The Snookerbacker Blog

Kurt from The Office

I look forward to the day when I can say “well that’s the wildcards out of the way with all the qualifiers through” but sadly again we find one player beaten by this unfair system and former World Champion Ken Doherty on his way home, or to Australia, but either way out of China after a poor end to his season.

It’s fair to say that Ken won’t be occupying himself on the plane playing Hangman, with his conqueror Li Hang inflicting a clinical victory over the hapless Dubliner. I noticed at the end Ken looked furious, whether this was at himself and his woeful display or at the fact that the guy he beat shouldn’t have been there I don’t know. But I once again call on World Snooker to stop this wildcard nonsense. Barry talks about players earning the right to their tour card, yet persists in pandering to Chinese sponsors and allowing this. If they want their card, let them play for it under a separate Asian Q-School and then go to the qualifying like the others have to.

There were narrow wins in three other matches for Bond, Campbell and Kurt Maflin (or Keith Maflin as Joe Johnson prefers to call him) who all prevailed by five frames to three, whilst Joe Perry came through unscathed a little easier. Our boy Maffers looked shocking at the beginning of his match with Yupeng but on going 3-2 down managed to put together a few balls and settled into the environment eventually. Yupeng it’s fair to say is no world beater and how Keith will cope with Ding is another matter entirely.

Meanwhile, in the real tournament, we saw Stephen Hendry inflict a total hatchet job on Matthew Stevens, who looked like he was barely awake in mustering a dismal 9 points for the whole match. I was scrambling around my ‘Anorak’s Guide to Snooker’ to find out if Matt had made some kind of unwanted record and indeed he has. He has scored the lowest points total for a Best of 9 televised ranking match in snooker history.

Unfortunately, by virtue of a single red he didn’t quite manage the ‘lowest points score of any best of nine ranking event match ever in the universe’, which as we all know is held by Graham Bradley, who was beaten by the mighty Paul Smith in Aldershot in 1992′s Welsh Open qualifiers. Now our Graham has been dining out on this ever since and has obviously done pretty well on the profits as I can exclusively reveal that I managed to catch up with him at his luxury villa in the Maldives for his reaction to this close encounter. He said: ‘F**k off SB’ before slamming the phone down. Some people eh? Why would you not want to be reminded of that?

Then came Neil Robertson who looked pretty good and a lot sharper than he has been since as far back as the World Open. I have a feeling he may be hard to beat this week with a fairly decent draw up to the semi-finals. The future of the Great Blog Bet Pot is on his Aussie Shoulders, so it’s fingers crossed for the Thunder.

I am waiting for an email from my correspondent over in Beijing, Si-Ting Chi-Lee who has rang me to say he has seen Ronnie wandering around. So I suppose that proves at least that he’s there. But I do hope he is staying off the booze as he promised me he would, this doesn’t bode well from what I know of him.

Now to tomorrow’s matches:

2.30pm

1. Mark Williams v Stephen Lee (H2H 11-3)
13. Stephen Maguire v Mark Davis (H2H 3-1)
WC. Rob Milkins v Rouzi Maimaiti
WC. Gerard Greene v Yu Delu

He Bangs.

Mark Williams takes on Stephen Lee on the main TV table and this could be a cracker with both of them showing some excellent form coming into this. The head to heads however are very convincing in favour of MJW, who as we all know travels very well and often performs some of his best stuff when outside the UK. It’s 2002 since Lee beat him, though Big Stevie is playing a lot better now than he has for ages, but I still fancy Williams.

The big unknown in the other first rounder in this session is about Stephen Maguire. Just how will he be feeling coming into this? I have no idea if his baby has been born but I’m assuming it has or he wouldn’t be here. Dark Mavis was seriously awful in Dublin after having to sit through a hiding by Rory McLeod to get to the Crucible. My guess is that he will feel a lot like Ken did today and I think it will take a huge effort for him to get anything out of this match.

In the wildcard matches I’d expect Rob Milkins to come through no problem but I can’t feel quite as confident about Gerard Greene. He is another that will be a little low on confidence against a wildcard that is capable of beating players of his level.

