The Snookerbacker Blog

A World Snooker Official inspects the template for the Pro-Challenge pockets

What did I tell you about the pockets at George Scott’s Club? Huge! Just take a look at the list of breaks made on Day One of the Pro-Challenge below and you’ll get some idea:

138 Judd Trump, 137 Ken Doherty, 135 Liang Wenbo, 134 Rod Lawler, 131 Graeme Dott, 130 Craig Steadman, 129 Liang Wenbo, 128 Tom Ford, 128 Stuart Bingham, 125 Nigel Bond, 124 Mark Joyce, 122 Jamie Cope, 121 Liang Wenbo, 106 Simon Bedford, 106 Barry Hawkins, 102 Stevie Wonder.

Ok that last one is a lie, but you get the idea. They are up to the last 16 now and further information can be found updated througout the day by visiting the excellent Global Snooker website http://www.global-snooker.com/World-Snooker-Pro-Challenge-Event-5.asp . But with the bookies giving this one the cold shoulder it is of little but, in the words of the great Clive Everton ‘academic interest’ to snooker gamblers.  

It is also being reported in a few newspapers today that it is still touch and go whether Ronnie O’Sullivan will get to play in front of his dad for the first time at The Crucible in April. Ronnie Snr is due for release from prison in April after serving 18 years for murder and he has never seen his son play on snooker’s biggest stage.

Will having his dad watching improve Ronnie's chances in Sheffield?

Ronnie Jnr is quoted as saying ”Please God he can come. He has been a model prisoner. It’s down to the Home Office and prison authorities. I hope they feel he’s ready to come home and then I’m hoping the justice system will do the right thing.”

O’Sullivan Snr has been locked up for the last 18 years for the murder of Bruce Bryan, a driver for Charlie Kray – the brother of London gangsters Ronnie and Reggie. Though one paper wrongly states that this relates to the infamous twins father.

I have to say that I met Ronnie Snr once at a tournament on the Isle of Wight, he was a very engaging character and a really fun person to be around, he sat around the pool with Ronnie and a few others and I remember him driving all around the island to buy fresh fruit for everyone as it was a baking hot day. It can’t have been too long after that when the incident happened, one that Ronnie is the first to admit shook his entire world. It was obvious even back then that they were very close.

Come on Guv'nor. I only want a pony on Burnett.

It seems that the latest ‘scandal’, if you can call arresting someone for an afternoon to accuse them of something that you don’t appear to have any proof that they actually did, a scandal, is enough to have the bookies closing their satchels for the Pro-Challenge Series which begins today in Liverpool (see earlier report).

I’m sure that last time at least two of the usual suspects priced this up a day in advance but alas now, those days seem long gone, which is shame as I’d have liked a small punt on Rod Lawler, who knows his way around this venue even to the detail of knowing where they keep the stock of Nobbys Nuts behind the bar.

I just hope that this latest episode doesn’t lead to further curtailments in snooker markets which are already a bit thin on the ground. Perhaps it is time for the World Snooker Chairman Barry Hearn to break his silence and issue both a stern warning to any players under suspicion in the future and some kind of reassurance to our old friends the turf accountants to allay any fears they may still have. To me there are at least two other sports which shall remain nameless, one where you use a ball and it has a net in the middle of the court and one which has a board that people (usually overweight with gold chavish jewellery on) throw things at, which are a lot more questionable on occasion than snooker is, but maybe I’m biased. 

Knowsley - The Bolton Stud

Talking of all things fishy, in brighter news, Jimmy White has lit up the Grimsby Auditorium with another exhibition 147 against Alex Higgins. Jimbo and the Hurricane were competing in the Legends tour and it looks like they kept the ‘entertainment’ promise. Jimmy also knocked in a 146 to finish off the match 5-0, to keep the inhabitants of the coastal town happy. 

Jungle Jimmy, the Whirlwind of Old London Town starts his quest to reach the Crucible on Wednesday 3rd March and clearly he still has the practice game to compete. Let’s hope that he can bring some of the magic to the match table just one last time and make it to Sheffield, though with having to probably beat Ken Doherty and Joe Swail to get there he’ll have to be in good shape, particularly against Ken.

