Carter Finally Gets It Done At Championship League
It was a case of fourth time lucky for Allister Carter as he successfully made it through to the winner’s group of this year’s Championship League after beating Mark Allen in the final of Group Four at Crondon Park in Essex.
Having lost in the final of Group One and the semi-final of Group Three after finishing the group stage in first place, the local favourite must have been wondering if he was going feature in the seven-way shoot-out for Premier League status later this year.
Carter finished in second place after the group stage with four wins from his six matches, but then managed to beat Masters finalist, Marco Fu by three-frames-to-two before comfortably ending the hopes of Allen.
Matthew Stevens proved he still has what it takes by topping the table, making three century breaks on his to recording five wins from his six matches, Peter Ebdon being the only player to get the better of the Welshman.
Typically, after producing some fine form in the group stage, the former UK and Masters Champion ran into fourth-placed Allen in the semi-final with the Northern Irishman making breaks of 71, 93 and 131 allowing Stevens just 22 points.
Carter trailed Fu 1-0 and 2-1 before finding two half-century breaks to steal victory.
In the final, the Shanghai Masters champ took a 2-0 lead helped by a break of 73 before Allen halved his advantage with a 79 of his own. After a long day, the standard of snooker was understandably falling and Carter will be delighted to have finished it off in the next and Join Selby, Williams and Murphy in what is already an extremely tough Winner’s Group.
At the other end of the Group, Mark King needed to win his last match against Fu to ensure he qualified for Group Five.
At 2-2 against his Hong Kong opponent, King produced a superb 122 break to snatch a 3-2 win and lift him into fifth place meaning Ebdon will play no further part in the tournament.
He will be joined by seven-times world champion, Stephen Hendry who could manage only one win from his six matches. The Scot continues to show signs of his former brilliance, making a 129 break against Carter but appears to lack confidence at crucial times and as a result remains unable to find any consistency that will lead to the type of results that he craves.
Allen, Stevens. Fu and King will head to Group Five at the end of the month where they will be joined by Chinese duo Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo and world number 15, Ricky Walden.
