After a day off to fit in all the TV equipment the UK Championship resumes on Saturday as the second round of the tournament gets underway. We now have TV coverage of the event on the BBC so we can expect the event to crank up a notch in both quality and profile now.
There are two sessions of play on Saturday with eight matches in each session as the competition continues to be whittled down at a rate of knots. Some very big names graced the tables so we should get a decent day of snooker.
Afternoon Session
The form man John Higgins is on one of the main tables in this session. He takes on the Thai player Noppon Saengkham while the other TV table will see the world champion Mark Selby and Daniel Wells on show.
On the outside tables two unseeded winners in the first round meet when Liam Highfield takes on Wang Yuchen. Mark Williams faces Andrew Higginson, Mike Dunn plays Michael Georgiou, Luca Brecel takes on the man who beat the Northern Ireland Open champion Mark King, that is Sam Craigie, Stephen Maguire goes up against the talented Zhao Xintong and Dominic Dale plays Graeme Dott.
Evening Session
The former world champion Stuart Bingham takes on Yu Delu on one of the TV tables with the other one being occupied by Barry Hawkins and Fergal O’Brien who play off for the right to face either Stephen Maguire or Zhao Xintong.
The outside tables have six matches on them. Peter Lines plays Chris Wakelin, Matthew Stevens and Michael White meet in an all-Welsh clash, escapologist Alan McManus plays Jamie Jones and Ali Carter meets Robbie Williams. The other matches see Zhou Yuelong playing Michael Holt and Sam Baird facing Mitchell Mann.
Betting
There are two bets I like on the resumption of the tournament and there is one in each session. Mike Dunn did well to come through in the first round but he had a favourable draw so I’m not going to think he has turned his season around off the back of that. That was just his second win since the beginning of June and without a 50 break in the entire match how much of a win it was remains to be seen.
Michael Georgiou may not be the best player in the world but he has wins over Matt Selt and Dave Gilbert this season among others and it was only 21 months ago that he was in the last 16 of the Welsh Open. At odds against with a little more winning momentum behind him I like Georgiou here.
Sam Baird has already been good to me this week and I’m going to chance him again in his match against Mitchell Mann. Credit where it is due for Mann to come through against Kyren Wilson but that was a strange match. Baird banged in a couple of centuries and a couple of other decent breaks in his first round win and a repeat of that should be enough to see off a Mann for whom that first round win was just a third of the campaign for him.
Tips
WON – Back M.Georgiou to beat M.Dunn for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
Back him here:
Back S.Baird (-1.5 frames) to beat M.Mann for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Skybet
Back him here:
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