Recommended Bets:

2 points Stephen Maguire (-1.5 frames) 4/5 Boylesports

1 point Mark Williams (-1.5 frames) 9/10 Boylesports

1 point Yu Delu to beat Greene 13/8 Skybet

7.30pm
4. Ding Junhui v Keith Maflin
12. Shaun Murphy v Joe Perry (H2H 2-3)
11. Graeme Dott v Li Hang
6. Mark Allen v Marcus Campbell

We can expect the usual circus to follow Ding around tomorrow and he faces up to Keith on the main table. Like I said, Maffers settled eventually earlier today but he missed some shockers early on. If he does so again Ding will eat him for breakfast and if I’m honest that is what I’d expect here.

Smurf tackles Gentleman Joe and despite meeting five times they have only met once over this distance and in a main ranking event, in the Welsh Open of 2008 where Murphy won 5-0. Murphy was in blistering form in Dublin and there is no reason to suspect he will suffer a further dip in form from now until the end of the season. I think we’ll be seeing him at the business end of things again and I would not expect him to lose this one.

Li Hang played very well against Doherty but was gifted chances and tomorrow faces former winner Graeme Dott who will attack the balls much like Hang did today. In terms of class these two are poles apart and assuming Graeme has got himself settled in and found a McDonalds and somewhere that sells Coke (read his book), he should be fine. It’s fair to say that our Dotty won’t be sampling the local delicacies of deep fried duck shit or pandas testicles any time soon. He’s a Big Mac man is Dotty.

That leaves us with Mark Allen, a semi-finalist last year against our favourite Scottish Scruff Marcus Campbell. Marcus only made one frame winning break in his match earlier and will have to score far heavier against the Ketchup Kid, who despite not yet having the season that a few of us including myself, expected him to have is still a class act on his day and should have enough to deal with this one you would think.

Recommended Bets:

0.25 points on Ding to win 5-0 at 13/2 with Stan James

2 points win Shaun Murphy (-1.5 frames) at 4/5 Generally

1 point win Graeme Dott (-2.5 frames) at 6/4 Extrabet

Recommended Multiple Bets:

2 point roll up on Mark Williams to win, Stephen Maguire to win, Graeme Dott to win and Shaun Murphy (-1.5 frames) pays just on 9/2 at Boylesports.

1 point Mad Acca on Williams, Maguire, Milkins, Ding, Allen, Murphy and Dott pays just on 15/2 at Betfred.

A Changed Man? It's China time and that can only mean one thing.

Good Morning Everyone. This morning sees the start of the Bank of Beijing China Open and coverage can be followed all week on Eurosport.

I’ve already made my first blunder of the week in getting up an hour early. For some reason I seem to recall the morning sessions last year starting at 6.30 in the UK, but perhaps the hackers have also stolen some of my own memory.

Bad news about Jimmy and his visa. Rumours are that he arrived in China but then left to do an exhibition in Thailand and was then refused entry back into China. His lack of Tweets about the matter leads me to believe that he is not in the UK so I see no reason why this isn’t true. I suppose it’s reassuring that the UK isn’t the only country dogged by a culture of endless bureaucracy and red tape over common sense.

I’ll have to see if my man over there Si-Ting Chi-Lee has anything to say on the matter later on. He has promised me all the ‘scoops’ this week and has said he’s a changed man and now off the booze and fags, so we shall see.

Remember I’m now @snookerbacker1 and not @snookerbacker on Twitter – if there are any tweets from the old account it isn’t me and is either a snotty nosed girlfriendless spotty and slightly whiffy adolescent in his upstairs den of masturbation, a vodka drinking eastern European in a fluffy hat, a friend of a friend of a friend from North of the Border or some bloke that runs a church group in Illinois and will one day be famous, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, I’ve said enough. Here’s the matches. Feel free to chat below.

First Session (7.30am UK Time)

Stephen Hendry 5-0 Matthew Stevens
Kurt Maflin 5-3 Cao Yupeng
Marcus Campbell 5-3 Mei Xiwen
Joe Perry 5-2 Li Yan

Second Session

Neil Robertson 5-1 Barry Hawkins
Tian Pengfei w/0 Jimmy White
Nigel Bond 5-3 Jin Long
Ken Doherty 1-5 Li Hang

Maybe it was all a bad dream?

