The Snookerbacker Blog

Darren still keeps his eye in.

The next four days sees another feast of snooker when the final qualifying section of the replacement to the Grand Prix, the World Open gets underway.

There are a few familiar names and faces competing over the shorter best of five frames format and Sportingbet have actually taken the plunge and priced a few of the matches up and I have to say I am tempted to have a small bet on what I think are a few little tempters.

The draw can be viewed here.

There are clear favourites in some of the matches and backing heavy favourites over short formats to decent stakes is not something I would encourage.

However, this is a snooker and a betting blog all rolled into one little package so it would be rude of me not to share my thoughts on the ones I think are the least likely to go pair shaped and they are:

Thepchaiya Un-nooh who faces lady professional Reanne Evans. It’s fair to say that Reanne is struggling to find her feet in the male dominated world at the moment and there is no reason why the Thai who has mixed with and beaten much better players than her won’t do the same here.

Darren ‘Hi Babe’ Morgan is one of the ‘veteran’ wildcards, but make no mistake this guy can still play a bit. Ex-pro Habib Subah has a dreadful record and I would not be at all surprised to see Darren make light work of this.

Jamie Jones plays the other veteran wildcard, Bolton Stud Tony Knowles. Jamie won’t be phased by the odd pair of knickers from discount stores all over the UK being thrown onto the table when Tony goes for his own TK Maxx and you would think on current form he’ll be far too strong for the one time Top Shagger of the Baize.

Patrick's been taking tips from Knowsley

Patrick Einsle the German Ginger player is looking like he’s taken to professional life this time a little better than in the past, recent victories over Peter Ebdon and Jimmy Robertson in PTC Events may give him enough confidence to get past Dermot McGlinchey, who doesn’t win very often.

So I would say a recommended bet would be a roll up on the four of them at a shade over 4/1 with Sportingbet.

Blog Flag Bearer Gary Thomson is 5/6 in his match and judging from the interview below is in confident mood so the best of luck to him. I also like the odds against Liam Highfield (11/10) to beat Michael White in the battle of the hotshots and I also like the 5/4 about Adam Witcheard to beat James McBain. You could do worse than a trixie on these three as two out of three will cover your stake but I’ll stop short of recommending it.

What I will recommend however is a 2points win on Witcheard to beat McBain at 5/4.

If you decide to have a bet, the best of luck. I will update on here at regular intervals and again, best of luck to Gary Thomson.

Incidentally, you will be able to see the latest musical duel between myself and my nemesis Tom Petty again this week here in what again I feel is a winning week for all things Mozza though I think the witty gambling blogster updates it tomorrow. Mrs Snookerbacker will doubtless scoop the prize again with the gems she plucks from obscurity.

But in the meantime in the spirit of gentlemanly competition I will direct you to this gem, from the blog of the Tom Petty man, I have to say when he isn’t too obsessed with Petty he does unearth some buried treasure.

Latest Scores:

1 Jamie Jones 3-0 Tony Knowles (Knowles docked first frame, late at table, tripped on knickers in foyer)

2. Matt Williams 1-3 Paul Davison

3. John Whitty 0-3 (77) Thanawat Tirapaipongboon

4. Noppon Saengkham 3-1 (52) Luca Brecel

5 Igor Figueiredo 3-2 Liu Chuang

6 Liam Highfield 3-1 Michael White

7. Justin Astley 3-2 (47,46) Michael Wasley

8. Chris Norbury 3-0 Richard Beckham

9. Adam Wicheard 2-3 James McBain

10 Daniel Wells 3-1 Jamie O’Neill

11. Jak Jones (43) 1-3 (47) Joe Jogia

12. Patrick Wallace 3-0 Kurt Maflin

13. Jack Lisowski 3-1 Ryan Causton

14. Xiao Guodong 3-0 James Loft

15. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (115) 3-1 Reanne Evans

16. Julian Logue (72) 1-3 Joel Walker

17. Mike Finn 0-3 Kyren Wilson

18. Habib Subah 1-3 Darren Morgan

19. Mitchell Mann 0-3 Ben Woollaston

20. Andrew Pagett 2-3 Kuldesh Johal

21. Anish Gokool 0-3 Sam Harvey

22. Patrick Einsle 2-3 Dermot McGlinchey

23. Issara Kachaiwong (45) 2-3 (66,91,64) James McGouran

24. Sam Baird 3-2 Anda Zhang