2012 Premier League Snooker

The 2012 PartyPoker.com Premier League was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that was played from 16 August to 25 November 2012. This was the last edition of the tournament, as in 2013 it was replaced by the Champion of Champions.^[4]

PartyPoker.com Premier League

Tournament information
Dates	16 August – 25 November 2012 (2012-08-16 – 2012-11-25)
Country	England
Organisation	Matchroom Sport
Format	Non-ranking event
Total prize fund	£210,000[1]
Winner's share	50,000[2]
Highest break	Stuart Bingham (ENG) (135)[3]
Final
Champion	Stuart Bingham
Runner-up	Judd Trump
Score	7–2
← 2011

Ronnie O'Sullivan was the defending champion, but he decided not to compete this year.^[5]

Stuart Bingham won his eighth professional title by defeating Judd Trump 7–2 in the final.^[6]

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:^[2]

• Winner: £50,000
• Runner-up: £25,000
• Semi-final: £12,500
• Frame-win: £1,000 (only in league phase)
• Century break: £1,000 (only in league phase)
• Highest break: £5,000
• Maximum break: £25,000
• Total: £210,000^[1]

Players

^[7]

Rankings	Player	Qualified via
01	Mark Selby	Shanghai Masters champion
02	Judd Trump	UK champion
05	John Higgins	Wildcard
06	Shaun Murphy	Brazil Masters champion
07	Neil Robertson	Masters champion
08	Stephen Lee	PTC Finals champion
11	Ding Junhui	Championship League champion
12	Mark Allen	World Open champion
16	Stuart Bingham	Australian Goldfields Open champion
20	Peter Ebdon	China Open champion

League phase

Dates and venues

^[7][8]

Week	Date	Venue
01	16 August	Embassy Theatre, Skegness, England
02	6 September	Biddulph Leisure Centre, Stoke-on-Trent, England
03	13 September	The Sands, Carlisle, England
04	27 September	Spiceball Leisure Centre, Banbury, England
05	4 October	Southampton Guildhall, Southampton, England
06	11 October	Malvern Theatres, Great Malvern, England
07	18 October	Penzance Leisure Centre, Cornwall, England[n 1]
08	25 October	Guildford Spectrum, Guildford, England
09	8 November	The Dome, Doncaster, England
10	15 November	Spennymoor Leisure Centre, Durham, England

Group one

Ranking	Name	BIN	ROB	DIN	MUR	SEL	Frames W–L	Match W–D–L	Pld–Pts
1	Stuart Bingham	x	6	4	3	6	19–5	3–1–0	4–7
2	Neil Robertson	0	x	4	4	5	13–11	3–0–1	4–6
3	Ding Junhui	2	2	x	4	4	12–12	2–0–2	4–4
4	Shaun Murphy	3	2	2	x	5	12–12	1–1–2	4–3
5	Mark Selby	0	1	2	1	x	4–20	0–0–4	4–0

The top two qualified for the play-offs. If points were level then most frames won determined their positions. If two players had an identical record then the result in their match determined their positions. If their match was a 3–3 draw then the player who got to three first was higher.^[7][8][11] (Breaks above 50 shown between (parentheses); century breaks are indicated with bold.)^[12][13]

• Ding Junhui 4–2 Shaun Murphy → 22–(81), 55–54, (82)–0, 9–76 (63), 79–11, (64) 72–14^[14]
• Mark Selby 1–5 Neil Robertson → 11–72 (63), 12–64, 16–(72), (61) 87–37, 17–72 (62), 9–71^[15]
• Shaun Murphy 3–3 Stuart Bingham → 16–83 (53), (54) 55–(68), 0–105 (59), (88)–51, (58) 97–0, 77–53^[16]
• Neil Robertson 4–2 Shaun Murphy → 44–60, 73–58 (53), 0–(111), (70) 82–0, (113) 118–1, (58) 68–29^[17]
• Stuart Bingham 4–2 Ding Junhui → (75)–24, 79–8, 0–102 (54), 16–(73), (75)–20, (50) 80–37^[18]
• Mark Selby 2–4 Ding Junhui → 27–(96), 27–63, 25–72, 4–94 (79), 73–39, (52) 90–39^[19]
• Stuart Bingham 6–0 Mark Selby → (52) 65–56, (59) 67–0, (54) 69–0, (128)–1, (122)–1, (50) 57–13^[20]
• Stuart Bingham 6–0 Neil Robertson^{[n 1]} → (135) 139–0, 77–33, 75–66 (66), (127)–0, 61–20, (92)–0^[21]
• Mark Selby 1–5 Shaun Murphy → 6–(86), 81–1, 0–97, 22–72 (55), 0–(116), 0–(81)^[22]
• Neil Robertson 4–2 Ding Junhui → (71)–72 (53), 5–102 (95), 62–(59), (70) 83–26, 77–22, (51) 67–(57)^[23]

