What happened during the opening week of Championship League Snooker?

Action in the £328,000 ranking event - where the first trophy of the new season will be lifted - began last Monday at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester. One of the more low-key, but unique, stops on the professional circuit, the tournament takes 21 days to complete, although contestants will only need to play three of those in order to win the title.

As is the case across the opening three stages of the event, the opening phase consists of four-player round robin groups with the group winner of each advancing to the last 32.

With two tables in operation, 12 stage one groups were complete across the first six days (Monday to Saturday), with seven of those group-winners having been the top seed in their pool.

Four of the 12 qualified with 100% records - winning all three of their matches - including Chinese youngster Chang Bingyu.

Tipped up by several pundits to have a big season ahead, hot property Chang defeated rookie Phil O'Kane (3-0) before registering breaks of 145 and 102 in a 3-1 victory over Jamie Clarke.

In a decisive final fixture of the group, the 23-year-old compiled runs of 69, 127 and 89 in a 3-0 win over Ryan Day.

World ranked 48th - after just one full season back on the World Snooker Tour - Chang has enjoyed a perfect start to the new term, winning seven out of seven matches so far, including qualifying for both the China Open and Wuhan Open.

Former International Championship winner Zhang Anda also relinquished only one frame in progressing, as too did other group victors Ian Burns and He Guoqiang.

Only a handful of top 16 stars decided to enter the competition - many of the biggest names will make their first outings of the campaign at the Shanghai Masters at the end of July - although 2024 World Champion Kyren Wilson put his name in the draw.

However, whilst helping open up this year's Championship League on day one, Wilson received news that his house had been burgled and he immediately withdrew to attend to the distressing situation back home.

The world number eight had already played and won his first tie, 3-0, but due to him understandably pulling out, that result was scrubbed and the group was played with just three players. In the end, Dylan Emery won that section.

Similar to Chang, there were three more cueists who extended their fantastic starts to the season.

Jackson Page, Pang Junxu, and David Gilbert - the latter won this Championship League title in 2021 - all won their respective groups and advanced to the last 32, building on their successes of having qualified for both the main draw, televised stages of the China and Wuhan Opens which take place in the Far East later this summer.

Scott Donaldson - a former title triumphant at the invitational version of the Championship League - won his group on Thursday on the very last ball of the day.

The Scot needed to defeat Yuan Sijun - who required only a draw - to finish top and qualify, and he did just that with a 3-1 win on the final black after clearing from the final red in frame four.

The result will likely be a morale booster for Donaldson who lost both of his qualifying matches at the Mattioli earlier this month.

The biggest upset, so far, came on Saturday when Dean Young - who currently does not have a professional tour card - emerged from Group 8.

Young battled back from 2-0 down against reigning World Open champion Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in his first match, fashioning efforts of 82 and 107 to salvage a 2-2 draw.

The 24-year-old Scot then got the better of home city based player Louis Heathcote (3-1) and 12-time world women's champion Reanne Evans (3-0) to put his name into the next zone.

Gary Wilson and Xu Si were the other group winners from week one.

Play recommences on Monday with another six-day stint coming up. Scheduled to be on the baize include Hossein Vafaei (Monday), Chris Wakelin (Wednesday), Ali Carter (Saturday) and defending champion Stephen Maguire (Saturday).

This year's Grand Final is set to take place on the evening of Wednesday 15th July. A full list of groups can be viewed on the official Championship League Snooker website here.