Which makes the whole thing pointless and very dull.
Never heard of Lees but as far as I am aware the rest of them are still knocking about the lower reaches of the regular tour.

I'd not heard of him either, but fair play to him for knocking out one of the players who shouldn't be in it, Mark King.

Edit: take that back to a degree actually, he's only 45:

http://cuetracker.net/Players/Gary-Lees

I agree, the age limit of 40 (or 39, if you include players who turn 40 later in the season, which itself is a ridiculous rule) is far too young. 45 minimum, maybe even 50.

Arguably, it maybe even should only be open to players that aren't on the tour.

Ronnie's twitter comments about following darts reinvention as a huge exciting spectator sport are bang on the money. Snooker is dying on its arse in this country. I have loved and followed snooker all my life, but it simply has to change with the times. If you had said to anyone a few years back that darts would be as "hip" as it is now people would have thought you were mad.

Maybe if the most popular player in the game took part in a few more tournaments and was a better role model for the sport that has made him a fortune, it wouldn't be 'dying on its arse' so much.

Ronnie thinks that snooker crowds should be more like darts crowds? completely disagree.

Darts is not snooker and snooker is not darts. The darts atmosphere is unique, snooker should not attempt to copy darts. Power Snooker anyone? no, thought you have may have forgotten it.

I enjoy watching the darts myself but I often wonder what percentage of the crowd are actually there to watch the darts. At least I know that if I go to watch a snooker match, the entire crowd is there to watch snooker.

Snooker is in a very good place right now. Much, much better than it was about 6/7 years ago and I think it will get even bigger with the introduction of the home series next season.

Hear Hear

The lazy view of expecting Ronnie to single handedly prop up the game of snooker which he has for so long is EXACTLY why the game is in such a poor state in terms of popularity in this country. Its become so boring even the most talented player in the world cant be arsed. Its been over 20 years since Ronnie started playing and yet still in all that time no other player has even come close to his popularity.

While theres no doubt there are some brilliant players around the world many of them are dull as dishwater, which in the long term in bad for the game.

In terms of being a good role model, how much of a good role model were Jimmy White and Alex Higgins ?

Ronnie OSullivan hits his 800th century break as he beats Barry Hawkins in the final of Group One of Championships Laague.

No doctors note then ?

He won eight out of eight games over the two days and made no fewer than seven centuries!

All that in an event which Ronnie himself described as 'the best Tournament in the world'.

Judd Trump wins group 2 of the Championship League to join Ronnie O'Sullivan in the winners group. He beat Mark Williams in the final 3-1.

Next up is the Masters which starts this Sunday at Alley Palley!

With Peter Ebdon a new addition to the commentary booth, I understand...

If so it'll be interesting to see who gets left out from the current team. Willie doesn't usually get the Masters anyway as its only one table hence the need for fewer commentators...... Hendry is in China at the moment so I don't know if he'll be in the country anyway?

JV and Dennis do one match each day each so that leaves one from Kenny, JP, Steve Davis and Ebbo then I guess. With 2 of the others being in the studio and one at home.

Is this now the biggest venue for snooker in terms of audience ? 2000 is a lot

What about the Tempodrome in Germany? Don't know how many exactly but I think it's more than 2000.

I'm going for first semi on Saturday, first time at a snooker match, really looking forward to it

but do they have over 2000 watching just one match ?

Smurf loses the frame with the 3 foul and a miss rule

Second time already this calendar year that has happened. Don't understand why he risked the same shot again.

Having said that, if he'd played a great shot we'd be praising him no end round about now.

Never understand why pros risk that, far better leaving your opponent in, there's no guarantee he'll make a frame winning break...

I see the redhead and her lovely friend are in the audience again

Smurf's out

Total clearances, tons, 12 minutes a frame, a 3 miss frame loss, all in front of a 2000 crowd....great start to the tournament!

Even more so when your ahead in the frame and its only just started..

Unlucky Bing missed the yellow on for a maximum - not sure if there was a heavy contact...