The current champion of the Championship League, Judd Trump, enjoyed two wins in Group One of the competition before a defeat by Mark Selby in the final match of the evening.

Trump, who beat Selby by three frames to two in last year’s Championship League final, beat Ryan Day 3-1 and inflicted a 3-0 whitewash over John Higgins, but was comfortably beaten 3-1 by the Jester from Leicester at Crondon Park.

The 20-year-old hit one century break to add to his five from 2009, but while the focus was mainly on the reigning champion, Stephen Maguire had the best night out of all seven competitors in Group One.

The Livewire went unbeaten on the first day’s play, with impressive wins against Shaun Murphy, Higgins and Ali Carter.   

Carter was only narrowly defeated by Maguire, though, and the 30-year-old racked up £1100 in prize money – the highest sum of the evening – after a comprehensive 3-0 win against Ryan Day, and the result which guaranteed to make snooker fans stand up and take notice: a 3-2 win against last year’s finalist Selby.

Meanwhile, Murphy endured a nightmare start to the competition with a brace of 3-0 defeats to Maguire and Carter, before an equally unimpressive 3-1 defeat against Higgins.

The 2005 world champion was eliminated in the group stages of 2009’s tournament and isn’t fancied to progress any further this year.

And finally, Day also had a day to forget after a poor start to the campaign with three defeats from his first three matches.

The remaining Group One fixtures will take place today, so stay tuned to http://www.stephen-hendry.com/ for the latest results.

Rob Swan