The Snookerbacker Blog

It’s Day Two in Sheffield and as my mind drifts towards the Snookerbacker Classic on Friday I’ll probably be a little briefer with the summaries and form guides for the rest of the week as we are travelling down to Gloucester on Thursday.

After these qualifiers are all done and dusted it’s over to China itself for the World Open which begins on Monday. Given the time constraints involved with ensuring the Classic runs smoothly and the fact that I am being led astray on a ‘Wizard Tour’ which may involve drinking with a couple of Irish lads and some scousers on Friday night after the Finals, it may be late Sunday before any kind of rational preview is posted up. But we’ll see how things pan out.

These are Wednesday’s matches:

10am

1  James Wattana [58] v Liam Highfield [70]

2  Andy Hicks [66] v Luca Brecel

3  Barry Pinches [55] v David Grace

4  Adrian Gunnell [63] v Joe Swail [67]

5  Liu Chuang [60] v Andrew Norman

6  Liu Song [61] v Sam Craigie

I was very impressed with Luca Brecel earlier and he certainly doesn’t hang around. He came back from two down with one to play to beat Andrew Pagget who looked all over the winner at 4-3 up having himself come back from 3-1 down. Luca faces the experienced Andy Hicks who has been in decent form lately and may halt the charge of the young Belgian. James Wattana is generally ultra reliable at this stage but has lost his openers lately in the Welsh and World Opens, both to Adam Duffy, I expect him to put that right and return to winning ways against Liam Highfield whose recent form in qualifiers is worse than Wattana’s, in fact he hasn’t won a qualifying match since the Australian Open. Joe Swail’s sad decline shows no sign of abating and the last thing he needs is a match against that wily old experienced head Adrian Gunnell, I’d expect this to go the way of the Telford man and at 5/6 the pair I’d suggest a bet on him to do so. Andrew Norman has beaten Liu Chuang on their only meeting to date but faces the dangerous Chinese player Chuang, tough one to call that as is Craigie and Song, I’d suggest that this one will be the last match to finish between two players who seem to favour the tactical side of things, I’m surprised however to see Sam as heavily odds-on for this against his more experienced opponent who is no slouch. I hope David Grace can get a result against Barry Pinches, Barry is another that is a little out of sorts lately and I reckon if Grace cues like he did today he has a big chance of upsetting the odds there.

Recommended Bets: 3 points win on Gunnell at 5/6 with Apollobet and 1 point win on Grace at 11/10 with the same firm.

2.30pm

7  Michael White [57] v David Gilbert [64]

8  Li Yan [62] v Ian McCulloch [65]

9  Peter Lines [59] v David Morris

10  Ben Woollaston [51] v Tian Pengfei

11  Dave Harold [47] v Alfie Burden [69]

It surely won’t be long until Michael White makes a venue, he is a player much talked about and highly rated by those in the know. He faces one of the busiest players on the circuit Dave Gilbert who since qualifying from Q-School last year has barely put his cue down. There is no head to head to go on and it’s another coin toss that one. Ian McCulloch is showing some glimpses of form lately and he might be worth a punt to outplay Li Yan, whose results suggest he still has a bit of learning to do. Peter Lines has a 3-3 head to head with David Morris and their last three matches have been close fought best of sevens, could be closer than the odds are suggesting that one with Morris already having a win under his belt here. There is a real clash of styles between Big Dave Harold and Alfie Burden, a real tortoise against hare match this one is, Dave has come back to form after a real dip at the start of the season and is as tough as old boots, he will be looking to further cement his safe ranking here and I have a feeling he will do so. (Ben Woollaston’s opponent yet to be decided at time of writing)

Recommended Bet: 2 points win on each and a 1 point double Harold and McCulloch at 8/11 and 17/20 respectively with Boylesports.    

Drago - Crackers.

7pm

12  Tony Drago [54] v Cao Yupeng

13  Anthony McGill [56] v Aditya Mehta

14  Mark Joyce [53] v Yu Delu

15  Xiao Guodong [50] v Adam Duffy

16  Jimmy Robertson [52] v Rod Lawler [68]

OK, so tonight starts with a player that I try never to back or bet against in Tony Drago, possibly the most unpredictable player in the history of the game. I am beginning to keep on the right side of his opponent Cao Yupeng but the Drago factor puts me off doing so tonight. Anthony McGill is a player I like, the Scot has been tipped by many to be a future star and while his season has been a bit in and out the odd performance proves that there is plenty there. I think it would be a bad day at the office if he were to lose to Aditya Mehta who had a good win last night. Yu Delu on this season’s form has now become for me the second best Chinese player on the tour after Ding (I never count Marco, is that Hong Kong wrong?) and he faces Mark Joyce who comes fresh from the Welsh Open where he could feasibly have beaten Shaun Murphy after a decent win over Andrew Higginson at this venue to get there, I think that one could be very close and therefore is another I will leave alone. The improving Adam Duffy is posting some decent results and he may fancy his chances to overturn the odds against the dangerous Xiao Guodong, he might be worth an interest at odds against with most firms. But for me the double tonight is McGill and Jimmy Robertson who faces Rod Lawler, Rod is in a poor run of recent form and faces a player that reached the Crucible last season and is beginning to win a few.

