Championship League Snooker format

Seven groups of seven players produce seven winners who play in one further group where the eventual winner plays in the 2012 Premier League Snooker.

In each group every player will play each other once in a best of 5 frame match (21 matches) after which the top four players will contest in the play offs – semi finals and final over the best of 5 frames.

Players will be awarded 1 point for each match won, then most frames won and the least frames lost in the league series will determine their position in the league table. Dead frames will not be played in either the league or knock-out stages.

The play-off winner will progress to the final league of the Championship League Snooker while the players coming sixth and seventh in the group will be relegated and will not feature in any further group matches.

Therefore after the group has played its total 24 matches (21 League matches plus play offs semi finals and final) three players will leave and be replaced by a further three players.

Prize money - group phase
£3,000 Winner of each final. £2,000 runner-up in final. £1,000 losing semi-finalists. £100 per frame won.

Prize money - winners group.
£10,000 overall champion. £5,000 overall runner-up. £3,000 losing semi-finalists. £300 per frame won.

Total prize fund - £200,500.

The dates for the groups are as follows...
Group 1 - Monday, January 9 and Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Group 2 - Wednesday, January 11 and Thursday, January 12
Group 3 - Monday, January 23 and Tuesday, January 24
Group 4 - Wednesday, January 25 and Thursday, January 26
Group 5 - Monday, February 6 and Tuesday, February 7
Group 6 - Wednesday, February 8 and Thursday, February 9
Group 7 - Monday, March 19 and Tuesday, March 20
Winners' Group - Wednesday, March 21 and Thursday, March 22

The players in each group are...
Group 1 - Ali Carter, Mark Davis, Andrew Higginson, Shaun Murphy, Mark Selby, Matthew Stevens and Judd Trump.

Group 2 - Four players from Group 1 plus Stuart Bingham, Neil Robertson and Mark Williams.

Group 3 - Four players from Group 2 plus Jamie Cope, Martin Gould and Stephen Hendry.

Group 4 - Four players from Group 3 plus Mark Allen, Peter Ebdon and Stephen Lee.

Group 5 - Four players from Group 4 plus Barry Hawkins, Mark King and Ricky Walden.

Group 6 - Four players from Group 5 plus Marcus Campbell, Dominic Dale and Joe Perry.

Group 7 - Four players from Group 6 plus three Ryan Day, Ding Junhui and Marco Fu.

Winners' Group - Winners of groups 1 to 7