As if the big break entertainment wasn’t enough, the cod oiled crowd were also treated to a trick shot bonanza from none other than the legend that is Tony ‘The Tony Knowles Suite at the Phoenix Club’ Knowles. Clearly Grimsby on this particular night was the ‘plaice’ to be. Enough now.

Our Tony, to the delight of all the ladies in the crowd was standing in at the last minute for John Virgo who was unfortunately unwell, lets hope JV was just resting his tonsils to shout excitedly all around Sheffield when the cue ball is going within 3 feet of the pocket at the Crucible. Sadly, TK isn’t competing for glory this year after making the first qualifying round last year following an unforgettable final frame win over the unspellable Stefan Mazrocis before bowing out to the exquisitely named Rodney Goggins.

The One. The Only. The Hurricane.

Welcome to Part One of my Crucible Countdown, here I take you through my personal experiences of the baize as a kid covering the ‘Golden Age’ of Snooker, the 1980′s. It’s a piece that is done from memory so please forgive any factual errors, I hope you enjoy it. 

I grew up in what has since been described, probably rightly as the golden age of snooker, the first Embassy World Championship I remember watching was in 1980, when Cliff Thorburn defeated Alex in the final and a young man called Steve Davis made the quarter finals in his second year at Sheffield.

Since then, the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible has remained my favourite two weeks of the year. Like Christmas come early, or late whichever way you look at it. The anticipation of the first day still fills me with excitement when the partition wall comes down, a hush descends on the arena and the click of the balls begins on both tables, I still get goosebumps.

Dracula - Very Dashing

Throughout the early eighties I continued to be glued to the TV whenever the snooker was on, I also became quite a competent player and was regularly amassing century breaks by the time I was 16, travelling around the country with my dad trying in vain to break into the big time and I even played on TV once with the Nugget himself. In 1981 of course, the domination of Davis started but I was more interested in my new hero by then (kids are so fickle), a skinny pale-faced potting machine by the name of Jimmy ‘Whirlwind’ White who was beaten by the eventual winner Davis by the odd frame in Round 1. I felt I had more in common with Jimmy than with the other players, he was a working class lad who played without a care in the world and looked like he’d just been dragged through a hedge, quite a difference to the gentlemanly, very grown up looks of the Ray Reardon’s and Cliff Thorburn’s of this world. But I think I came as close to loving someone I’d never met as I ever have since, if you discount a later dalliance with Wendy James from Transvision Vamp, but the two obsessions were very very different in character.  I totally idolised the man, even to the point that I started playing left-handed for a bit, long before the days of the Rocket and knocking in 40 and 50 breaks this way. But that’s enough bragging, I wasn’t that good!

Not exactly best pals

The 1982 championship will remain in many people’s thoughts as the ‘Year of the Hurricane’ but to me I’ll always remember waking up on the Saturday morning, goosebumped, with a plate of jam on toast watching what to me then was the biggest shock I had ever encountered (well, I was only 12). Steve Davis had been close to unbeatable for the past two seasons, was a huge favourite to retain his title and now was suddenly being dismantled before millions of stunned viewers by qualifier and later world number 2, Tony Knowles. It made front page news the following day. I literally could not believe it and after recovering from the shock, I excitedly thought, now Jimmy has a real chance, I think I even asked my dad to put 50p on him for me at the local Billy Hills, such was my level of supreme confidence in my hero. But sadly it was not to be and in the semi-final, Alex did this  before going on to win the decider and break Jimmy’s heart for the first of many times at the theatre of dreams. Hills also unscrupulously kept my 50p, this being in the days when it was quite frankly impossible for 12 year olds to lay off, happily things have now improved in this area, Betfair are good for one thing at least.

Kirk Stevens - Smokin'

1983 was most memorable for Cliff Thorburn’s 147, but was a total Davis domination job and seemed to pass me by somehow, I think by then I was well and truly getting fed up of Davis winning absolutely everything as were most of this great nation of ‘loser lovers’. It was around this time that the infamous Alex quote appeared on the front of the tabloids ‘I Hate Steve Davis’. Then came 1984, and Jimmy’s first final against the Ginger Magician. It was the match everyone wanted to see, none more so than me. Jimmy went in as the Masters Champion after a magical unforgettable semi-final match with Kirk Stevens at Wembley, in which the white suited Canadian compiled arguably the best 147 ever seen on television.