Recommended Bet: 2 points double on McGill and Robertson pays almost bang on 6/4 with Paddy Power. 

The Land of the Risi....oh no, that's the other one.

The snooker calendar continues tomorrow as we head to Sheffield for four days of qualifiers for the China Open in March. 16 players will be on the plane to Beijing, some of whom will be rewarded with a tie against a fully acclimatised wildcard waiting to knock them out and send them home again straight away.

It’s become a regular feature of the calendar now has this event and I quite enjoy it, simply because the main event is on during the daytime over here and doesn’t involve late nights waiting for the following day’s fixtures to materialise, which (I’ll let you into a secret) is a pain in the arse for a snooker blogger.

We usually tend to do quite well on the qualifiers to the main events so let’s see if we can reverse the disastrous Welsh Open with a bit of profit this week.

12pm

1  Andrew Pagett [78] v Luca Brecel [85]

2  David Grace [80] v Daniel Wells [89]

3  Andrew Norman [75] v Stuart Carrington [87]

4  Sam Craigie [79] v Adam Wicheard [86]

5  David Morris [76] v Paul S Davison [84]

Belgian boy Luca Brecel has shown signs of improvement recently but still looks a little out of his depth in the professional ranks, he takes on Mark Williams’ mate Andrew Pagett, who MJW once famously labelled ‘the worst player to ever play at the Crucible’. Padge has been a little in and out this season since appearing in Sheffield in his silly outfit and is on a bit of a losing streak but I think he’ll have enough to get through this one, he has won the only meeting between the pair. Friend of the Blog David Grace faces Daniel Wells for the second time this month. The two met in the Welsh Open qualifiers and Wells scored a rare victory winning 4-3, that makes the 4/9 on Grace at Apollobet a little puzzling and Boylesports have him at a more realistic 8/13, but for me that is one to leave alone as Wells, although a rare winner is a decent player, I’m unsure as to why he’s been so poor results-wise this season having only won 2 matches but with him having beaten David a couple of weeks ago, he may just fancy the job again. Andrew ‘Stormin’ Norman is a player that usually negotiates the first round of qualifiers and doesn’t lose that often to players ranked below him, I’d take him as a confident choice to beat Stuart Carrington who has only won 2 of his last 20 matches. Sam Craigie against Welsh qualifier Adam Wicheard is the match of the afternoon session and I have been backing Sam a lot this year to decent effect. He is a solid player who plays a more mature game and can scrap it out if he needs to, but a recent loss to Lucky Vatnani may have dented his confidence a little and I’d say the ‘man of many faces’ Wicheard given his recent form stands a decent chance in this at odds against. In the final match up between Davy Morris and Paul Davison, I’d say you may as well toss a coin, one win each in the head to heads and two players that are evenly matched, leave that one alone is my advice.

Adam Wicheard

Recommended Bet: 2 points win Wicheard to beat Craigie at 5/4 with Boylesports.  

