The first round of the UK Championship continues in York on Wednesday with three sessions of play as the competition really sparks into life. Some of the biggest names in the game are on show across the entirety of the day so we should be treated to some good snooker.
Any stars who thought about taking their opener for granted were given a real wake up call when they saw Ding Junhui struggle on Tuesday. Wednesday sees the start of the campaigns of John Higgins, Ronnie O’Sullivan and Shaun Murphy among others.
Morning Session
Last year’s runner up Liang Wenbo is one of the players on the main table to open up the day. He faces the Australian player Kurt Dunham while on the other streamed table the man of the moment John Higgins faces Alex Borg.
The outside tables will be full up with matches. Jack Lisowski takes on Mei Xiwen while Martin Gould faces Gareth Allen. Stuart Carrington goes up against Yan Bingtao in an interesting match while Ken Doherty meets Noppon Saengkham. Ben Woollaston plays Elliot Slessor and Gary Wilson takes on Paul Davison.
Afternoon Session
The Northern Ireland Open winner Mark King gets top billing in this session when he faces the dangerous Sam Craigie while the other streamed table will be occupied by Shaun Murphy and Itaro Santos who should be buoyed by the performance his Brazillian counterpart Igor Figueiredo on Tuesday.
The other tables will stage Ricky Walden against Fang Xiongman while Dechawat Poomjaeng plays Scott Donaldson. Luca Brecel is up against Aditya Mehta while Robin Hull plays Jamie Cope. In the other two matches Tom Ford plays Hammad Miah and Robert Milkins goes up against Hamza Akbar.
Evening Session
Ronnie O’Sullivan is the big draw in the evening session and understandably he is on one of the main table when he takes on Boonyarit Kaettikun. Mark Allen faces Chen Zhe on the other streamed table.
Away from the cameras we have Mike Dunn against Darryl Hill, Matthew Selt playing Michael Georgiou, Li Hang facing Rhys Clark, Dave Gilbert against Adam Duffy, Mark Joyce and Lee Walker and Rod Lawler playing Anthony Hamilton.
Betting
As with the opening day I’m being quite selective with bets here and as such I’m going with just three bets. I nearly took Tom Ford on the handicap but a few of the results on Tuesday have put me off taking the big caps.
The first bet I like is for Scott Donaldson to see off Dechawat Poomjaeng. Poomjaeng has only won two matches since June which isn’t exactly an inspiring record whereas Scott Donaldson has plenty of winning momentum behind him as we know to our benefit having taking him a couple of recently. There probably isn’t a lot between the two so I’ll go with the form and the winning confidence which lies in the Scot.
Mark King broke new territory in Northern Ireland when he landed his first major title and now he is back on the green baize having to get himself up for playing a much lower key match here and that won’t be easy. Sam Craigie has shown he is no mug on the tour this year. He took Neil Robertson to a deciding frame in International Championship qualifying and has wins over Marco Fu and Ken Doherty to his name. If King is suffering from a hangover or a comedown then Craigie has a chance here.
In the evening Anthony Hamilton takes on Rod Lawler fresh from his run to the semi-final in Belfast and I think that form will come with him and as such I would expect him to see off the Scouser. Hamilton showed in that tournament that he can scrap it out when needed but he’s easily the better scorer of the two. I fancy him to come through with a little in hand against an out of sorts Lawler.
Tips
WON – Back S.Donaldson to beat D.Poomjaeng for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Ladbrokes
Back him here:
WON – Back S.Craigie to beat M.King for a 3/10 stake at 3.10 with Coral
Back him here:
Back A.Hamilton (-1.5 frames) to beat R.Lawler for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2016