I was full of confidence. But day one ended in me storming up to my bedroom in a teenage strop, hormones akimbo, inconsolable and close to tears as Davis took a commanding 8, or was it 9? frame lead. I remember the tears were partly triggered by one of those sentimental musical pieces the BBC used to do at the end of the programmes, it was called ‘Don’t wait until tomorrow’ I think (Leo Sayer sang it) and had montages of Jimmy missing ball after ball and panning onto his disappointed pale face. I vaguely remember that the following day was his birthday too. I hated the BBC for that and felt that they had ruined my life. But Jimmy as ever, did not disappoint his millions of fans and stormed back and even might have won in the end after a magical fight back, losing just 18-16. I stormed up to my room again the next night obviously, but consoled myself with the thought that as he got so close, it would only be a matter of time before my hero won it, probably a few times………..

Then came the shock wins for Dennis Taylor and Joe Johnson before Davis finished off the decade as he started it. In total dominance. Taylor’s win will obviously remain one of the iconic sporting moments and he’s been dining out on it ever since, but it does remain one of the greatest ever David and Goliath tales of modern sporting times, to see it again click here, not you Dennis, you’ve watched it enough.

But it is Joe Johnson, who can now be found regularly on Eurosport pondering that eternal question ‘where’s the white going?’, who has to go down as the most unlikely winner of this era. Perhaps only the triumph of Graeme Dott many years later can be compared to our Joe in terms of shock value, Joe played mostly flawless snooker for the whole two weeks and brought a much needed smile to many faces during the Thatcher years.

But who would have guessed that after giving John Parrott a hiding of 18-3 in the 1989 final to win his third successive and sixth title in all, it would be the last time we would see Steve in the final? A new kid was emerging on the block in the shape of a young Scot, who had been quietly watching and learning from the master and was now just about to change the way the game was played forever.

If you’d like to feel a little more nostalgic, why not read this back with this in the background I couldn’t write a piece about the 80′s without an honourable mention to London’s finest.

Part Two of the Countdown to the Crucible will appear soon.

In an attempt to keep players busy, one of the initiatives that World Snooker, under the previous chairman Rodney Walker (the last person I referred to as ‘Sir’ had chalk in one hand and a blackboard duster in the other) came up with was the Pro-Challenge events. This is basically a series of knockout events open to all 96 professionals which tours the country. Event 5, though Event 4 was cancelled, so technically this is Event 4, starts on Tuesday.

Liang Wenbo is among the participants

The winners so far have included Stephen Maguire and Ken Doherty and they do attract some big name players. This week there is one being held at one of my old haunts, George Scott’s Snooker Club on Derby Lane, Liverpool – formerly known as the Liverpool Billiards and Snooker Centre. I was hoping to be able to go along there for at least one of the days but unfortunately I have other commitments, which also means I probably won’t get to post again after tomorrow until Wednesday.

The event is covered by the ‘whooshing’ and ‘k-nicking’ of the World Snooker scoreboard and regular updates will doubtless feature on the excellent Global Snooker website. A couple of bookmakers have priced this up in the past, from memory this included Sportingbet and Sky Bet, but you may need to shop around. I very narrowly missed out on a hugely speculative gamble on Martin Gould in Event 2, when he was beaten by Ken in the final. I’m sure a fellow Gould backer on here will remind me in the comments what price we got on him (40/1?).

Of the main attractions this week we have amongst others Liang Wenbo and Jamie Cope (who meet in Round 1), Judd Trump, Tony Drago, Ken Doherty again and the man of the moment Stephen Lee. I’ll be having a look at the draw tomorrow and possibly putting a couple of speculative picks up. Homeboy, Rod Lawler knows this place very well so I’ll probably have a look and see if there is any value there.

The matches and draw can be found by visiting  http://www.global-snooker.com/World-Snooker-Pro-Challenge-Event-5.asp .