6pm

6  Tian Pengfei [77] v Sam Baird [81]

7  Kurt Maflin [72] v Cao Yupeng [82]

8  Passakorn Suwannawat [71] v Aditya Mehta [83]

9  Yu Delu [73] v Kacper Filipiak [88]

10  Adam Duffy [74] v Lucky Vatnani [90]

Sam Baird will have been having nightmares this past week about ‘that blue’ in Newport but he should put that behind him as he prepares to face Tian Pengfei in what could be a cracking match tomorrow, I am assuming this one will be live streamed. Both these two are players I rate but Tian has shown a few cracks developing in his game recently and if Baird brings his current form to the table I think he will have a bit too much for the Chinese player, but on balance it’s best left alone with not much value out there. Similar sentiments apply to the Maflin/Yupeng match in terms of value. Unlike Pengfei, Yupeng is a player who seems to be improving in terms of his form of late and Kurt can usually be relied upon to wallop a few in at this stage of things, that one is just too evenly matched for me to consider a straight match bet, but gun to head I think I’d back Yupeng at odds against. India’s Aditya Mehta is a capable player but he doesn’t win all that often, that said, the players that have been beating him of late are of a higher standard than Passakorn Suwanawhatshisname and I think the Even money available at Boyles on Mehta may be worth a look. The 1/14 quote on Yu Delu to beat young Kacper Filipiak is about right and that leaves the encounter between Judd’s mate Adam Duffy and the other Indian player on the tour Lucky Vatnani who continues to be underrated by the bookies in these stages. Personally I would not be taking the short prices on Duffy to win here (as short as 1/5 with Apollobet) even though he has won the only encounter between the pair 5-2 in January’s World Open qualifiers. Lucky has been a bit unlucky this season and has missed half of it through reported Visa problems, he’s not a bad player and the 5/2 quoted on him to win here at Apollobet might be worth a couple of quid.

Recommended Bet: 1 point on Mehta to beat Passakorn at Evens with Boylesports.

Recommended Acca: 2 points on Norman, Pagget, Yupeng (+2.5) and Wicheard (+2.5) at just on 10/3 with Apollobet.

Now that we know the possible second round match ups in the World Championship it is time to start considering your bets for the big one.

You can join the World Championship Discussion page on the blog here where you can see the possible last 16 draw and also what others think in the run-up to the Crucible. 

The prices below are the best currently available at the bookies, I’ve not included the exchanges which may be bigger if you prefer betting with them. There are some interesting variances between firms with certain players, last night’s winner Ding is as low as 8/1 with Hills, Mark Williams is also a single figure price with sponsors Betfred and Ladbrokes pitch the Captain Ali Carter at 33/1 while others have him much longer.

So, where’s the value? 

Even Shaun's song choice failed to get him potting

We have reached the final and the two players staying on in Newport are World Number One Mark Selby and the (Taylorism alert) ‘young Chinese sensation’ Ding John Way.

Yesterday produced two quite disappointing semi-finals with both players winning one-sided encounters against below-par opponents. Ding played well enough but Shaun Murphy was just not at the races. Even Shaun’s new walk on song could not inspire him, he strode out confidently to the theme from Pirates of the Caribbean but there was nothing to suggest any swashbuckling heroics from him as he continually missed chance after chance, leaving him looking more like Captain Pugwash than Jack Sparrow.

In the other semi-final Mark Selby set his stall out very early and Ronnie looked like a broken man by the end. Selby’s snail-like tendencies were there for all to see as the frustrated Rocket struggled to find any form and his recent winning run was brought to an end. Afterwards Selby said he didn’t listen to any criticism of his style of play, which is probably a good thing as there is a lot of it about.

He added “When John Higgins was World No 1 he won scrappy matches when he didn’t play well, and Mark Williams was the same. Everyone goes through bad spells. Maybe when I got to No 1 I put a bit too much pressure on myself, but I never felt as if I had to go out and make five centuries in a best of nine.”

Then to groans from the assembled press pack who like early nights he reiterated that he would not be changing his style of play “I just go out to win. If it takes five hours and you have to scrape me off the table then so be it. If I tried to play as fast as Ronnie I’d probably never win a match.”

It’s been a strange week in all. As I alluded to yesterday it’s been up there with last year’s Masters in terms of betting and strangely Ding won that too, as I think he will today. It’s not even as though I avoid backing Ding as I have done so on many occasions, maybe it’s just one of those weird coincidences, I do my brains and Ding wins, like that butterfly flapping it’s wings in Tokyo and it raining in Grimsby thing, chaos theory, that’s it.

I think the side-lining (TV speak for getting the sack) of John Evans must have thrown me off balance and it was always an uphill struggle from there. Even Darren Morgan wearing a salmon coloured shirt from circa 1988 wasn’t enough to fill the gap. Dom Dale made a valiant effort to brighten the mood amongst punters with a pair of clowns shoes but even that failed to lift the Newport gloom.

But onwards and upwards and there are some qualifiers for the China Open this week starting on Tuesday, the draw and format for which can be found here. But the highlight for me this week is the Finals of the Snookerbacker Classic on Friday when Messrs. Taylor, Barrett, Sutton, Williams, Gray, O’Donnell, Surety and Wilson do battle for the two Q-School slots and a big shiny cup.

But for now here are the head to head meetings between the finalists, Ding holds a slight advantage that I think he will extend today and I am actually surprised to see him odds against to do so with every firm. I won’t recommend a bet but as I’ll be watching it I will be backing him, could be a late night though.

The Best of Enemies

It’s semi-final time in Newport with four of the tip-top players of the baize competing for the right to compete in tomorrow’s final. 

