The second round of qualifying for the World Championship draws to a close on Monday and when the three session day of snooker has concluded we will know the 32 men who will battle it out for the 16 spots at the Crucible Theatre in the final qualifying round later in the week.
Sunday Recap
Sunday was a decent day for us betting wise as Yu Delu prevailed against Robbie Williams to bring in a sizeable first bet of the three we put up for the day. The two carrying over to Monday afternoon have Chris Wakelin narrowly up on Tom Ford although Sam Baird has it all to do against Xiao Guodong. He trails 7-2 but as Meatloaf can testify to two out of three wouldn’t be all bad.
It wasn’t such a good day for a couple of big names as Joe Perry was sent packing in a deciding frame by Akani Songsermsawad and Reanne Evans left her opening session 6-1 behind Lee Walker. She’ll have plenty of work to do to turn that around.
Morning Session
Mark Williams is back in the spotlight again on Monday. He takes on Liam Highfield in what is a stern test for the number one seed. That is on one of the streamed tables with Ben Woollaston taking on a Ken Doherty who is under pressure for his tour place on the other one.
On the outside tables we will have Matt Selt against Hossein Vafaei, Noppon Saengkham against Anthony Hamilton, Nigel Bond taking on Stephen Maguire, Dechawat Poomjaeng facing Graeme Dott, Tian Pengfei meeting Fergal O’Brien, Luca Brecel up against Joe Swail, Rory McLeod meeting Sydney Wilson, Rod Lawler against Alan McManus and Jimmy Robertson playing Oliver Lines.
Afternoon Session
Sunday afternoon’s matches end in this session with Evans looking to overturn that 6-1 deficit while Michael White will be looking to ram home a 6-3 advantage over Ross Muir on the other streamed table.
Elsewhere Gary Wilson and Peter Lines play a best of 11 as they resume at 4-4, Dominic Dale will look to hold onto a 5-3 lead over Daniel Wells, Mark Joyce and David Grace return level at 3-3, Guodong leads Baird 7-2, Mark King should see off Fang Xiongman from 6-3 up, as should Li Hang when he starts 7-2 on Mike Dunn. Stuart Carrington leads Andrew Higginson by the same scoreline and Wakelin is 5-4 up on Ford.
Betting
I’m going with two on Monday and they both come in the morning session. On the main table I think Ben Woollaston will end the Crucible dream of Ken Doherty. Doherty is facing falling off the tour for one reason and that is that his results haven’t been good enough this year and his game as diminished rapidly.
Ben Woollaston doesn’t get much of the limelight but he is a really solid player and if you give him the amount of chances Doherty has been giving opponents he will take them more often than not. Doherty had a favourable draw to get through the first round but he doesn’t have one here so I’m with the Leicester man.
I’m also going to continue to ride the Hossein Vafaei money train. Those setting the odds still haven’t come to appreciate how good this guy is but I’ve seen it and accept it. Matt Selt is a solid opponent but the pressure is all on him and sometimes he can wilt in that situation. I really think the long format is bang on for the Iranian and he’s a very solid price to win here.
Tips
WON – Back B.Woollaston (-3.5 frames) to beat K.Doherty for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Paddy Power
Back him here:
WON – Back H.Vafaei to beat M.Selt for a 4/10 stake at 2.40 with Bwin
Back him here:
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