I know there are people around the world in far worse situations than any of us can ever imagine and it’s quite frankly frightfully British of me to feel hard done to after the events of yesterday evening but I do. This is what happened.

I had just finished doing the Monday Matches post below and once I pressed the ‘publish’ button myself and Mrs SB decided to cook our dinner together. We had a range of tapas which even though I say so myself would not have looked out of place on the sunniest beaches in all of Spain.

On finishing I decided to sign into the blog again to see if anyone had any opinions on the post before settling down to watch my new DVD box set of ‘Give us a Break’ which I had been convincing Mrs SB of the merits of over dinner. We really know how to live it large on a Saturday night. Oh yes. But our entertainment was put on hold as it was then that I noticed that the entire content of the blog had been erased. Gone. Vanished. Kaput.

Having tried various clueless methods to retrieve things, which were mostly wild stabs in the dark in panic mode without the faintest idea what I was doing I began contacting my hero, Paul, the world’s greatest living human being who managed somehow, through his inbuilt superpowers to both assure me things would be ok and fix the site.

But in the meantime little did I know that whoever was determined to foil my bid for world domination had decided to start posting as me on my Twitter account, while I was still signed into it. Making the tweets coming from me and those from my nemesis undistinguishable. I was also sent an official looking email supposedly from Twitter pointing me in the direction of a well known snooker manager. I now believe this to have been an utter fake and fabrication.

Now let’s get this straight, I am not the biggest fan of whoever did this. I have my own ideas of the motives behind it but I can’t and probably will never be able to prove it. Suffice to say that it wasn’t pleasant and I hope it doesn’t happen again.

In the meantime, I have a new Twitter account as detailed below and you can follow me by clicking here. Hopefully the only drama from now on will be on the baize. Maybe I should feel flattered that someone thinks this little place is so important and influential that they want shut of it.

Later today I shall be recounting the events of last night with my poison pen, but in the meantime I am now the artist formerly known as snookerbacker on Twitter as my account there was hacked. You can now listen to my incessant ramblings at snookerbacker1

How original is that? It’s kind of like the Birmingham 6 or the Tamworth 2.

Some Tw*t nicked my Twit.

Danger Man

Monday sees the beginning of the China Open and my annual moan about the unfairness of the wildcard round comes around again. Has it really been only a year?

Championship League winner and friend of the blog Matthew Stevens’ gruelling schedule shows no signs of letting up and he is first up on the TV table against Stephen Hendry in one of the two first round matches taking place, the other being in the second session where Neil Robertson takes on Barry Hawkins.

But aside from these two fully legitimate pair-ups, six qualifiers must try and qualify again against dangerous amateurs that are more than capable of sending them on the plane home in the blink of an eye. As ever, I sincerely hope all the qualifiers win and the wildcards lose, but I fear that won’t happen and at least one unlucky baize boy will be unfairly snuffed out of an event for which they qualified legitimately to play in the first round.

As you know, I firmly believe that there is no God, well, given Kurt Maflin’s performances in the qualifiers to get here, if he loses this will only serve to confirm things further in my mind. I would even expect that German bloke who wears a silly dress himself to raise questions about his own calling should our Maffers be sent packing. I’ll be ringing the Vatican should this materialise to counsel him and say ‘I told you so’.

Anyway, enough of that old claptrap, let’s look at the matches:

2.30pm China Time (see dead cool clocks on sidebar for your own equivalent)

Stephen Hendry v Matthew Stevens (H2H 10-12 since 1995)
Kurt Maflin v Cao Yupeng
Marcus Campbell v Mei Xiwen
Joe Perry v Li Yan

The main match is obviously between Hendry and Stevens and if both carry their recent form into the match you would expect Matthew to win. But having been ‘on the road’ since his exhilarating win over Fergal O’Brien in the World Qualifiers, reaching the semi-finals in Dublin and winning the Championship League something surely will have to give at some point? Hendry has looked a little better in patches of late, but is still not really getting the results he would normally expect. Matthew has a solid record against him and I think he can win this one.

