtra in the UK, whilst Zhou Yuelong, Xiao Guodong, Ben Woollaston and Michael Holt will all be looking to progress out of Group A live on the Matchroom Multi Sport YouTube and Matchroom.Live.
Watch BetVictor Championship League Snooker – Ranking Edition on Viaplay Xtra – FreeView in the UK and Ireland. Those in Scandinavia, the Baltics, Netherlands, and Poland can watch live on Viaplay whilst Matchroom.Live is available to those without a broadcaster. See where to watch here.
The BetVictor Championship League Snooker – Ranking Edition carries a first prize of £33,000 and the winner also secures a spot in the 2023 Champion of Champions set to take place in Bolton from November 13-19 live on ITV.