Snooker: European Championships Group Stages drawing to an exciting close

After an action packed first week at the European Snooker Championships, the group stages are finally getting close to the business end of things. Things in groups C and H seem pretty clear cut and the top four seeds are now pretty much home and dry, but in groups A, B, D, E, F and G, it is still not clear who will go through to the last 32.

If you take group A for example, you have potentially 5 players who could all qualify. Martin McCrudden (pictured left) has won all his matches so far and is guaranteed a place in the last 32. However, Alex Borg, Gary Thomson, Itaro Santos and Jonni Fulcher could all potentially finish with 4 or more wins, which would mean it would come down to frame difference as to who gets the final spot in the last 32. What is sure now though is that the top 4 from this group will come from those 5 players. Jonni Fulcher is in a dangerous situation though, not only does he need to win his last two matches, but he also requires one of the other players to finish with only 4 wins, and then he has to hope that he has a better frame difference!

Similar situations exist in the other groups mentioned above. As we approach the last two match rounds the nerves are beginning to jangle and the importance of playing out the final few matches becomes strikingly obvious. It's at times like these when the problems of round robin formats become obvious with the potential for players who no longer have a chance of qualifying to no longer give 100% thus giving advantages to certain players in the group that only play such players later on.

In terms of the quality of play and players in the amature ranks you need look no further than the high break table in order to see what a truly world class field have turned out in Carlow. A clear talent in the 16 year old Michael White stands out. Consistency is the name of the game and it's the following list shows that a number of the top players continue to produce snooker of the highest standard.

Surname	Name	Breaks
White	Michael	137, 105, 84, 78, 70, 54
Brown	Jordan	136, 107, 80, 79, 68, 56, 55, 51, 50
Berkhout	Ton	131
Münstermann	Lasse	129, 50
Goggins	Rodney	127, 79, 71, 71, 59, 53, 50
Nelson	Jonathon	127, 63, 56
Mazrocis	Stefan	106, 95, 92, 89, 67, 62
McCrudden	Martin	105, 96, 53
Murphy	Robert	102, 81, 75, 74, 72, 62
Borg	Alex	100, 100, 93, 57, 50
O'Donoghue	Brendan	99, 81
Mills	David	96, 72, 71, 62, 62, 51
McHugh	Richard	93, 70, 64, 62
Van Veldhoven	Yvan	92, 76, 62, 57, 51
Lavery	Declan	89, 86, 79, 62
Haneveer	Bjorn	89, 81, 77
Cruickshanks	Bobby	89, 77, 75
Meara	Joe	89, 54, 50, 50
Zammit	Simon	86, 64, 61, 54
Gleeson	Tom	85, 83, 82, 78, 59, 58
McSorley	Thomas	81, 75, 53
Torpey	John	79, 60, 58, 54, 54
Muldoon	Vincent	76, 70, 70, 58
Fulcher	Jonny	76, 69, 64, 63, 62, 62, 61
Thomson	Gary	76, 63, 63
Lippe	Sascha	71, 68, 56, 54, 51, 51
Fernandez	Roey	71, 66, 66, 60, 50
Duffy	Adam	71, 60, 51
Steins	Jordan	70, 66, 61, 54
Rhodes	Michael	70, 60, 60, 53