Then we come to the wildcard matches. Maflin takes on Yupeng, who we saw at the Hainan Classic a couple of weeks ago. Whilst the commentator on his match, none other than Mad Uncle Joe Johnson warned that he was dangerous, to me he didn’t look all that good. He definitely didn’t impress me as much as the first time I saw Pengfei play. If Kurt can continue his form from the qualifiers and indeed the World Qualifiers where he lost an epic match to Xiao Guodong he will come through this one, I hope he does. I’d say even if he isn’t firing on all cylinders, his B game will be good enough.

In the other two matches I hope and expect the seeds to come through. Xiwen beat Mike Dunn in this round in Shanghai before losing to Selby but that was the biggest win he has had. Marcus ‘C Nesbitt’ Campbell will be in fine spirits having qualified for the Crucible and again his B game should be enough to win. Similarly, Joe Perry having qualified for Sheffield should just need a characteristically measured performance to see off Li Yan who has lost his last three wildcard matches, the last two producing just one solitary frame for the local man against the combined might of Andrew Higginson and Joe Delaney.

7.30pm

Neil Robertson v Barry Hawkins (H2H 0-1)
Jimmy White v Tian Pengfei
Nigel Bond v Jin Long (H2H 0-1)
Ken Doherty v Li Hang (H2H 1-0)

Remembered his passport. Forgot the straighteners.

Neil Robertson is one of my outright picks for this and the World Champion tweeted the other day that he has been practising hard. Barry Hawkins is a tough first round opponent and is another that is Crucible bound after this event so should be full of confidence. I’ll stick with Robbo as he’s due a run in something and despite not having a great record in China at least this time he’s remembered his passport.

We then come to poor old Jimmy, for me given the prize turd of a draw in the player I consider to be the strongest wildcard in Tian Pengfei. Apparently, Tian hasn’t done all that well this year on the Chinese tour, but whenever I see him play I wonder why he isn’t a professional, a top 32 professional at that. Frustration may be at the heart of why he is not performing in his own country as I’d expect he should. He proved, well he kind of proved last year that the reputation of opponents means nothing to him when beating Ronnie, though he did have a helping hand from the Rocket it has to be said who scooped a Willie for the most bizarre shot on the final black of the entire season. But the point is he is unlikely to be phased by Jimmy and given the Whirlwind’s recent performances at venues I think he could nick that one. I hope I’m wrong but I think he’s worth a bet.

UPDATE: We will never know as Jimmy has been forced to withdraw because of Visa issues.

Former tour pro Jin Long beat Bondy 5-4 in their only meeting to date in the now defunct Masters qualifying event in 2008, but Nigel will be wanting to end his season well after failing to get to the Crucible and I marginally fancy him to prevail there. This leaves Kendo against Li Hang, another former professional who is potentially dangerous but he doesn’t have scalps the level of even a fading Ken on his CV so I’m going to stick with the Darling in that one too. Who knows, Ken might just go out with a bang this season before he is asked by eager young TV executives at the BBC to say ‘turty tree’ every five minutes for 17 days. He’s 150/1 for any of you sentimentalists out there, mental being the key bit of that word obviously as I’ve had the grand total of £3.92 on him at said odds (it was left in my Blue Square account).

Recommended Bets:

2 points win Tian Pengfei to beat Jimmy White (sorry Jim) at 10/11 with Betfred

2 point accumulator: Campbell, Perry, Doherty and Robertson pays just over 2/1 at Betfred

1 point accumulator: all the above with Matthew Stevens at over 4/1 with Betfred

GOOD LUCK AS EVER.

The man to beat.

I really enjoy the China Open. I think it suits mine and Mrs SB’s lifestyle quite well as I like to get up early in the morning but sometimes get a bit bored and end up waking Mrs SB up, which can make her a little bit grumpy with me first thing.

But when this event is on, it’s fine. I can just get out of bed without making a sound, feed the dogs and then turn on Eurosport with a cup of tea and some toast to watch the early morning action in peace. The added bonus is that Mrs SB can continue with her beauty sleep and will then wake up and be nicer to me. Everyone’s a winner.