Stephen has had his collar felt

Stephen Lee is not expecting to be charged following his arrest as part of an investigation into suspicious betting patterns, his management said today.

The 35-year-old, from Trowbridge in Wiltshire, was released on bail yesterday afternoon after being arrested yesterday by West Midlands police and questioned.

He has not been charged with any offence and is expected to answer bail in three to four months.

A statement from On Q Promotions, Lee’s management company, today read: “Stephen Lee was taken to a West Midlands police station for questioning on Thursday 11 February.

“Stephen co-operated fully with the police inquiry and was released without charge. He does not expect any charge to be made and denies any involvement with cheating or betting irregularities.

“Stephen is now concentrating on practising hard to achieve qualification for the world championship and to fulfil all of his exhibition commitments”. The Trowbridge Working Mens Club can breathe a collective sigh of relief, I can’t see many rushing to sign him for a nights entertainment after this….

“Stephen Lee and On Q Promotions will not be making any further comments and would ask that the privacy of Stephen and his family is respected.”

Th man himself said: ”I got home really late last night. I will say that I was treated really badly yesterday, so I’m still in a bit of shock.”

Speaking on behalf of Lee, manager Paul Mount said: ”He’s dumbfounded that he’s been arrested at all, and so am I. I’ve been working with Stephen now for about a year and never ever did I or anybody else in our organisation or any of the other players involved in our team of players, not one of us ever thought Stephen was involved in something like that.

”It’s come as a real shock to all of us. And I one hundred per cent support Stephen and believe that he has not been involved in any way with any cheating or betting irregularities. He’s a lovely man. If you go back a few seasons Stephen was provisionally number one in the world”.

Our man Stevie was arrested on suspicion of cheating following a joint operation involving the police force and the Gambling Commission. The arrest was made under section 42 of the Gambling Act 2005, which states: “A person commits an offence if he (a) cheats at gambling, or (b) does anything for the purpose of enabling or assisting another person to cheat at gambling.”

World Snooker, the commercial arm of the governing body, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, today said they were awaiting further developments. “We are aware of the recent news articles concerning match-fixing and are awaiting further reports,” read a World Snooker statement.

“In instances where the Gambling Commission commences an investigation into a match, the WPBSA work together with the Commission to assist in their inquiries and the WPBSA will hold their own investigation open pending the conclusion.

“However, neither the Commission nor the WPBSA will release information surrounding a betting matter while an investigation is ongoing.”

It is understood World Snooker are unaware of the circumstances that led to the arrest of Lee. Now this I do find quite odd, surely World Snooker should be aware if one of it’s members is under investigation for two years, as has been widely reported? 

Getting a confession may call for a more creative approach. You Nonce.

Once again, it the old question of proving anything was wrong. Perhaps as someone suggested yesterday this is a warning shot to others.

Short of actually beating a confession out of the players in the style of a 1970′s back street copper, proving anything is suspect must be very very difficult. It would be nice if the sums that we are talking about here were disclosed, the rumours behind the infamous Maguire Burnett game were that Victor Chandlers stood to lose £5000 on the scoreline, yes, you read that right, not £50,000 or £500,000, just £5000 – when they alerted the police to the irregularities. But this obviously then filtered down to other firms who then noticed some strange bets too, particularly in the Glasgow area.

But it appears that the Trowbridge One is free to roam the streets of his sleepy village once more. But he will forever live with the stigma of this now and it will be very hard for him to shake it off. There were a lot of people ready to play judge and jury yesterday, perhaps the suspicions are correct, but proof, dammit, I need proof.

Whatever the truth is, it is clear that Lee is far from happy. Various reports over the past three years have painted a rather sorry picture.

He has collected more than £1.5million in career prize money but lost his place in snooker’s elite group of players when he dropped out of the world’s top 16 in 2008, and barring a dramatic return to top form at the World Championship he will not return there for next season.

It was a first-round defeat by Joe Swail at the Crucible which confirmed Lee would tumble out of the top 16, after which he said: “I have just been making up the numbers the last two years”

Nobody enjoys living out of a suitcase

“I am sick and tired of packing my suitcase only to unpack it again soon after. It’s dragging me down.”

