
Dutch people with cheese, lots of cheese.
One of the undoubted success stories of the Barry Hearn era at the helm of World Snooker has been the much welcomed and long overdue expansion of snooker into mainland Europe. Successful tournaments in Bulgaria, Germany, Belgium and Poland have laid the groundwork for this week’s Dutch adventure, as Rotterdam plays host to the second European Tour event of the season.
Now long suffering readers of this utter tripe probably have me down as some kind of defender of the UK, a miserable, pathetic figure who laments the demise of the game on our hallowed shores at the expense of Johnny Foreigner, but nothing, apart from the miserable and pathetic bit, could be further from the truth.
I do wish there were more tournaments in the UK and often think back to the glory days, just as I wish there was less reliance on China, but we do still have the best three tournaments in my opinion and with the Champion of Champions set to light up Coventry (well something has to) in November I don’t think we do too badly really.
I thoroughly welcome the clear European focus that has developed under Bazza and Fergie and having seen at first hand the support the players receive at these venues it beggars belief that Sir Rodney ‘Effing’ Walker couldn’t see the potential there. He’s now in charge of the UK bit of the Tour de France I believe, christ knows what will happen there with him at the helm, but that’s their business.
So to Rotterdam we go and having seen the first three main events of the season won by John Higgins, Neil Robertson and Marco Fu are we set for another season of unique winners of every ranking tournament? Well, those three will definitely hope not as it would mean they have peaked a little early to say the least.
One thing that is for sure however is that Robbo won’t be winning this as he has withdrawn, presumably to take an extended break until the next tournament he’ll be playing which won’t be for another month. Other absentees are Jimmy White and Ali Carter who both have health issues, I’m sure everyone on here wishes Ali all the best on his road to recovery. Jimmy in the meantime is currently spending most of his time playing happily on a scooter following an operation on his foot. Barry Hawkins and Liang Wenbo have also pulled out having originally entered.
Another player to withdraw is Lee Spick, presumably after consulting a map. Now he is a funny one is Lee, he went to the trouble of paying his £1000 plus expenses to qualify through Q-School and since then hasn’t been seen in action. The reason? Apparently he is scared of flying and he won’t be attending any events overseas (even though probably the easiest way of getting to Holland is by ferry).
I’m sorry, but I just can’t understand this. He has qualified and taken a place that could have gone to someone else and has no intention of playing most of the tour? He obviously fancies his chances in the UK and the World Championship as going deep in them is the only way he’ll be staying on the tour. Barking mad.
The draw for the Dutch leg of the EPTC series is here and you can as ever check all the head to heads by clicking on the excellent Cue Tracker website head to head page here. It’s also great to see that Eurosport are pulling out all the stops with coverage and their schedule can be found by clicking here.
In terms of betting the big names of Selby, Higgins and Trump are fighting for favouritism and of those three I would probably plump for Higgins, who for me has quite a decent draw and once he makes Finals Day he usually becomes very tough to beat, as he showed in EPTC1. Also in the top quarter I’m going to take a punt on Rookie of the Year Ian Burns who has been improving in leaps and bounds and has a PTC in him in my opinion.
In quarter 2 there are fancy prices around about Michael Holt, who has shown that he can win a PTC and for me has a winnable path to Finals Day. In the next quarter, Ben Woollaston is always worth a punt in these as he tends to perform his best in them and lower down Dark Mavis will be looking at his section possibly thinking it’s his to lose, he’s next into the book. In the bottom section, I’d be prepared to take the fancy odds about Norwegian Cockney Kurt Maflin, who is capable of putting a run together at any time and if he clicks he can beat anyone on his day and seems to have got used to the TV conditions of late.
Given the recommendations above are mostly each-way punts it’s very disappointing that most firms are only paying each way on the finalists and not on the semi-finalists, so limited stakes in this one until they sort that offer out.
Recommended Outright Bets: 2 points win on John Higgins at 13/2 with Bet 365. 1 point each way on Mark Davis at 40/1 with Apollobet. 0.5 points each way on all the following Burns (150/1 Ladbrokes), Holt (150/1 Ladbrokes), Woollaston (80/1 Ladbrokes) and Maflin (150/1 Bet Victor)
You can take a look at blog partner Apollobet’s outright prices here and match prices here. You can also click on the banner below to open an account with them.