I particularly enjoyed it last year as everything bettingwise seemed to go our way. It was the start of a winning run which culminated in Robbo lifting the World Championship Trophy a few weeks later, I’m hoping for more of the same this year as the boys take to the baize in Beijing.

Mark Williams defends the title he won last season which marked his return to the winners enclosure and he has a difficult first match against Stephen Lee, who must be wondering what he has to do to get a decent draw these days. Not only that but the winner of this match will play either Mark’s first round Crucible opponent Ryan Day or the enigmatic and lesser spotted Rocket, Ronnie O’Sullivan.

As ever these days, the participation of the Rocket over in China is as unpredictable as his form when he gets there. The scaremongering about him not competing started in earnest on Facebook the other day but seemed to me just like idle chit chat between people pretending to be ‘in the know’ with no real substance behind it.

The only official indication of the situation regarding our Ron came on a Chinese snooker website which claimed that he was definitely participating in the event. He is so short of match practice that surely if he has any intention of giving his best at the Crucible he must make the trip here and have a go at least. But Ronnie is Ronnie and I’ve given up predicting what he is going to do. He could just as much bomb out first round here as win the thing in style, it’s pure guesswork and adds that element of uncertainty to any bets struck. But I am going to stick with my 100% successful strategy in ranking events since the blog began and assume he won’t win it. I’m sure he’ll prove me wrong one day, but he is probably as ill prepared for this one as any other event in the last two seasons and that is reflected in his price which is as big as I can ever remember him being for a ranking event.

Ronnie is best price 15/2 at Betfred – click here to open an account with a free £50 matched bet offer.

Anyway, enough of Ronnie as there are more players in the game than him and a lot of them come into this in form such as John Higgins, Mark Williams, local hero Ding Junhui and Shaun Murphy who are the ‘big winners’ from the last few months. But who’s to say that some of the other boys just a little further down the current pecking order might not just strike form at the right time of the season, players such as the World Champion Neil Robertson perhaps? Or Ali Carter? Stephen Maguire? Graeme Dott? Or perhaps someone from the lower ranks will up their game to new levels? Jamie Cope? Judd Trump? Ricky Walden? Tony Knowles? (oh damn, sadly he’s not in it). All these calculations and more make this event as well as the big one in April a betting minefield or goldmine, depending on which way you look at it. But let’s try and come through this with a decent profit at the other end shall we?

I will approach the preview as I usually do; in quarters. I will be doing match previews throughout next week with recommended first round match bets in a further post at the weekend. The draw for the event is here.

Quarter 1

This is without doubt the most difficult quarter on paper of the lot. Four first round matches that might go either way with the holder Williams facing Lee, Ronnie against Ryan Day, Hendry against Matthew Stevens and Ding possibly up against Norwegian Cockney Kurt Maflin, who was a revelation in the qualifiers and comes here with nothing to lose and everything to gain. Despite this, I’d say the only name I would definitely put through to the last 16 out of this lot is Ding. I would then expect him to progress further against the winner of the Hendry and Globetrotter Stevens clash.

But who will come out of the top four names triumphant is anyone’s guess and whoever makes it will have earned their quarter final place. Williams will have a lot of supporters to retain his title and if Ronnie turns up in the mood who knows? But of course Ryan Day gave him a good beating in Newport and comes into this in form.

When weighing the quarter up and with home advantage on his side, I fancy Ding to prevail as he’s simply a class act on his day and capable of performing to his best in this event as he has proved in the past. We all know he isn’t always comfortable with his superstar status over there but I’ll take him to progress to a semi-final place to face the winner of Quarter 2.

Predicted Quarter Winner: Ding Junhui

Quarter 2

There are three ifs and buts in terms of the first round line up with wildcard rounds involving qualifiers Marcus Campbell, Jimmy White and Rob Milkins affecting this quarter of the draw. Only Milkins for me is a shoo-in to take his place in Round 1 with Jimmy and Marcus both facing dangerous opposition. Jimmy’s opponent Tian Pengfei in particular could progress further if he manages to blow out the wind with a potential giant kill of Mark Selby on the cards in his next match.