He decided during the off-season to carry on playing for the 2008-09 campaign but his results have shown little sign of improving and he began the current campaign at number 25 in the world rankings.

Lee has won four ranking titles in his career and also reached the semi-finals of the World Championship in 2003, when he lost to eventual champion Mark Williams.

Away from the table he tested positive for cannabis in 2000, and has struggled to keep his weight down, despite making a determined bid to cut down on drinking.

After reaching the Masters final in January 2008, Lee said: “I’ve stopped drinking since new year (that meant at the time, around a week and a half). When I go out with my friends it’s usually about 10 double vodkas, nothing overly excessive, but I know that losing a bit of weight would help me.” Good to know that our man doesn’t do things to excess then.

During the same tournament he said: “You don’t have to be fit to walk around a snooker table, but at the longer tournaments it does count more like the UK and World Championship” He said this while settling down to a plate of fish and chips while Ronnie O’Sullivan jogged past him in a tracksuit.

“I’ve always said if you get out of bed the right side then you’ve done most of the hard work, but me and my missus like to go to the pub at the weekend. I’ve had to stop binge drinking and eating after 10 o’clock at night.

“We live in a little village and we drink a lot over a Friday and Saturday, so I’m making more of an effort.”

Lee, a father of four, was certainly delighted to reach last year’s World Championship, when he had to battle through a qualifying round.

“I couldn’t bear thinking about not going to the Crucible this year,” he said.

But after another first-round defeat, this time to Ryan Day, Lee described his performance as “rubbish”.

I think you’ll agree, all does not seem quite right in the world of Stephen Lee.

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Lee - 'avvin a spot of bovver

It is now being widely reported across the nation that snooker’s own Stephen Lee has been arrested. The following statement has been released. 

“A 35-year-old man from Wiltshire was arrested on Thursday February 11 on suspicion of cheating,”

“This follows a joint operation where West Midlands Police have assisted the Gambling Commission, following their concerns about suspicious betting patterns.”

Strange choice of phrase that ‘cheating’, a bit school playground but never mind. As with all these types of thing the main issue is proving that any wrongdoing has occured. As far as I am aware Lee hasn’t been the subject of  any Betfair forum tittle-tattle, which it seems to me from personal experience is the first port of call for the police in this type of investigation, for anything other than (quite cruelly if we’re honest) his desire to win his weight in Pukka Pies at the UK Championship, which has been his best performance of the season so far, so this does come as something of a shock. 

As ever, the press are keen to pounce upon this story and rub as many people’s noses in the dirt as is humanly possible. The Sun (spits into a swill bucket to the side of laptop), alledges in it’s typically understated way that this is the latest in a ‘string of top flight players’ that have been investigated over unusual betting patterns. A string? A string? I’d hardly go that  far, just how long is a piece of string anyway?

The Press - Moral Crusaders in the Face of Cheats

The Sun also reports that ‘The dad of four, 35, was believed to have been held as part of a joint operation with the Gambling Commission, probing bets placed on him to lose’. I have listed below the matches that Lee has lost this season and last, doubtless many will look at a couple of these opponents and draw their own conclusions, but Lee definitely isn’t the player he was five years ago and you’d hope that would be factored in to any investigation.

So what would be the profile of someone tempted to do this? Somebody down on their luck perhaps, not the player they once were? Used to living the high life after the glory days but now struggling to pay the mortgage on that gigantic house that they bought with the winnings (‘I told her it was too big’)? Family to support? Lack of chances to make a decent living like the old days because tournaments are drying up and sponsors with the cash are hard to find?

But just because somebody ticks all these boxes it doesn’t make them a cheat. I hope that the allegations prove unfounded as it seems hard enough to get a decent bet on snooker anyway without this. But even if they do they will doubtless linger in the minds of the ultra cautious bookies who now seem to get very excited and cry foul when they stand to lose paltry sums on matches these days compared to other sports. Might it just be that some people are thinking that they have priced up a match wrong and steamed in?

Let’s wait and see what develops before jumping to any conclusions.

