Internal League

The Internal League starts off as a round-robin event before knockout stages conclude the tournament. A two-tier format has been designed to improve competition between players and give more people a chance of winning some prize money. The format of the competition is described below.

View the ICU Snooker tournament regulations, which apply to all internal competitions.

Eligibility

The tournament is open to all club members. Since the Internal League is the biggest competition of the season and requires complex organisation of fixtures, entrants are reminded that playing all matches in the timeframe set out by the committee is of paramount importance. We ask that members who cannot commit to playing one to two matches each week until the end of the Autumn Term do not enter the event.

Format summary

The format for this season's Internal League is summarised in the following table:

Round	Championship	Trophy
Group stage
Round 1	Groups of four or five players, best of 3 frames
Round 2	Groups of four or five players, best of 3 frames	Groups of four or five players, best of 3 frames
Knockout stage
Round 3	Best of 3 frames	—
Quarter-finals	Best of 5 frames	Best of 3 frames
Semi-finals	Best of 7 frames	Best of 5 frames
Final	Best of 9 frames	Best of 7 frames

Round 1

All entrants will be roughly ranked in order of ability as far as is possible, before being split into four pools. The first pool will be comprised of the best players, the second pool will contain the group of players ranked next and so on.

The players will then be drawn at random into groups such that each group contains one player from each of the first three pools and one or two players from the final pool of entrants. This process ensures that there are usually four players per group, with no more than three groups containing five players.

The fixture list will be published on this web site and by email to all players after the draw has taken place. Matches in round 1 are the best of three frames.

Round 2

In round 2, the competition will be split into two events:

• The top two players from each group and a limited number of third-placed players will qualify for the Championship
• All other players will enter the Trophy.

The competition has been designed this way so that everyone gets experience of playing both those of a good ability and those of a similar standard to themselves.

The players will be grouped into pools based on their performance in round 1:

• Players will be ranked by group position, then ordered in the same way as the group tables.
• For groups of five players, results against the fifth-placed player shall not count towards the rankings; for the fifth-placed player, results against the fourth-placed player shall not count.
• The Championship qualifiers will then be split into four pools and the Trophy qualifiers likewise, based on their ranking.

As in round 1, the players will be drawn at random into groups such that each group contains one player from each of the first three pools and one or two players from the final pool of players. This again ensures there are usually four players per group, with no more than three groups containing five players.

We will ensure that no player will be drawn against the same opponent he or she played in round 1. Additionally, if the group sizes allow, we will try to arrange the draw so that no player will have to play four matches in round 2 if he or she did so in round 1, therefore nobody will play more than seven matches in the group stage of the competition.

Entry into round 2 is subject to the entrants playing, or making the effort to play, all of their matches from round 1.

Again, the fixture list will be published on this web site and by email to all players after the order of qualification from round 1 has been determined. Matches in round 2 in both the Championship and Trophy are the best of three frames.

Knockout stages

The formats of the knockout stages will be confirmed after the round 2 draw has been made. The top two players from each group are guaranteed to qualify and if places remain in the draw then the best third-placed players will also get the chance to compete.

Lat year, 12 players qualified from five groups for the Championship knockout stage as follows:

• The best four group winners were seeded through to the quarter-finals.
• The remaining group winner and the three best players finishing in second position became the seeded players in round 3.
• The two remaining group runners-up and the two best players finishing in third position also qualified for the remaining places in round 3.

Since the group sizes were uneven, in Groups 2A, 2B and 2C, results against the player who finished fifth were not considered when determining the seedings for each position.

Eight players qualified for the Trophy knockout stage as follows:

• The four group winners became the seeded players in the quarter-finals.
• The four group runners-up also qualified for the remaining places in the quarter-finals.

Knockout stage matches will take place at the start of the Spring Term.

Provisional schedule

Round 1: Monday 7–Friday 25 November
Round 2: Monday 28 November–Friday 16 December
Knockout stages: Within the first few weeks of the Spring Term

Championship

Winner: £40
Runner-up: £25
Losing semi-finalists: £15

Trophy

Winner: £10
Runner-up: £5

Highest break: £10