The Captain will have his followers.

The only match we do know in Round 1 involves a battle of the Essex boys as the Captain and Shanghai Master Ali Carter takes on Ballrun Stuart Bingham. The Captain looked to be getting back to some decent form at times in the Hainan Classic and but for a couple of silly mistakes could have given John Higgins a run for his money. I would take him to pinch that one to set up an encounter with Campbell or Mark Allen. Allen had a run in this last year but by the semi-finals for whatever reason he seemed to fizzle out completely, but he is another that you sense is beginning to improve as the season reaches it’s climax and may produce that long awaited first ranking event win this week, he is certainly good enough.

Our old mate Jamie ‘Easyjet’ Cope got to the final in Hainan of course, where true to form he threw his cue on the floor along with his dummy and never got close to the eventual winner Higgins. Jamie however could win through to play the Jester/Pengfei/Jimmy and may fancy his chances of progressing further. He seems to play well in China does Cope and has been seen at the business end of things now on a few occasions over there.

I have to say that I am beginning to have my doubts on Mark Selby’s form again despite his confident soundbites.  I was convinced only a month ago that he was beginning to peak and about to rise to his long awaited mantle (of mine) as the next big champion, but now again and frustratingly and for whatever reason there is still something missing and I think he is still playing far too negatively and too slowly at times. He should read Graeme Dott’s book about last year’s World Championship and his attitude going into it and take note.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Cope come through the bottom set of matches but I’m going to keep faith with Shanghai winner and friend of the blog Ali to come through this quarter to face Ding in the semi-finals.

Predicted Quarter Winner: Ali Carter or Jamie Cope

Quarter 3

It doesn’t get any easier this with Higgins, Murphy, Dotty and the dangerous Pinner Potter Martin Gould all involved in this quarter. John faces the winner of Nigel Bond and the wildcard Jin Long which I’d expect him to win comfortably to set up another winnable tie with Ricky Walden or Gould. In the bottom section of this quarter you would expect Dotty to face the in-form Smurf for the right to have a crack at the Wizard in the Quarter Finals.

OK, maybe it wasn't Eric.

Murphy’s long game in Dublin was fantastic and very near faultless. He hardly missed a ball from distance, he has had a very poor few months by his own standards but when he starts playing like that you have to take note, the 22/1 on him for Sheffield has now been taken as a healthy insurance or trading policy and may look very big if he has a run in this.

But for me, Smurf has to still prove to himself that he can still do it against the top drawer players in the bigger events, when he seems to be tightening up a bit lately. To use an old Eric Bristow darts phrase ’180′s for show, Doubles for Dough’, that sums up how I feel about Smurf at the moment. He looks fantastic when things are going his way but when it gets choppy he looks a bit edgy.

That said, I get the feeling this quarter may be set up for a Higgins and Murphy showdown and if I am honest, on recent form I think Shaun is the only player out of this section standing in the way of John and the semi-finals. It’s not very original, but for this quarter, it has to be Higgins.

Predicted Quarter Winner: John Higgins

Quarter 4

When you look at a quarter involving the current world champion as well as serial cuebanger Stephen Maguire, Judd ‘Von’ Trump and Marco Fu and say it looks like the easiest one of the four to predict, you know how difficult snooker has become to call.

Mags will fancy his chances against Dark Mavis who was awful in the PTC event after losing to Rory McLeod in the World Qualifiers and looked like he wanted to lie down in a dark room for a few months. Should I be correct in judging Mavis’s current state of mind, new dad Stevie would then face Judd or Marco, a tough match to call but I think I would favour Maguire to come through against whoever wins that one.

Peter Ebdon popped up from nowhere and won this two seasons ago and he has been quietly making his way back up the ranking list all season, he should face Gerard Greene in his first match for the right to face Robbo or Barry Hawkins. Of course it was only last year that World Champ to-be Robertson made the sole 147 of the pro-season against Ebdon at this event in what turned out to be the only frame he won, but it was clearly enough to boost his confidence for Sheffield. It is a while since we saw Neil make a real impact on an event and he could possibly do with another confidence boosting performance here. I think the match to decide this quarter will be between Robbo and Maguire and despite Mags having the upper hand in the head to heads I’ll side with the World Champion to make that impact on the tournament this week and send Mags back to nappy changing duties. Robbo is too good a player to be this quiet for this long.

