The World Championship snooker rarely disappoints and it kicked off with a bang when the qualifying began on Wednesday. 11 players saw their dreams of world glory end and on Thursday the fate will be sealed for another 20 in a frantic day of action.
Wednesday Recap
The big talking point of the opening day of action was the surprise defeat for Robin Hull. He lost to the former ladies world champion Reanne Evans 10-8 in a match which Evans held her nerve fantastically in.
It was a good day for our one bet which was settled as Stuart Carrington was a convincing winner but the one which carries over to Thursday isn’t in such good shape as Mei Xi Wen trails 5-3 heading into their second session.
Morning Session
Eleven more matches get underway on Thursday morning and will conclude on Thursday evening. The main tables will be occupied by Michael White and Ricky Walden. Both face potentially awkward tests although it would be a surprise if either fails to come through.
The outside tables will be loaded. They will see Mark Joyce playing the Northern Irish amateur Jordan Brown, David Grace taking on Thor Chuan Leong, Dominic Dale up against Boonyarit Kaettikun, Daniel Wells meeting Adam Stefanow, Gary Wilson up against Josh Boileau, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh playing the World Seniors champion Peter Lines. The other matches include Ross Muir against Gareth Allen, Martin O’Donnell playing the teenage Welsh star Jackson Page and Michael Holt meeting Hamza Akbar.
Afternoon Session
Many of the nine matches which got underway on Wednesday afternoon had a one-sided feel about them. Nigel Bond leads Ng On Yee 6-1 on one of the streamed tables with Joe Perry 6-3 up on Zach Richardson on the other.
Elsewhere Sam Baird leads Ross Vallance 7-2 while Zhou Yuelong is further clear of Christopher Keogan at 8-1. Alfie Burden is 7-2 up on Adam Duffy while Jamie Jones leads Jamie Barrett 9-0. Rhys Clark is 8-1 up on Wayne Townsend with the only close matches being the ones which have Akani Songsermsawad and Ian Preece 5-3 up on Mei Xi Wen and Ian Burns respectively.
Betting
There is nothing which stands out in the afternoon session with the majority of those matches having little left to run so my only bet comes in the morning session.
It comes in the form of Daniel Wells who I believe will take care of Adam Stefanow fairly comfortably. Stefanow played Mark Selby in China last week and took three frames but he was flattered in that match with Selby being awful to begin with. Generally when he comes up against anyone half decent he’s well beaten is Stefanow and I expect that to be the case here.
Daniel Wells has never really cracked the pro tour like he was expected to but you only have to look down his results this season to see the talent he has. He has wins over Marco Fu and Mark Allen this season and a pair of wins over Kyren Wilson so he can clearly play and if he plays like he can here he should ease through.
Tips
Back D.Wells (-4.5 frames) to beat A.Stefanow for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Skybet
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