I can’t dress this week up as anything other than a disaster when it comes to betting so today for me is a watch only affair, it’s almost unheard of that a maximum 5-pointer ducks but my old nemesis Stephen Maguire managed to achieve that feat last night in losing to Selby, who predictably won because nobody really expected him to.

The Jester plays the underdog (nod to his walk-on tune) far better than the favourite and played very well in patches last night. I could harp on about Maguire but what’s the point? He lost, he probably should have won but to coin an old Scouseism, if my Auntie had balls she’d be my uncle. He lost, I lost so that’s the end of that.

Earlier in the day Judd’s pre-match promise of ‘crash, bang, wallop’ was scarily accurate as he once again tried to become the first player ever to crack a snooker ball in half live on TV in losing to the resurgent Ronnie, whose mate Damien Hirst turned up without his glasses and having made the Rocket’s butties for him. I’m not sure what was on Damo’s crusties but whatever it was it didn’t do Ron any harm and he looked determined and clinical and now must surely be a shoo-in to collect the piece of slate tomorrow at a best price 7/5 with Bet Victor.

While Ronnie was dishing out his own tailored variety of retribution to the young pretender Shaun Murphy and Mark Allen were having a right old tussle on the other table. Allen came back from 3-1 down to lead 4-3 before Smurf turned on the engines again to take the match 5-4. The final frame very nearly produced a Houdiniesque escape from defeat by Marky, who from needing three snookers at one point looked like he might just come back to win. It sparked a bit of a conversation on here about the rights and wrongs of the miss rule not being applied when a player needs snookers, something that I have long thought needs looking at when a player is not making their best effort to hit the ball on and concentrating instead on where the white will finish. The current ruling is heavily in favour of the player in front but why should that be?

There was another decider on the same table last night and it ended in controversy. Stephen Lee looked set to win when a mobile phone ‘accidentally’ went off at a crucial time causing him to miss a straightforward green allowing Ding Junhui in to win and then be mobbed by the Chinese fans at the venue.

Clearly angry, Lee walked off and said the word ‘pathetic’ in a raised voice clearly directed at the cameras and afterwards said “The phone went off just as I was on my backswing and I couldn’t stop. That’s the first time it has happened to me at such an important moment in all the years I’ve been playing. I am fuming. We both had plenty of chances in the last frame but we both played awful.”

For his part Ding agreed and said “It was unacceptable. He was very unlucky and otherwise he could have won the match.”

It’s a sickener for Lee and is possibly no coincidence that it happened in a match involving Ding. All the players get frustrated at the lack of order in the crowd when they go over to China and recently in the UK in a match involving Ding a Chinese fan had to be ejected from the arena for having a full-blown phone conversation in the third row while the match was in full flow. Cultural differences is one thing but just plainly ignoring instructions when there is so much cash at stake is another. It’s not rocket science, just turn your bloody phones off or sling your hook.

So to today and I will simply list the head to heads and give my prediction of the score below. I’m really looking forward to the renewed rivalry tonight between the Rocket and the Jester. They usually serve up brilliant matches when they face each other and I for one hope that Selbs is at his spoiling best to see if the Rocket really is back to his best.

Incidentally, the more observant amongst you will have noticed that I have put up this year’s World Championship Discussion Page on the sidebar, feel free to contribute here.

1pm
SF1 Ding Junhui v Shaun Murphy

Prediction: Ding to win 6-4 at 13/2 with Apollobet

7pm
SF2 Ronnie O’Sullivan v Mark Selby

Prediction: O’Sullivan to win 6-3 at 6/1 with Apollobet

Recommended Bet: Oh go on then for interest and to try and win everything back a 1 point double on the two scores above at 51.5/1 with Apollobet! (you can dream…)

Purists are celebrating the start of the Welsh Open today.

Get the bunting and the trestle tables out. Make some jellies and put on your party hats as the best of seven frame matches are finally over!

The Welsh Open starts properly with the best of nine frame Quarter Final matches and unless Judd Trump manages to win the tournament we are going to have to try and find a way of clawing back some of the losses incurred this week so far.

Effectively this event has been the same as a televised PTC abroad up to now and I very rarely recommend match bets on those so goodness knows why I have bothered getting involved in this.

But I have and we’ve been on a great roll of late and perhaps we were due a bad one, thankfully it has come here where stakes are much lower rather than at the Crucible which is now not very far away at all and with every tournament the conclusions being drawn on who will win in Sheffield seem to take another twist or turn.