Predicted Quarter Winner: Neil Robertson

Recommended Bets:

3 points win John Higgins to win China Open at 5/1 (widely available)

2 points each way Ding Junhui to win China Open at 7/1 (Betfred)

1 point each way Neil Robertson to win China Open at 9/1 (widely available)

0.5 point each way Ali Carter to win China Open at 20/1 (Skybet)

0.5 point each way Jamie Cope to win the China Open at 50/1 (widely available)

2 points win on a first round treble of Stevens, Maguire and Robertson pays just under 3/1 at Bet365

Also, Black Whippet has asked me to ask everyone involved in the Great Blog Bet Pot (yes it’s still alive) to put forward your ideas on how to use it. So post your suggestions here.

Snails can bring out the worst in the refs

Good old Bazza is never one to miss out on the chance to big up our beloved baize and he’s been telling the papers that he wants rid of ‘snail paced potters’ at next months Betfred World Championship.

Our Baz has already this week been shooting from the hip about players that still want to have a bet on snooker and has warned them that if they are caught they can hang up their cue for life. But not content with that he has now got it in for the boys that prefer to take their time and send viewers across the world to sleep.

Whilst randomly staring in the direction of Rory McLeod and Peter Ebdon Bazza told the Daily Mirror: 

“I am saying to the players that while I am not looking to put shot-clocks in, be aware that the public must be entertained. There is a limit on pace of play they must be aware of. I want to see the game flow, we are a sport and an entertainment. Fans need value for money.”

He’s even asked the referees to be his eyes and ears and continued:

“I am saying to the referees and officials, ‘Use your own judgment’, there are no strict or hard and fast rules, but I want to see games move.”

“I don’t want to see players taking three minutes over a shot. If players get a warning, I expect them to realise this is a brave new world and react in the right way.”  

Never one to blow his own trumpet, Bazza also had a few words to say to Sky Sports about his first complete year in charge. In typically understated fashion King Hearn said:

“I think it’s been a definitive year in the evolution of snooker and I think we’re now back burning on full speed, there’ll always be a few moans. When you live in a dictatorship, even when it’s under a benevolent despot, you have to put up with certain things.”

Players were then seen reaching for their dictionaries to find out what he was talking about. 

But modestly Bazza concluded ”I don’t weaken. I have tremendous resolve in that I know what I’m doing and so far it’s working.”

You just gotta love our chairman.

Next Monday sees the start of the penultimate ranking event of the season over in Beijing as the Bank of Beijing China Open gets under way.

To accompany the tournament Betfred have once again stumped up a free £50 bet for the winner of our Prediction Contest.

The Rules:

1. Select two players from each of the groups listed below to form your final team of ten.

2. For each frame your players win you will receive 1 point.

3. For each frame your ‘Joker’ players from Group 5 which features those involved in the wildcard round win you will receive 3 points.

4. The winner is the player with the most team points at the end of the event.

The draw for the China Open can be downloaded here

The usual rules apply regarding anonymous, under age or multiple entries and all entries must be in by 6.30am UK time next Monday.

Good Luck

My China Open preview will be up on the blog in the very near future and there will be full match by match previews and updates throughout the tournament which is covered live on Eurosport.

Who will be shaking Bazza's hand tomorrow?

Good Morning all. We are now at the final stage of the Championship League and the Winners Group will decide who it is that automatically qualifies for the next Premier League.

Another fine show of form yesterday by one of the men in form at the moment Matthew Stevens saw him take the last place in the Winners Group. Quite a performance after a hectic time at the World Qualifiers and in Dublin. But it appears that our Matt can’t get enough of the baize lately and after this he’ll probably only get a day at home, if that before stepping on the long haul flight to Beijing in time for the start of the China Open on Monday.

