The Snookerbacker Blog

'No evidence to suggest either player was involved'

The WPBSA has just released this statement relating to the match between Stephen Maguire and Jamie Burnett three seasons ago.

World Snooker’s governing body has now reviewed evidence provided by the Strathclyde Police over allegations of suspicious betting on a match between Stephen Maguire and Jamie Burnett in 2008.

The WPBSA’s findings agree that there was suspicious betting activity on this match by people outside of the sport and this required a detailed investigation by Strathclyde Police. However, there is no evidence to suggest that either player was involved in fixing the scoreline and therefore no regulatory action will be taken by the governing body against the players.

WPBSA Chairman, Jason Ferguson, said: “This investigation has been ongoing since 15 December 2008 and I am pleased to see this matter closed.”

Strewth, I think I need a cold one.

G’Day Cobber. We’ve reached the final day of the Aussie Open qualifying where the successful crop from lower down the rankings take on seeds 17-32 for the right to board the flight to Oz.

It was a mixed day again yesterday with a strong start in the morning and a pretty disappointing end to the day, though Dave Gilbert did at least salvage something with his deciding frame win last night. He returns again later for his fourth match of the week along with Yu Delu, Tian Pengfei, Ben Wollaston, Scott McKenzie and Liam Highfield who have all been here all week.

The winners today will win a minimum of 7500 Australian Dollars, which is about £5000. The flights over there, unless some of the playboi’s are flying business class come out at somewhere around £1500, when you consider all the add-ons such as hotel expenses, surfboard hire, bleach to dye your hair blonde to fit in, sun cream, cork hat purchase and lager you realise just what a tough life it is for the lower professionals. To make a living at this game you need to be consistently making main venues, if you don’t make one in a season, you ain’t gonna last too long on the main tour, not just because your ranking will slip, but surely also because the expenses must sooner or later end up being more than your earnings. But this is what Bazza said he wanted at the beginning, a more competitive environment where only the strong survive.

On to today’s matches now and at time of writing only the morning and afternoon matches have been chalked up by the usual suspects. I’m a bit disappointed at the lack of interest in this event from some firms. These qualifiers offer decent betting opportunities to us poor punters and are getting very difficult to call, making them presumably attractive to the bookies so it’s strange that some of them just don’t bother. Maybe we’ve scared some of them off.

Matthew Selt landed a gamble yesterday against Adrian Gunnell and takes on the Rickster, Ricky Walden this morning. Ricky’s defeated hangdog expression from his Crucible press conference where I was sitting less than 6 feet away from him will forever be etched on my memory. He’s only been spotted once since then and was beaten by Justin Astley in the first round of the PTC last week. You get the feeling that Ricky needs the win here to get himself up and running for the season, but he sometimes has a habit of losing the matches he most needs to win and I wouldn’t put anyone off having a punt on Selt again here. He’s 7/4 over at Paddy Power and I think that represents a bit of value, I’ll just recommend the 1 point on him.

Martin Gould is now one of the most consistent players on the tour and it must only be a matter of time until he gets into the top 16 and stops having to qualify, I think he may have a little too much for Mark Joyce and at 8/15 with Paddies he may tempt some of the bigger punters. He’s one for the multiple bet for me. Robert Milkins (aka Mill Hopkins) has the honour of playing Rory McLeod today after Jimmy became the latest victim of ‘The Dentist’, it’s a tough one to call but I’d marginally side with Milkins, but it’s a real chalk and cheese clash this with Milkins a fast, attacking potter and Rory, well, not.

Last time Jamie Burnett played Andy Higginson he beat him 5-0 on his way to the final of the Shanghai Masters at the start of last season. I’d say that at 11/10 at Paddies, Burnett is worth a punt again this morning and I’ll recommend 1 point on that.

Post-watershed Twitter joker Mike Dunn faces a tough task against Marcus Campbell. Marcus is another that is becoming very consistent at this level and frequently makes venues, he made the QF of the PTC last week, admittedly not beating opposition the standard of his opponent today, but the warm up will have done him good and I’d side with the big Scot in this tie. You’d also expect Ryan Day to end the charge of Yu Delu, the 1/2 at Sportingbet is perhaps another that might appeal to bigger singles punters but I’ll stick to a 2 point treble this morning on Gould, Campbell and Day which pays a little under 5/2 at Sportingbet.

