The Snookerbacker Blog

They are Back!

The German Masters starts over in Berlin tomorrow and is covered live on Eurosport.

It signals the long awaited return of German girls to the blog for the duration of the tournament which always mysteriously results in a couple of hundred more visits to the site, I really can’t think why.

In my opinion this event was the best addition to the calendar last season by a long chalk and was played to sell out crowds who watched Mark Williams beat Mark Selby in the final. The set-up is unique in that they have a multi-table open format in a huge arena so that the audience can catch a glimpse of all the players on show in any one session. As ever, there will be those that enjoy this and those that don’t, which makes it even more interesting.

You can find the draw and format for the event at World Snooker here.

You can also view Apollobet’s prices on both the outrights and the matches here. Interestingly, if Neil Robertson continues his amazing run of form of late and you haven’t backed him, Apollo are going to refund all outright win bets up to a stake of £200, so bear that in mind if betting on the outrights as Robbo is your insurance policy and it may be worth taking a small hit on the price to bag this offer.

Anyway here goes with the preview.

Wild Card Round

1  Ken Doherty [32] v Patrick Einsle (a)

2  Adrian Gunnell [61] v Peter Bullen (a)

3  Yu Delu [72] v Chris Norbury (a)

4  Mike Dunn [41] v Craig Steadman (a)

5  Liu Song [62] v Soner Sari (a)

6  James Wattana [58] w/o Mario Wehrmann (a)

7  Paul S Davison [79] v Krzysztof Wrobel (a)

8  Tom Ford [31] v Philip Arnold (a)

OK, I will get the obvious out of the way in advance. Wildcard rounds are unfair and pointless.

That’s that done.

I haven’t an awful lot to say about these set of matches, other than all but one should see the seeded players progress fairly easily. The one exception I would make to this is the match between Mike Dunn and Craig Steadman. Craig has been doing very well in the PTC’s this year and may well find himself in the professional ranks as a result this time next season. Wins over names like Barry Hawkins, Fergal O’Brien and Ricky Walden proves that he is more than capable of mixing it with the big boys. I would still marginally favour Dunny who played exceptionally well to get here and is in something of a run of form, but this is the only match that I think you can give a good chance to the amateur player. Former pro’s Chris Norbury and homeboy Patrick Einsle will be looking to cause an upset but I would be surprised if they did against their respective opponents. I will not recommend a bet but will predict that all the seeded players will get through this round.

First Round

Quarter One:

1  Mark J Williams [1] v Doherty or Einsle

2  Stuart Bingham [11] v Peter Ebdon [19]

3  Stephen Lee [13] v Gunnell or Bullen

4  Ding Junhui [5] v Delu or Norbury

Holder Mark Williams heads up this quarter and will probably face Ken Doherty in the first round. Ken did well over in Australia a few months back and reached his first semi-final for some time before MJW beat him quite soundly. There is nothing to suggest that a similar result will not occur here. Two players struggling a bit for form are Stuart Bingham, who won over in Oz of course and Peter Ebdon. Ebbo has hardly won a match all season and is slipping down the rankings sharply, a win for either of them may be a turning point but you’d have to fancy Williams to beat the victor on current form. Stephen Lee will be confident of progressing against Adrian Gunnell and the possible all-Chinese match between Ding and Delu should go the way of the world number five, but don’t discount a possible shock there.

Predicted Quarter Winner: Mark Williams

It's a big week for Ronnie

Quarter Two:

5  Allister Carter [7] v Joe Perry [27]

6  Ronnie O’Sullivan [14] v Andrew Higginson [20]

7  Matthew Stevens [15] v Dunn or Steadman

8  Neil Robertson [4] v Marcus Campbell [24]

Poor Ali Carter is not a happy bunny at the moment and turns up to play Joe Perry at a loss to explain his poor recent form. Joe beat the Captain at this stage in this last year and is in better form than Ali so you’d have to side with him to do the same again. Ronnie needs a run in this to make sure he doesn’t have to qualify for the Crucible, but shouldn’t expect things all his own way against Andrew Higginson. However, given what is at stake this week for him you would have to fancy the Rocket to progress and to go on to beat the winner of Ali and Joe. Matthew Stevens has a 5-0 head to head statistic over Mike Dunn and that would be enough for me to be confident that he will win again and set up a match with Neil Robertson, who is in such good form lately that it would be foolish to discount him on the grounds that he had a bit of a sniffle last week, Marcus Campbell is a fine player and may cause him problems but I can’t see the Aussie losing there to set up what could be an interesting encounter with Stevens, the winner of which could face Ronnie.