Matt is 6/1 with Sportingbet to keep up the winning run but against such a strong field that’s one heck of a tall order, so I’m going to side with Mark Allen who I am always impressed with at this venue. He is 11/2 with Sportingbet and I may dutch him with the Captain at the same price as I know Ali is determined to make the Premier League line up on merit this year.

Big bucks at stake both over the course of the next two days and of course at the lucrative PL circus so we can expect to witness some decent action.

In my experience the best place to catch the matches is through live streaming on Bet 365.

FIXTURES FOR WINNERS’ GROUP
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23 AND THURSDAY MARCH 24
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23
Table one
10.30am Mark Selby 1-3 Mark Williams
11.45am Ryan Day 2-3 Mark Allen
Not before 1.30pm Mark Williams 1-3 Shaun Murphy
2.45pm Mark Allen 0-3 Matthew Stevens
Not before 5.30pm Mark Williams 2-3 Ali Carter
6.45pm Shaun Murphy 2-3 Matthew Stevens

Table two
10.30am Shaun Murphy 3-1 Ali Carter
11.45am Matthew Stevens 2-3 Mark Selby
Not before 1.30pm Ali Carter 3-0 Ryan Day
2.45pm Mark Selby 3-2 Shaun Murphy
Not before 5.30pm Ryan Day 0-3 Matthew Stevens
6.45pm Mark Allen 3-2 Ali Carter

KEEP UP WITH THE LEAGUE TABLE HERE

THURSDAY, MARCH 24
Table one
10.30am Mark Selby 2-3 Mark Allen
11.45am Ali Carter 2-3 Matthew Stevens
Mark Williams 1-3 Matthew Stevens
2.45pm Shaun Murphy 2-3 Ryan Day
Not before 5.30pm Play-off first v fourth
6.45pm Final

Table two
10.30am Mark Williams 3-2 Ryan Day
11.45am Shaun Murphy 3-1 Mark Allen
Not before 1.30pm Mark Selby 1-3 Ryan Day
2.45pm Mark Williams 3-0 Mark Allen
4pm (TBC) Mark Selby 0-3 Ali Carter
Not before 5.30pm Play-off second v third

Semi Finals

Stevens 3-1 Williams

Murphy 3-2 Carter

FINAL

Stevens 3-1 Murphy

WELL DONE MATTHEW STEVENS!!

Suits You Sir. Martin is back on the baize today. (photo by Monique)

There scarcely seems to be a day these days when there isn’t any snooker and today sees the start of the final qualifying group in the Championship League from the giant armchairs of Crondon Park.

This is the last chance for those left in the event to qualify for the Winners Group which starts on Wednesday and features previous group winners, Mark Selby, Mark Williams, Shaun Murphy, Ali Carter, Ryan Day and Mark Allen.

Whilst my attention today will be firmly focused on events at Wembley at 10.45am UK time, I will try and update the scores as they happen. or alternatively you could navigate your way through the official website here.

Stephen Lee, Matthew Stevens and Martin Gould have all had to hot foot it to Essex straight from Dublin and the bookies are obviously of the opinion that Gould will be shattered as he is the outsider here.

I’ll take Group 6 runner-up Stephen Lee to continue his run of form and gain that last spot in the main group. He’s 9/2 to win the group at Sportingbet.

Remember to tune in later this morning and have your F5 button at the ready to watch the draw materialise as it happens.

GROUP SEVEN FIXTURES
TO BE PLAYED MONDAY, MARCH 21 AND TUESDAY, MARCH 22
MONDAY, MARCH 21
TABLE ONE (all times are approximate)
Stephen Lee 3-2 Marco Fu
Martin Gould 0-3 Andrew Higginson
Matthew Stevens 3-2 Mark King
Andrew Higginson 0-3 Marco Fu
Matthew Stevens 2-3 Liang Wenbo
Mark King 3-1 Marco Fu

TABLE TWO (all times are approximate)
Mark King 3-1 Liang Wenbo
Matthew Stevens 1-3 Stephen Lee
Liang Wenbo 2-3 Martin Gould
Stephen Lee 3-2 Mark King
Martin Gould 0-3 Marco Fu
Andrew Higginson 0-3 Liang Wenbo