Gilbert reaches Championship League final group stage, but Murphy title defence ends

David Gilbert enjoyed three straight wins to reach the final group stage of the Championship League with a resounding victory in topping Group B in Leicester.

The former Championship League winner enjoyed wins over Ashley Carty (3-1), He Guoqiang (3-1) and Stuart Bingham (3-0) to book a return trip to the venue next week.

Gilbert finished five points clear of 2015 world champion Bingham with his top break of 132 coming in victory over He as he reached the last eight of the first ranking event of the campaign in some style.

He was joined in the next phase by Group C winner Long Zehuang, who recovered from an opening 3-1 loss to defending champion Shaun Murphy to qualify with impressive 3-0 wins over Hossein Vafaei and Jamie Jones.

Murphy needed to overcome Vafaei in his final match to progress, but lost 3-0 as Long topped the group on frame difference.

Jack Lisowski and Ali Carter are in action in Group E on Saturday alongside Wu Yize, with Neil Robertson withdrawing from the event.

Stage one consisted of 32 groups of four players. The eight group winners contest a further two groups with the winners meeting in the final.

There is £33,000 on the table for the winner plus a spot in the Champion of Champions later in the year which is worth another £12,500 for qualifying.

• Group B: David Gilbert (ENG)
• Group C: Long Zehuang (CHN)

• Group 21: Neil Robertson (AUS)
• Group 11: Ryan Day (WAL)
• Group 4: Mark Williams (WAL)
• Group 17: Chris Wakelin (ENG)
• Group 25: Matthew Stevens (WAL)
• Group 31: Ashley Carty (ENG)
• Group 23: Michael White (WAL)
• Group 22: Joe O’Connor (ENG)
• Group 10: Jackson Page (WAL)
• Group 32: Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (THA)
• Group 30: Jamie Jones (WAL)
• Group 29: Ben Woollaston (ENG)
• Group 8: Jak Jones (WAL)
• Group 7: Robbie McGuigan (NI)
• Group 24: Martin O’Donnell (Eng)
• Group 28: Wu Yize (CHN)
• Group 26: Alexander Ursenbacher (SUI)
• Group 27: David Lilley (ENG)
• Group 1: Scott Donaldson (SCO)
• Group 14: Hossein Vafaei (IRN)
• Group 18: Stuart Bingham (ENG)
• Group 13: Si Jiahui (CHN)
• Group 20: Stuart Carrington (ENG)
• Group 19: Long Zehuang (CHN)
• Group 6: Gary Wilson (ENG)
• Group 9: Ma Hailong (CHN)
• Group 2: He Guoqiang (CHN)
• Group 12: Jack Lisowski (ENG)
• Group 5: Ali Carter (ENG)
• Group 16: Fan Zhengyi (CHN)
• Group 3: Shaun Murphy (ENG)
• Group 15: David Gilbert (ENG)