It is the penultimate day of the International Championship qualifying tournament on Thursday when another bunch of players head to Barnsley looking to book their spot on the plane to China for the main event later in the month.
We saw a couple of surprise results across the card on Wednesday night should refocus the bigger names that are on show on Thursday. We have another competitive looking card to get stuck into over the three sessions of play.
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Morning Session
The exciting Chinese youngster Yan Bingtao will be eager to qualify for another home event. He takes on Alexander Ursenbacher on one of the main tables with Graeme Dott occupying the other. Dott faces Ashley Carty. There are three matches taking place elsewhere with the pick of those being the one between Mark Joyce and Craig Steadman. Li Hang and Chen ZIfan meet in a Chinese tussle while Martin O’Donnell has the task of beating Rod Lawler for a place in the main draw.
Afternoon Session
We get to see the new European Masters champion in action for the first time since he won the title in the afternoon session when Jimmy Robertson goes up against Adam Stefanow on one of the main tables. The man he beat in the semi-final in Lommel is on the other streamed table as Mark King faces Gerard Greene. On the other tables Matthew Stevens meets Hamza Akbar while Ali Carter takes on Kishan Hirani. The other match is between Sunny Akani as he likes to be known and Soheil Vahedi.
Evening Session
As ever there is just four matches in the evening session but they contain two real top drawer players as Judd Trump is among the men in action. He is on one of the streamed tables when he faces Lu Ning while on the other one Luca Brecel goes up against Jordan Brown. Away from the spotlight Daniel Wells and Zhang Anda meet while Mike Dunn faces the European Masters quarter finalist on the other table.
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Betting
I like two bets over the course of the day with the first one coming in the form of Craig Steadman who caught the eye with a win over Barry Hawkins in the European Masters last week. He won that match 4-0 which shows he is controlling the table nicely. He faces Mark Joyce for a spot in the main draw but it must be said Joyce is yet to get going this season with his four wins coming against a couple of amateurs, James Wattana and another lowly ranked opponent. He has lost a lot of matches you would expect him to win too. Steadman also has wins over Mark King and Scott Donaldson this term and he’s run Stuart Bingham and Neil Robertson close. Steadman has a 2-0 lead on head-to-head records against Joyce and he looks a fair bet to make it three from three.
Zhang Anda has been playing some nice snooker in recent times. He made the last 16 in Lommel last week and the week prior to that he took care of Marco Fu and Andrew Higginson in the China Championship. He also has wins over Michael White and Stuart Bingham on his record this season and can add Daniel Wells to that. Wells hasn’t really shown much of note this term yet. He did make the quarter final of the Paul Hunter Classic but once he beat Robert Milkins the draw opened right up for him there. He hasn’t won a match of note anywhere else though and given the form Zhang is showing, coupled with his desire to make it into a Chinese event, I expect him to come through no worse than 6-4 here.
Tips
WON – Back C.Steadman to beat M.Joyce for a 4/10 stake at 1.90 with Betfair
Back him here:
WON – Back Z.Anda (-1.5 frames) to beat D.Wells for a 4/10 stake at 1.90 with Unibet
Back him here:
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