All to play for in Group Four of Championship League - 26/01/2011

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Marco Fu and Matthew Stevens share the lead after the opening day of Group Four of the Championship League Snooker.

The competition features the top 26 players in the world bidding for a spot in Matchroom Sport’s Premier League event later this year.

Fu, who won the 2010 Championship League, is well placed in the latest group after victories against Peter Ebdon, Stephen Hendry and Ali Carter, although he ended the day on a losing note, going down 3-1 to Mark Allen.

Stevens also won three out of his four matches – against Mark King, Allen and Hendry – but a defeat against Ebdon denied him an outright overnight lead.

The fourth group of the tournament concludes tomorrow where the winner will advance to the final group, which already contains Mark Selby, Mark Williams and Shaun Murphy.

It was a bad day for seven-time World Champion Stephen Hendry as three defeats left him bottom of the table and facing an uphill battle to avoid elimination.

The bottom two players will be out of the Championship League and Hendry needs to perform well on Thursday to avoid joining Neil Robertson and John Higgins out of the competition.

This is the fourth year of the Championship League Snooker and each match is broadcast live on a number of betting websites.

There are seven groups, each containing seven players and the top four players at the end of the group stage advance to the semi-finals with the two winners meeting in the final.

The winners of each group play in a final group at the end of March where the overall champion will claim a spot in the 2011 Premier League season.

Play begins again from Crondon Park Golf Club in Essex at 10.30am on Thursday.