A picture of two random snooker players chosen totally at random

Matches that Stephen Lee has lost in the last two seasons in Ranking/Major Events:

Shanghai Masters 2009

 Ding Junhui 5-2 Stephen Lee
70(46)-20, 132(132)-0, 93(93)-0, 0-72(45), 90(43,35)-36, 13-67(47), 76-26

Grand Prix 2009

Stephen Lee 3-5 Robert Milkins
93(38)-45, 54-76, 62(49)-18, 0-70(46), 49-62, 46-65, 72(48)-31, 15-53

UK Championship 2009

Stephen Lee 5-9 Allister Carter
35-64(57), 21-76(76), 10-69, 32-74(59), 65(65)-31, 71(43)-38, 0-87(67), 65-61
30-72(56), 117(103)-1, 19-60(55), 68(42)-5, 67(51)-69(59), 0-82(38,43)

Masters Qualifying 2009

Stephen Lee 3-5 David Gray
0-80(76), 75(50)-24, 71(51)-44, 27-55, 0-79(47), 82(53)-41, 5-107(63), 6-74(59)

Welsh Open 2010

Stephen Lee 3-5 Andrew Higginson
56(56)-66(66), 0-89(89), 85(39)-0, 78(52)-5, 68(34)-0, 23-74(73), 4-94(37), 0-75(49)

China Open 2010

Stephen Lee 2-5 Tony Drago
67(48)-64, 54(50)-71(65), 1-122(122), 78(77)-1, 0-60, 0-91(75), 47(46)-63(41)

Shanghai Masters 2008

Stephen Lee 4-5 Tom Ford
0-106(106), 9-71(71), 87-25, 14-81(45,35), 13-69(56), 64(36)-14, 71(56)-64, 65(40)-1, 0-138(100)

Grand Prix 2008

Stephen Lee 2-5 Judd Trump
28-90(67), 89(41,48)-0, 0-84(66), 16-80(76), 34-66(61), 82(34)-18, 0-80(80)

UK Championship 2008

(Quarter Final) Shaun Murphy 9-3 Stephen Lee
11-73(69), 59-17, 86(70)-30, 89(86)-15, 79(65)-51(51), 65(45)-44, 99(48,51)-0, 64(43)-18, 27-64(64), 41(41)-72(68), 98(98)-3, 85(85)-8

Welsh Open 2009

Stephen Lee 3-5 Jamie Burnett
68(64)-17, 20-54, 0-93(93), 76(46)-32, 63-0, 44-68(68), 0-86(72), 0-66(66)

(There’s that name again….)

China Open 2009

Mark Selby 5-1 Stephen Lee
25-81(40,33), 77(40)-15, 105(105)-0, 71(46,45)-29, 73(73)-9, 64(44)-44(33)

(One match that did raise comments on Betfair at the time)

World Championship 2009

Ryan Day 10-4 Stephen Lee

57(56)-66(36), 90(35,42)-9, 84(65)-12, 72-42, 59-57(47), 82(38)-2, 8-78(44), 120(120)-0, 31-77(50) 86(86)-0, 0-98(65), 79(47)-36, 72-60(58), 73-27

(I seem to remember Lee played an absolute shocker here)

According to some there is a major story breaking in the Sun tomorrow. If John Higgins is involved I'm worried for my first Crucible bet.

UPDATE: It’s not John Higgins thankfully and my punt that it may have been news that Ding is leaving the circuit to follow a career in stand up comedy appears unfounded. Stephen Lee has been arrested on suspicion of match fixing:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2850649/Snooker-ace-Stephen-Lee-in-fix-quiz.html 

The Outlaw Joe Swail - A bit of a Joker

The final standings of Group 6 below. Allen now plays Swail and Ebdon play Williams, beginning at 6.30pm. Allen favourite in all places by virtue of his draw but Swail hasn’t played badly at all and might just surprise young Ketchup Head.

Betfair are now back betting in-running. If any proof were required that the players are playing this as they would any tournament, we saw it in the final game where Barry Hawkins beat Cope 3-2 to send him out of the semi-final places, despite the fact that Hawkins had nothing to play for.