Thursday saw a fairly comfortable win for Ronnie over MJW who has now lost their last 13 encounters. It’s difficult to know why a player as good as Mark struggles to beat Ronnie when for example John Higgins is ahead of him on head to heads, Ronnie certainly has something that MJW can’t seem to handle, I’m not sure what it is but for a player of his level that head to head is shocking considering how in and out Ronnie’s form has been over the years.

On the other table Stephen Maguire beat Matthew Stevens 4-2. The match ultimately was decided by one ball. Matthew had played superbly to get back to 2-3 down and was in control of himself until he decided to play a shot at full stretch left handed which if he’d have potted it would have forced the decider. Sorry Matthew, but it was possibly the worst choice of shot I have seen in a long time. I have decided that I am going to buy you a rest and make sure Mrs Matt makes you take it everywhere with you when you practice. In seriousness, it was very frustrating as Matthew was playing so well and showed real guts up until that point, but there is a fine line between bravery and lunacy and I’m afraid he crossed it at the end. Maguire however continues his good run and is clearly now back to somewhere near the player he once promised to be.

Then came Mark Allen and Stephen Hendry, Hendry did almost an exact copy of what Steve Davis did, after a fantastic first round performance he just didn’t turn up and Allen won with a bit in hand, a hand of course that is currently nursing a sore finger, but clearly playing with a throbber on is not something that hinders the Northern Irishman, they are made of tough stuff there and it will take more than a pulsating oversized red digit to stop him in his quest for his first ranker.

On the other table Stephen Lee’s good form of late continued as he beat Tom Ford 4-1, Big Ste missed very little in the first three frames and despite the threat of a mini-fightback from Tom including a great clearance to win frame four he couldn’t compete with Stephen, who I have to say is looking a little trimmer since he’s started on his diet, which can only be beneficial to him and it’s showing in his recent results.

The evening session saw Judd Trump continue his quest to get me out of trouble by winning the event as he saw off Stuart Bingham with a great display. Mark Selby also came through against Martin Gould in a match that could easily be used as a cure for insomnia, turgid stuff at times but if Selby is a master at one thing these days it’s winning when it’s not too pretty.

1.30pm
QF3 Ronnie O’Sullivan v Judd Trump (h2h 3-4)

Judd will be looking to further cement his hold over the Rocket this afternoon having won the three previous meetings between the pair. Ronnie was given chance after chance in the latter stages of the match against Williams after starting strongly, he did what he needed to do and his impressive form of late is there for all to see. Judd for me has that look about him again and I remain confident that he will be lifting the trophy at the end of the week, even when he lost the first to Stuart Bingham last night you just sensed that all he needed was a sniff at a chance to run away with it, that came and he did. I fancy him to make it four in a row here despite the Rocket’s recent winning run. But what a great rivalry it is developing between the two, hopefully this will be another cracker.

Recommended Bet: 2 points on Judd Trump (-1.5 frames) at 11/8 with Apollobet

Yet to lose a frame

QF2 Shaun Murphy v Mark Allen (h2h 5-2)

Two players at the top of their game meet in what should be a high quality affair. In terms of their personalities and on the table persona’s the two could not be further apart. Shaun is a lover of etiquette, the model professional who says the right thing when asked and detests anything that he thinks brings the game into any sort of disrepute. Mark on the other hand has been known to swear at referees, call for Bazza to be sacked and generally act like a bit of an arse on occasion. But that is what we need in snooker to counter the tired and lazy old argument that ‘there aren’t any characters in the game any more’. Shaun holds a decent head to head lead which stretches back to 2006 but that probably doesn’t mean a great deal here. The two fought out a final frame decider in their last meeting in Shanghai which Shaun won and I wouldn’t be surprised if we get to that stage again here, my prediction is that this will be a bit of a punch for punch affair and I have a feeling that Allen might just edge it, possibly in a decider.

7pm
QF1 Ding Junhui v Stephen Lee (h2h 5-2)

To me Ding has the look of a player just about to burst into his brilliant best after a few months having one of his naps. OK you can argue that Higgins was just one ball away from knocking him out, but he didn’t and Ding turned the match around as only a player of his quality can against a steely match player like that. Lee played well against Ford and is clearly hitting the ball very well, but his record against the real top players in the main ranking events, with the exception of a victory over MJW in Germany, isn’t all that good. If this was best of 7 I wouldn’t be as confident as I am in Ding winning, but I think he will. Stephen beat him in a PTC earlier in the season but we all know that Ding doesn’t really take those too seriously, you have to go back to 2004 for the other time he beat him, which was in a decider at the Masters, since then in ranking events it’s been Ding and Ding comfortably all the way, I expect the same again today.

