The Snookerbacker Blog

Referee Williams stares in wonderment at Pettman's hair.

Monday sees the conclusion of Round Three. The two White’s, veteran Jimmy and youngster Michael are back to try and make it to the final qualifying round.

Once again I can see an opportunity to make a bit of cash on a couple of these. I know a few people are already on Guodong at odds against to beat serial bad hair day man Stuart Pettman, my thoughts on that match are at the foot of the post.

Let’s hope for a decent conclusion to round three for us poor punters.

All prices are correct at time of writing and head to heads are included where applicable.

Jimmy White v Adrian Gunnell

I said the other day that anyone backing Jimmy to win his last match at 1/3 needed their head examining. He won 9-1 in a canter, shows you what I know. There is a widespread belief from some in the game that The Whirlwind can have one more crack at the big time and when he is on his game there is no doubt he can still produce some fabulous snooker. Given that my hero made me look like a dope the other day, I forgive him. So much so in fact that I am going to recommend a bet on him in this one at what I believe to be a great price. Gunnell shouldn’t get near him here.

Recommended Bet: Jimmy White at 4/5 Skybet

Jamie Burnett v Michael White (H2H 0-1)

Strangely the only time these two have met was almost to the day last year at this stage in this event, White winning 9-8.  Michael had a great win over Davy Morris in the last round and will go into this in good spirits. Jay-Bee shocked everyone by getting to the final of the first ranking event over in Shanghai and played some excellent stuff to get there. We haven’t seen much of him since then and his visits to the PTC’s have not been very successful. I think there are other matches that we can get involved in today so I’d leave this one alone.

Joe Swail v Simon Bedford

Poor old Joe, he loses a lot more than he wins these days and suffered an horrendous run of results last season when he lost his first match in all but one ranking event, leading to a slip from the brink of the top 16 to the high forties in the ranking list. The signs aren’t that good for him this season either, though he did beat Jamie Jones last week. Even in this highly winnable match it would be a brave person that lumped on the Outlaw and a far more attractive proposition is the 7/4 on his opponent. If Joe has one of his off days that could look very big a few frames in.

Rab C Nesbitt

Marcus Campbell v Mark Joyce (H2H 1-1)

One of the two PTC event winners on show today, the Scottish scruff Marcus Campbell takes on Joycey who surprised me by beating Alfie Burden the other day. But when Campbell is firing he is a very good player and by all accounts he’s also one of the nicest players you could wish to meet making me feel a bit mean for calling him a scruffbag, but I just can’t help it, something takes over, it’s like a form of Tourettes. Anyway, the Scruff has lost just 5 of his last 24 competitive matches, it’s fair to say he’s on a roll. Joyce was also on his hit list when he won over in Germany. Paddy Power have this priced right and have Marcus at 2/5. Both Hills and Stan James have him at 8/15. Get on while you can.

Recommended Bet: 2 points win Marcus Campbell at 8/15

Michael Holt v Patrick Wallace

Another PTC winner takes the stage with Holt fresh from his fantastic win in Prague last week. He beat Maguire, Murphy, Selby and Higgins on his way to lifting the trophy on what he described as the best snooker day of his life. There are two things I know about Michael Holt, the first is that he is probably the best example of a confidence player on the tour that there is, heart on your sleeve isn’t in it and secondly he can be very very inconsistent, almost freakishly so making him a dangerous player to bet on. His Czech triumph was entirely unexpected and came out of the blue. If his tail is up he’ll carry on where he left off here, Paddy will try and bore him to death but Holt is the better player by quite a long way and will just need to keep his cool to coast into the next round. I won’t recommend him as the 4/11 is a bit too short.

Xiao Guodong v Stuart Pettman (H2H 0-1)

The head to head statistic dates back to 2007 when Pettman won a Grand Prix encounter 4-2. Guodong, or ‘Gwoowy’ as he has been known this week around these parts gave us all a bit of a lift with his demolition job on Michael Judge and he’ll be confident of winning here too. Pettman was last seen on TV snatching defeat from the jaws of victory against Stephen Maguire in the World Open, he has also not been taking full advantage of the PTC’s and has only bothered with a few. He’s either had his head (and silly hair) down practising for events like this or been in the doldrums since his TV howler. There are plenty that will be lumping on the Chinese player and he may seem like the bet of the day to some but I wouldn’t rule Pettman out. He does make venues quite regularly which suggests that he is a very different player in the qualifiers and if I’m honest, gun to head I’d side with him, but it’s a no bet for me as I have 9/1 on Gwoowy qualifying, so hopefully he wins.

Manic Monday Multiple:

I have already recommended one multiple in the previous preview, with Campbell and Holt in it. But for those fancying a go on just these matches I’d go for a 1 point treble on Jimmy, Campbell and Holt which pays just over 5/2 at William Hills.

Good Luck as ever to anyone entering the bear pit on Monday.