Group two

Ranking	Name	TRU	HIG	EBD	ALL	LEE	Frames W–L	Match W–D–L	Pld–Pts
1	Judd Trump	x	2	4	5	x	11–7	2–0–1	3–4
2	John Higgins	4	x	2	4	x	10–8	2–0–1	3–4
3	Peter Ebdon	2	4	x	2	x	8–10	1–0–2	3–2
4	Mark Allen	1	2	4	x	x	7–11	1–0–2	3–2
5	Stephen Lee[n 1]	x	x	x	x	x	x–x	x–x–x	x–x

The top two qualified for the play-offs. If points were level then most frames won determined their positions. If two players had an identical record then the result in their match determined their positions. If their match was a 3–3 draw then the player who got to three first was higher.^[7][8][11] (Breaks above 50 shown between (parentheses); century breaks are indicated with bold.)^[13][24]

• Judd Trump 5–1 Stephen Lee^{[n 1]} → 57–47, (95) 96–0, 63–61, (121)–0, (113)–0, 0–(68)^[25]
• Stephen Lee 1–5 Peter Ebdon^{[n 1]} → 16–73, 56–60, (87) 90–2, 1–(80), 45–(83), 21–(103)^[15]
• John Higgins 4–2 Mark Allen → 0–71 (67), 69–34, 67–63, 58–70, (59) 95–39, (52) 76–30^[16]
• Mark Allen 4–2 Peter Ebdon → 34–72, (84) 92–1, (76) 81–30, (50) 75–1, 19–(108), (69)–17^[17]
• Judd Trump 4–2 Peter Ebdon → 53–60, 62–55, 7–71, (131)–0, (90)–1, 79–4^[18]
• John Higgins 4–2 Stephen Lee^{[n 1]} → 13–67, 59–38, 1–76, (72)–0, (57) 80–1, 66–62^[26]
• Mark Allen v Stephen Lee^{[n 1]}
• Judd Trump 2–4 John Higgins → 79–0, 4–119 (114), 43–70 (52), 24–80, 39–84 (63), (78) 83–27^[27]
• Judd Trump 5–1 Mark Allen → 102–0, 40–74 (60), (76)–0, 81–0, (76)–54, 77–48^[22]
• John Higgins 2–4 Peter Ebdon → 29–66, (125) 130–1, (133)–0, 1–87 (75), 11–68 (61), 47–(81)^[23]

Play-offs

24–25 November, Grimsby Auditorium, Grimsby, England^{[7][8][11][28]}

	Semi-finals Best of 9 frames					Final Best of 13 frames
	A1	Stuart Bingham*	5
	B2	John Higgins	4
						A1	Stuart Bingham***	7
						B1	Judd Trump	2
	B1	Judd Trump**	5
	A2	Neil Robertson	4

* 71–13, 74–44, 22–94 (58), 0–81 (81), (117) 132–0, 52–65, (50)–(76), (74) 74–8, (57) 71–34^[29]
** 65–77 (55), 14–68, 54–15, 0–87, 60–58, 81–0, 56–29, 45–78 (58), 71–16^[30]
***7–(83), (82)–0, (100)–8, 76–33, (55, 53) 116–9, (61) 74–5, 0–(101), (71) 115–9, 58–54^[3]

Qualifiers

Main article: 2012 Championship League

The qualification for this tournament, the Championship League was played in eight groups from 9 January to 22 March 2012.

Century breaks

^{[13][28][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39]}

• 135, 128, 127, 122, 117, 100 – Stuart Bingham
• 133, 124, 114 – John Higgins
• 131, 121, 113, 101 – Judd Trump
• 116, 111 – Shaun Murphy
• 113 – Neil Robertson
• 108, 103 – Peter Ebdon

Notes

1. After the suspension of Stephen Lee by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association due to suspicious betting patterns on his match against John Higgins in the sixth week of the competition,^[9] all matches involving him were declared void. The fixture at the Penzance Leisure Centre in Cornwall, England was cancelled and the match between Neil Robertson and Stuart Bingham was rescheduled to take place at the Guildford Spectrum in Guildford, England.^[10]