Recommended Bet: 3 points win Ding Junhui (-1.5 frames) at 4/5 with Apollobet

QF4 Stephen Maguire v Mark Selby

It was a real battle last night for the Jester as he tries to regain a bit of form ahead of the crunch time in the season. On the opposite side Maguire is playing as well as he has done for the best part of a decade and will fancy his chances of sending the world number one packing here. Mags has a decent record against Selby and must go into this full of confidence after strong performances in this and over in Germany. You’d be hard pushed to find anyone that could strongly fancy the Jester on current form and you won’t find one here either, it has to be Maguire.

Recommended Bet: 5 points win Stephen Maguire at Evens generally available.  

Recommended Acca: 2 points on Trump, Allen (+1.5), Ding and Maguire at Enhanced odds of 15/2 with Apollobet.

Adam Wicheard

It’s day four in Newport and (waits for cheers and mass hysteria from readers) the last day of these awful best of seven matches.

The shortened matches have again given this already mediocre event a PTC feel and the fact that today we have match ups like Ronnie v MJW and Allen v Hendry on BBC primetime (OK, Wales admittedly) that are only played over this format is frankly ridiculous. The argument that this allows all matches to be played in front of the cameras doesn’t stand up. A best of nine format with no interval would work equally as well and would be a lot more interesting to get involved with as a punter. They would still put the Hairy Bikers or some other rubbish on the BBC anyway so why bother? We endure months of best of seven PTC’s looking forward to proper events only for this to be given the same treatment to please the public who the TV executives seem to believe have the attention span of a delinquent ant.

Anyway as I write Wednesday has seen probably the best match of the tournament so far. Matthew Stevens coming through in a high quality match against Barry Hawkins in a decider, the only time that these best of 7′s get quite exciting. Barry can count himself very unlucky to be on the way home as he played better than most of the players that are still here, but Matthew was fantastic and showed why he has got himself back into contention and where he belongs at the top of the game. I have always liked the way he plays the game and when he is in full flow there are not many better to watch.

Prior to this Ronnie had beaten Marco Fu in a fairly one-sided match. Ronnie looked OK but not as good as he did in Germany and Marco it has to be said was way off his best. In terms of the rankings, with Matthew winning and Stephen Lee still in contention it is now looking more likely that O’Sullivan will be seeded either 15 or 16 at the Crucible.

On the other table Mark Allen hammered Ken Doherty who despite this hangs on to 32nd spot and will therefore only need to win one qualifier to make it to the Crucible. Stephen Maguire then despatched with Adam Wicheard who looks a bit like (here goes..) a young Brian May, a young Bob Dylan, Mikey Pearce off Only Fools and Horses, Adam Sandler, a young Micky Flanagan, Kevin Keegan, Rory McIlroy, Stephen Mangan, David Bisbal (Google that one), Patsy Fagan or Robert Wilfort depending on who you believe. I’m sure there are others as he seems to have ‘one of those faces’. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, Mags beat him 4-2 and Adam will be joining Sam Baird back at the Academy to replay a nightmare miss on a black in frame 6 while Sam plays the blue he missed 1000 times on the same table conditions without ever missing it.

Anyway, I am writing this before the evening session gets underway on Day 3 so can’t I summarise those without the help of a young Russell Grant, no that’s stretching the lookalike game a bit too far…

I am probably not going to have a bet now until the quarter finals when the best of nines continue but my thoughts on the remaining six second round matches are as follows:

Ronnie has a huge winning history over MJW and on first round performances Ron looks to be in the better shape of the two. To be honest there isn’t much for Williams backers to cling to unless Ronnie just isn’t too bothered. I’m sure MJW will improve on his first round performance though and while he might not win, in a best of seven I would be prepared to take him in the handicaps. Stephen Lee was the less poor of the two in his first match against Michael Holt and will have to improve to see off Tom Ford who gained a much needed confidence boosting TV victory against Dotty. I fancy Tom could cause an upset there and as he has won both meetings between them on a decider I think you should be pretty safe with the handicap in that one on the Leicester man.

Adam Wicheard

In the afternoon Mags and Matthew should be a quality affair. They both look to be in great form and having not met competitively since 2007 there is very little to go on but their current form. I know I said I wouldn’t have a bet but as I scan the prices there is a stand out price at Boyles on this if you are quick, the 6/4 on Stevens is too big, this is a 5/6 the pair match this. 2 points recommended on Matthew to win at 6/4 with Boyles. Mark Allen should beat Stephen Hendry but I saw enough of Stephen in the last match to know that he is in decent form, if he maintains that standard then the equally fancy odds on him winning might look very long after the match.