There was some uncharacteristically sulky behaviour from Mark Williams earlier, his haircut must have really hit home, not what he asked for and the barber (whose other clients include Michael Bolton and more recently, Jedward) might expect a visit from the Welsh Mafia any day soon. In seriousness though, one of the commentators, Phil ‘Statto’ Yates mentioned that the amount of kicks being suffered this week has been astronomical and our Mark doesn’t like dodgy tables (or dodgy barbers).   

Incidentally I put up a calendar of events on the right hand menu earlier, it also indicates when I’ll be posting up previews and the like for the coming events. There is a bit of a quiet period after tonight and before Sheffield, China and then back to Sheffield for the best 17 days of the year.

The Essex Barber's last client

I’ve had an interest on Ebdon tonight as out of all of them I think he’s playing the best, but this is one strange event and not one to go large on.

Good Luck if playing.

I’ll be posting some ramblings on here in the interim period for the diehard fan. It’s been a busy couple of weeks as a beginning to the blog and I’m still very surprised that even in this quiet time people are finding the time to log in and in some cases have their say. That’s what it’s for after all. But I’ll be using the time between now and the World Championship Qualifiers trying to find some decent bets for when they come around. 

It's FIXED, I tell you FIXED. Paranoia is a terrible thing.

Below are the standings after the first day of Group 6. Still wide open and could be a very complicated table by the end of the day.

Yesterday’s Betfair fiasco appears to have generated a great deal of interest, I still think they have based this decision on some extremely thin evidence and it’s a shame that in-play punters are made to suffer through their apparent paranoia where snooker is concerned. Other in-play bookmakers don’t appear to be concerned. I don’t think it’s helped either by some of the comments made on the forums, some of them are way off the mark and actually quite misleading.

Here’s news and note to Betfair, players do actually miss easy balls sometimes….the game would be pretty dull if they didn’t.

As I posted on Betfair, the commentator Dave Hendon pointed out that on the day in question the players were huddled round a computer screen to try and fathom out where they might finish, this image hardly throws up any questions of integrity. I wonder if anyone at Betfair is regretting making these quite pointed comments / accusations? They now appear to have burned their bridges with the Championship League and if they do put up match betting on the semi-finals and final later tonight, I’d say that’s double standards. If anyone at Betfair is reading this, just do the right thing and retract the remarks and get the markets back up for your customers, then we can all move on and forget about it. If not, why not post a comment below and tell us exactly what information you are basing this decision on? Let’s get it out in the open. 

Manan Chandra - Famous in Indian Snooker circles but not that famous anywhere else

Regular readers on here may remember my joy at the apparent decision by World Snooker not to go ahead with the ‘let the locals have a go’ element of the China Open next month. Well, I’m afraid I spoke far too soon and idiocy has prevailed and the eight lowest ranked players to qualify for what is after all a ranking event, are being asked to qualify again against a collection of six Chinese players, one Indian player and a player from Thailand.

Whilst I cannot for one second claim to know how good all these players are, I do know that Tian Pengfei is a good player (formerly on the pro tour) and will definitely present a big challenge for Dark Mavis in front of a partisan, chatty, mobile phone ringing, flash photography taking audience, having despatched of Ding in this last year. Also, Yu Delu was the guy who knocked out Rod Lawler at this stage last year and sent him home on day one.

I know it’s all about widening the game up and making it have a more global appeal, but must they do this in a ranking event with players futures at stake? I for one think it is extremely unfair and would cause uproar if it were to happen in a tournament over here. It’s particularly unfair that players such as Bjorn Haneever, who rarely qualifies beyond the first couple of matches are being asked to win again before facing a big name. The unlucky qualifiers and their fortunate opponents are listed below.

Tian 'The Penguin' Pengfei - a dangerous opponent

WC1 – Rod Lawler v Supoj Saenla

WC2 – Robert Milkins v Lu Chenwei

WC3 – Andrew Higginson v Li Yan

WC4 – Mark Davis v Tian Pengfei

WC5 – James Wattana v Manan Chandra

WC6 – Tony Drago v Shi Shuamgyang

WC7 – Rory McLeod v Tang Jun

WC8 – Bjorn Haneveer v Yu Delu