10am

51. Ricky Walden 0-5 Matthew Selt (Selt to play John Higgins at venue*)
52. Martin Gould 5-3 Mark Joyce (Gould to play Stephen Hendry at venue*)
53. Robert Milkins 2-5 Rory McLeod (Rory to play Peter Ebdon at venue for a week*)
54. Andrew Higginson 5-4 Jamie Burnett (Winner to play Shaun Murphy at venue*)
55. Marcus Campbell 5-4 Mike Dunn (Campbell to play Ali Carter at venue*)
56. Ryan Day 5-0 Yu Delu (Day to play Mark Allen at venue*)

Tom is no Muppet.

The match that takes my eye here is Tom Ford against Gerard Greene. Last time they met was in the UK Championship when Ford gave GG at pasting of 9-2. Tom has always struck me as a confidence player and when his confidence is high he is top 16 material in my view. I have never, perhaps unfairly, thought that of Gerard. He is usually a player that I like to take on as I do think the bookies, for whatever reason sometimes overrate his chances. This makes the 5/6 available on Ford for this at Sportingbet an attractive bet to me and today’s biggest single, I’ll recommend 3 points on the Leicester man.

You’ll remember my rule about betting on matches involving Michael Holt, he plays Stuart Bingham and they are both in decent form. I find this one a very tough call so won’t be betting on it, there are better bets out there today without getting involved in this one, though with Holt priced up at 11/8….no, no, I can’t back him, I won’t.

Joe Perry’s new found confidence should carry him through against the experienced Fergal O’Brien and at 1/2 he looks a decent bet to win so might be one you’d like to add to the morning treble. Tian Pengfei beat Mark Davis over in China in a decider at the back end of last season and is priced up as favourite in this match. I really rate Tian but I’m quite surprised at the odds, the bookies don’t seem to want to take any chances with him at all. This is a tough call and I’d actually make Davis a slight favourite, but no bet for me on this one.

2.30pm

57. Gerard Greene 2-5 Tom Ford (Ford to play Jamie Cope at venue*)
58. Stuart Bingham 5-2 Michael Holt (Bingham to play Ding Junhui at venue*)
59. Joe Perry 5-2 Fergal O’Brien (Perry to play Mark Selby at venue*)
60. Mark Davis 5-4 Tian Pengfei (Mavis to play Judd Trump at venue*)

Well, it’s been a very good day so far puntingwise so let’s see what we can find for tonight.

Again, there is one match that is jumping out at me but it would mean me going against one of my golden rules of betting on snooker. That being never to bet in a match with Mark King in it. I have been stung by him so many times yet keep going back. So I am going to stick to my rule and not recommend a bet on him beating Dave Gilbert with a bit to spare tonight.

The other match that I am drawn to is the top one between Liang Wenbo and Ben Woolaston. Liang has lost his last 9 competitive main tour matches, he can’t buy a win of late and although he should, logic says, come back to form at some point I am a firm believer in just going with the flow when a player is on a run as bad as this. Therefore, I would say that the 6/4 available on Ben has to be taken. He has been defying odds all week and I don’t see why he can’t again tonight. I’ll recommend 2 points on that.

Two favourites I can see winning are Barry Hawkins and Stephen Lee. They are both class acts on their day and although Barry takes on another experienced campaigner in Nigel Bond I just feel that these days he has a bit too much for Bondy. Lee takes on my old nemesis Barry Pinches and will be very disappointed to lose that one. I’ll recommend a further 2 points double on these two at just over 5/4 with Sportingbet.

I can see the other two being quite close and would not put anyone off backing both outsiders in Liam Highfield and Scott MacKenzie to small stakes. MacKenzie has been doing me favours all week and now has an impressive array of scalps to which he’ll hope to add Ken Doherty and he just might, while Liam takes on the inconsistent Dominic Dale, he has a chance but if Dom brings anywhere near his A-game with him he should be ok. Of the two I’d say MacKenzie has the better chance against the increasingly pre-occupied Kendo.

Maybe also chance a recommended 1 point acca on King, Lee, Hawkins and Woolaston which pays around 15/2 almost everywhere.

7pm

61. Liang Wenbo 5-3 Ben Woolaston (Liang to play Matthew Stevens at venue*)
62. Ken Doherty 5-2 Scott MacKenzie (Ken to play Stephen Maguire at venue*)
63. Barry Hawkins 4-5 Nigel Bond (Bond to play Neil Robertson at venue*)
64. Dominic Dale 5-2 Liam Highfield (Dom to play Ronnie O’Sullivan at venue*)
65. Mark King 0-5 Dave Gilbert (Dave to play Graeme Dott at venue*)
66. Stephen Lee 3-5 Barry Pinches (Pinches to play Mark Williams at venue*)

* The two lowest seeded qualifiers will have to play a wild card. Don’t get me started on wildcards….