In the evening I will stick with Judd as he is my main outright bet and he had Stuart Bingham’s measure at the Masters so there is no reason to suspect that the same won’t happen again. In the final match it would be foolish to think Selby will play as badly as he did the other night again but his form isn’t good and the sooner he is relegated from the World Number 1 spot the better for him and all his fans. He has played out two matches with Martin Gould and both have gone to a decider, it’s one apiece so that tells me that given Martin is something of a PTC specialist, has already beaten a grinder and is in the better form of the two, he is probably the bet. But as I say minimal stakes on this so I have been in touch with Apollobet and they are going to enhance a tricky handicap treble for us.

Recommended Bet: 1 point on Williams (+1.5), Ford (+1.5) and Gould (+1.5) at an Enhanced 9/2 with Apollobet. 

1pm
23 Mark Williams 1-4 Ronnie O’Sullivan
25 Stephen Maguire 4-2 Matthew Stevens

Not before 2pm

20 Stephen Lee 4-1 Tom Ford
22 Mark Allen 4-0 Stephen Hendry

7pm
24 Stuart Bingham 1-4 Judd Trump
26 Martin Gould v Mark Selby

The Players Lounge in Newport

The Welsh Open enters day three over in the cosmopolitan mecca that is Newport and tonight sees the second round get underway which unfortunately remains the best of seven frames.

It’s becoming something of a golden oldies event this with Stephen Hendry following in the footsteps of the Nugget yesterday and dumping out Robbo, the two of them now being just four frames away from meeting each other in the quarter finals. Hendry was magnificent in his match and gave us all a reminder that he can still play a bit, Robbo didn’t actually do much wrong but faced the Hendry of old and was well and truly put in his place.

Earlier in the day Mark Williams meandered to a leisurely 4-3 win over Andy Hicks. MJW claimed afterwards that he would struggle to beat Gilbert O’Sullivan let alone his next possible opponent Ronnie playing the way he did, but we have seen this before with him, he often starts tournaments slowly and builds to a crescendo at the end.

Michael Holt whose quiff is now verging on Alvin Stardust like proportions reverted back to type in a woeful match with Stephen Lee, glimpses of how he can play when he puts his mind to it in the match against Ryan Day were quickly forgotten when he started playing positional shots from another dimension (and not in a good way), he was beaten 4-1 by Big Stevie who himself was not much better, but his worst is better than Michael’s, coming to think of it, most players worst are better than Michael’s.

As Hendry was doing his thing, Stuart Bingham and Mark King had a real grindfest in front of about 3 people on the other table, Bingo coming through 4-2 in that one. The lack of atmosphere in the arena during this match again pointing out the failings of holding an event outside of a main city where only the most devoted fans will be bothered about going to watch. I haven’t even seen my pal Taffy there yet, if he isn’t even bothered the event is dead in the water.

The evening session saw wins for Mark Selby and Martin Gould. Selby continued his poor recent form and was gifted the match by the inexperienced Sam Baird who will to use a tired old phrase no doubt learn from it. However, he’ll still be sick this morning that he didn’t win as he should have done and the Jester is lucky to still be there, if you count spending a few extra days in Newport as lucky that is. On the other table Martin Gould coped admirably with Peter Ebdon’s usual antics and came through a 4-2 winner.

Ronnie - One eye on the rankings?

This afternoon sees Ronnie up against Marco Fu and an interesting situation has arisen regarding the World Championship seedings. Bingham’s win yesterday means that Ronnie is now 16th in the rankings, meaning that he faces the prospect of a second round tie against John Higgins in Sheffield if he loses today. The alternative, if he finishes 15th in the rankings would be Selby in the last 16.

If he does well this week and moves further up he could end up facing Robbo or Judd in the second round. Now, if I was Ronnie I would want to stick where I am as on recent form I think I’d rather face Higgins or Selby than either of those two until the semi-finals in Sheffield. He has a tough match today against Marco who has beaten him on numerous occasions and I would not be surprised to see him do so again.

Talking of the World Championship, and I will be from now until it starts so you’d better get used to it, I see Bazza has been giving the hacks his thoughts on the future of the great event here.

The grand plan is to have a top prize of £1m and have everyone start from the opening round of 128 players and earn the right to play in the last 32 at the Crucible. I have no problem at all with that as long as the format in Sheffield remains the same, it doesn’t bother me in the slightest who is playing or how they got there, if they have earned it on merit that’s good enough for me and I think most if not all fans would agree even if the TV companies don’t.

The ‘get there on merit’ seems to be a recurring theme with Bazza which makes it all the more baffling why he hasn’t done away with wildcards in ranking events yet.