Predicted Quarter Winner: Ronnie O’Sullivan

Quarter Three:

9  Mark Selby [3] v Song or Sari

10  Graeme Dott [10] v  James Wattana [58]

11  Martin Gould [16] v Ricky Walden [22]

12  Shaun Murphy [6] v Barry Hawkins [23]

Mark Selby had a very poor Masters by his standards and to me is feeling the pressure of being the current world number one. If he is, his current form is going some way to easing this pressure as he won’t be there for much longer. That said, he would be very disappointed to lose in the first round here after a final appearance last year. Graeme Dott is a player that I think enjoys this set up and lost narrowly to Selby in the semi-finals last year, he’s in good form and I think he will beat Wattana and then go on to have another tussle with the Jester, he’s a possible dark horse in this. Ricky Walden holds a 6-1 head to head advantage over Martin Gould with Gould only beating him in a PTC and Ricky winning all the others in more prestigious events (if you count the recent match in a circus tent in Brazil) so that maybe tells us that something about Martin’s game plays into Ricky’s hands a bit too often. Newly crowned King of Speed Barry Hawkins plays Masters runner-up Shaun Murphy who I think is beginning to come into form at the right time of the season. I can see Smurf going to the business end of this event.

Predicted Quarter Winner: Shaun Murphy

Quarter Four:

13  Judd Trump [8] v Davison or Wrobel

14  Mark Allen [12] v Ford or Arnold

15  Stephen Maguire [9] v Ryan Day [30]

16  John Higgins [2] v Mark Davis [17]

Judd Trump was beaten in the first round in this last year by Stephen Hendry in a match that I can’t even remember. It’s fair to say that if you wind forward 12 months and the same result were to happen again it would cause quite a splash. He will win his first match to set up a possible repeat of the UK final with Mark Allen, and what a real treat for the German fans that would be. I have a slight fancy that Allen will have a decent week so would not discount him at all to gain revenge for York should this match up occur. Stephen Maguire has beaten Ryan Day in their last four meetings and is in good form recently so you would expect him to do so again and he may set up another all Scottish meeting with John Higgins who will face Dark Mavis first up. I am still prepared to take Higgins on as I don’t think he is quite at his brilliant best just yet, while he may make the Quarters I think Allen or Trump will beat him there.

Predicted Quarter Winner: Mark Allen

Recommended Bets:

2 points win Shaun Murphy to win German Masters at 14/1 with Apollobet (with Robertson insurance)

2 points win Mark Williams to win German Masters at 11/1 with Apollobet (with Robertson insurance)  

1 point each way Mark Allen to win German Masters at 20/1 with Sportingbet.

1 point special enhanced treble Williams, O’Sullivan and Murphy all to win their quarters at 26/1 with Apollobet (back here).

2 points Enhanced Acca on the first round matches: Maguire, Dott, Walden and Perry at 17/2 with Apollobet (back here).

The Best of Luck with your bets.

Click the banner below to take advantage of Apollo’s opening offer to new customers.

The M'O'D with his medal.

It probably didn’t escape your notice that it was the second leg of the Snookerbacker Classic yesterday and that we took ourselves down to the excellent South West Snooker Academy in Gloucester to glam up the thriving amateur snooker circuit.

After the first event in Leeds which consisted of 16 players myself and Mrs Snookerbacker were this time faced with 31 budding baize boys and 1 lovely lady baizer who were eager to compete on professional quality tables for the right to join Allan Taylor and Jamie Barrett on Finals Day, back at the SWSA on 24th February.

The day did not disappoint and produced some great snooker including a final frame decider which saw former British Open Champion and UK Finalist David Gray beat local boy Michael Wasley 4-3, a full 11 hours since play started. An hour or so earlier the other qualifier, Martin O’Donnell had triumphed over ladies favourite Ben Harrison 4-0.

Myself and Mrs SB arrived at the venue early and a little the worse for wear after a night in the Bumble Bee pub over the road from the Academy the night before. Of course, as well as having a drink with Antony Parsons and his lovely partner Sarah, that bloke that follows me round wearing a Mustard Mankini also showed up. But he was happy running errands for myself and Mrs SB while we sat and chatted to Ant, Sarah and Matthew Lowson, who had arrived to referee the big event.

Despite feeling a little delicate we soldiered on and got everything set up that you need for a snooker tournament. Flowers, cakes, players packs with fun activity games in them, Mrs SB’s Pamper Hamper, oh and those silly old matchsheets that they take with them when they are playing.

As the players began to arrive, very much like Leeds, they looked at the camped up registration desk with a mixture of bemusement and intrigue but quickly settled into the spirit of things and started chatting away before they were due to go on the baize.

As the first session was split into two, it was all go in the morning and there was no time to nurse our aching heads which were also splitting in two. The live streaming was under way and we didn’t have any early hiccups in either sense of the word. Even the bloke in the Mankini was behaving himself and went off to play his match without a word. The ‘brains’ behind the website Snooker Bingo was the next comedian through the doors and he arrived resplendent in every colour of the rainbow to play his match on the livestream at 11am. Viewing figures peaked as people wondered if his hair was actually the real deal or not, well I can exclusively reveal that it isn’t and that he was wearing a wig for the entire day.