Anyway, back to the action today and with Holt letting the recommended treble down yesterday it hasn’t been a good start to the event from a punting perspective. I have already backed Marco to beat Ronnie and I am of a mind to leave the second round alone with it still being best of seven but given first round performances I’m going to back Ding to beat Higgins at 5/4 with Apollobet, so I will recommend 2 points on that. While Ding’s season hasn’t really got going yet he is too good to not win something this season and this might be a good week for him to do so, Higgins still doesn’t look 100% to me and if he misses some of the balls he did against Liang in Round 1 he will be punished. Everyone will expect Smurf to account for the Nugget but I will be sitting there in my ginger wig cheering Steve on, for nostalgia’s sake.

Best of Luck if you are getting involved.

1pm
12 Ronnie O’Sullivan 4-1 Marco Fu
9 Mark Allen 4-0 Ken Doherty

Not before 2pm
16 Matthew Stevens 4-3 Barry Hawkins
15 Stephen Maguire 4-2 Adam Wicheard

7pm
19 John Higgins 3-4 Ding Junhui
21 Shaun Murphy 4-0 Steve Davis

The BBC have been busy

It’s day two over in Newport with the undoubted highlight of yesterday being the performance of the legend that is Steve Davis who once again turned back the clock with a superb performance against the luckless Ali Carter to progress to the second round, knocking in two centuries on the way.

I can’t think of enough superlatives when it comes to Steve, he is still as dedicated to winning as ever and I was informed by a reliable source just a few days ago that he is still unapproachable for at least half an hour when he loses. The man is snooker personified and looked yesterday like a player 20 years younger, even his hair seems to be turning ginge again, but that might be more to do with the BBC make up department than anything genetic, unless he truly is snooker’s very own Benjamin Button.

There were also easy wins in the morning for Ding Junhui and Michael Holt, Ding dropping just nine points in his demolition job on Dark Mavis who remains stuck in 17th place in the rankings. The result means that both Ronnie O’Sullivan and Stuart Bingham are safely through to the Crucible and all that remains to do now is for the top 16 to jostle for positions. Holt beat Ryan Day and looked pretty good in doing so, on that performance he stands a big chance today against Stephen Lee.

Judd Trump had a similarly comfortable win over the Ferginator who try as he might could not stop Judd potting. I still believe that Trump is the man to beat this week. Shaun Murphy stuttered and went 2-0 down to Mark Joyce before regaining his rhythm and controlling the next four frames, Tom Ford had a rare TV win over Graeme Dott who didn’t play well yesterday by his standards, perhaps the early signs that a busy season is beginning to take its toll on our Dotty?

Last night saw a comfortable win for John Higgins over Liang Wenbo, who continues to struggle and is half the player he was a few seasons ago. There was also a fantastic performance from Sam Baird on his debut in front of the cameras including a 136 total clearance in beating Dominic Dale 4-2, the good things I have been hearing about him are obviously true and he now faces Selby tonight in what is certainly the biggest match of his career to date.   

My first round preview and thoughts on the outright markets can be found here.

As the accumulator was let down by Dotty I think I will try another bet today and will recommend 2 points treble on Holt (+1.5), Bingham and Baird (+2.5) which pays a touch over 7/2 with Apollobet. 

Incidentally, the Snookerbacker Classic has now caught the bookies attention and Apollobet have their prices up here. Boylesports have priced up the matches here and the outrights here. David Gray heads the market with both firms.

Feel free to have a natter in the comments section below.

1pm
11 Mark Williams 4-3 Andy Hicks
5 Stephen Lee 4-1 Michael Holt

Not before 2pm
10 Neil Robertson 1-4 Stephen Hendry
13 Stuart Bingham 4-2 Mark King

7pm
18 Mark Selby v Sam Baird
17 Martin Gould v Peter Ebdon

The Welsh Open gets underway today in Newport and is covered by BBC Wales and Eurosport, the scheduled TV coverage can be accessed here.

My first round preview and thoughts on the outright markets can be found here and please feel free to use this post to discuss the action today.

11am
1 Ryan Day 0-4 Michael Holt
4 Ding Junhui 4-0 Mark Davis

(a clinical performance from Ding, points score was 354-9, means Stuart Bingham and Ronnie O’Sullivan are now definitely seeded at the Crucible with Mavis again stuck in 17th place) 

Not before 1.30pm
14 Judd Trump (104) 4-0 Fergal O’Brien
8 Ali Carter 3-4 Steve Davis (121, 117) 

Not before 2pm
7 Shaun Murphy 4-2 Mark Joyce
6 Graeme Dott 2-4 Tom Ford