David also hit the Highest Break of the Day

The snooker continued and it was clear that it was another quality field. Callum Lloyd hit a 110 in Round One and was only beaten very late in the day by Gray who scooped the Amarya.co.uk £1 per point highest break prize along with his qualifiers medal. There was a great feel to the day with even the losers remaining upbeat and philosophical in defeat. The tables really are very difficult to get used to and a lot of the players had more experience of playing on them than others.

I also had the pleasure of catching up with Paul Mount who I am delighted to say is looking back to good health. He played in Round One and claimed he was ‘lucky to come second’. As it was my first time at the Academy we had a chat about the facilities and I opened the negotiations on a similar venture in the North West, which I kindly offered to market and run for the great man. Negotiations hit a bit of a stumbling block when he asked if I was going to pay for it aswell, but I know how business works and I’m sure that was just his little joke. He won’t bluff me that easily. I’m on it.

As the day wore on Mrs Snookerbacker decided to award her coveted Pamper Hamper to Ben Harrison. Ben was the bookies favourite given his devilishly handsome good looks, which put me in mind of myself at that age. He narrowly pipped Martin O’Donnell and a couple of others to the title of Best Groomed Baizer. Mr Snooker Bingo (who was never in the running) however was unhappy at the result and claimed that Ben should not have won as ‘all his clothes were the same colour’, this coming from a man that had taken great care not to go for this particular tactic. Anyway, Ben won it and that’s the end of that according to Mrs SB (I think she fancies him).

Mrs SB also found time to hit a few balls around the table for the first time since ‘her dad used to take her to that club that had the strippers’ many years ago. She displayed a remarkable ability to not pot the ball on but instead produce a shot which a lot of professionals would struggle to carry off. Not once, but three times. Then blog hardman Ian White decided to show off a bit, recreating a 5-cushion pot by Tony Meo first time of asking (he swore he hadn’t practiced it but we decided we didn’t believe him). Anyway, we left the table as we found it and no damage was done.

But in the end it was all about the competitive snooker and David Gray produced two deciding frame finishes to claim his spot in the Finals while Martin lost just four frames all day to take his. They are now each just two wins away from free Q-School entry and three away from being crowned the first ever Snookerbacker Classic Champion.

The feedback again was very positive from the players who I hope all enjoyed the experience whether they won or lost. I’d like to thank the officials, Clive, Matthew and Alan for all their help and John and Paul at the Academy who couldn’t do enough to help as well as Mr Mount himself who has built quite a place there. A special mention also to Ben Fortey, a great little player who Mrs SB thinks is ‘just lovely’. He took a frame off Ben Harrison with a 50-odd break and could be one to watch in the future.

Full details of the scores in the event are below.

Round One 

Kashif Khan 0-4 Andy Neck
Antony Parsons W/O Sydney Wilson
James Burrett 1-4 Martin O’Donnell
Marianne Williams 0-4 Gareth Allen
Sean Hopkin 4-0 Tom Doggett
Ryan Causton 4-0 Jack Morgan
Craig Scotford 3-4 Gary Weeks
Ben Fortey 1-4 Ben Harrison (84)
Nick Pearce 4-3 Ricky Norris
Kyren Wilson 4-2 Gavin Lewis
David Gray 4-1 Neal Jones
Marc Harman 4-1 Paul Mount
Jamie Clarke 4-0 Thomas Goldstein
Callum Lloyd (110) 4-0 Brandon Winstone
Steve Winstone 0-4 Michael Wasley
Matthew Day 4-1 Phil O’Kane

Round Two

Andy Neck 4-3 Ant Parsons
Martin O’Donnell 4-2 Gareth Allen (94)
Sean Hopkin 0-4 Ryan Causton
Gary Weeks 0-4 Ben Harrison (84)
Nick Pearce 0-4 Kyren Wilson (80)
David Gray (72) 4-0 Marc Harman
Jamie Clarke 4-2 Callum Lloyd
Michael Wasley (82) 4-0 Matthew Day

Round Three

Andy Neck 1-4 Martin O’Donnell (89)
Ryan Causton (77) 3-4 Ben Harrison
Kyren Wilson 3-4 David Gray (82)
Jamie Clarke 3-4 Michael Wasley

Final Qualifying Round

Martin O’Donnell 4-0 Ben Harrison
David Gray (86,118) 4-3 Michael Wasley

Qualifiers: Martin O’Donnell and David Gray

AND AS A FINAL TREAT FOR THE LADIES AND ALL THE GAYS…..

Ladies.....calm yourselves. Ben with his Pamper Hamper.