We have had a couple of qualifying tournaments already but the first proper event of the new snooker season takes place next week when the World Cup takes place out in China when a bunch of nations compete for the big prize.
Teams of two take to the tournament to play a mix of singles and doubles with China looking to hang onto the title they won two years ago. This is the fourth running of the event under the new disguise and one of the two Chinese teams have won the previous three.
Recent Winners
2017 – China A
2015 – China B
2011 – China
The Format
24 nations compete in this tournament this year and they are split into four groups of six. Each group member plays the other five once and at the end of the group stage the two teams with the most points progress to the knockout stages. Each match in the group stage is the best of five frames with the four singles and a doubles and all frames are played. You get one point per frame won in the group phase. The knockout stage is the best of seven with the first five frames following the group format and then if needed frame six is the second doubles and the seventh frame is singles where the captain picks who plays.
Group A
China A headline this group with the pairing of Ding Junhui and Yan Bingtao looking to retain the title which Ding and Liang Wenbo won last time out. Thailand look the main dangers to them in terms of winning the group. They have the Shootout winner Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Noppon Saengkham representing them. The other four nations in this section are Austria, Poland, Germany and Norway, with the latter having Kurt Maflin in their side.
Group B
England are the star attractions in the second group this week. They are represented by Kyren Wilson and Jack Lisowski who team up for the first time. Both Irish nations are also in this section. With Joe Swail no longer on the tour it is Jordan Brown who partners Mark Allen this year. Ken Doherty and Fergal O’Brien combine for the Republic of Ireland. Iran, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia make up the group with Hossein Vafaei and Soheil Vahedi a potentially dangerous pairing.
Group C
Former finalists Scotland are the main seeds in the third group and with John Higgins and Stephen Maguire pairing up this week you would fancy them to go pretty strongly. They actually have the easiest of the four groups on paper with Belgium probably the biggest dangers to them. They have Luca Brecel and talented Ben Mertens in their ranks. Cyprus, Israel, Malaysia and the UAE are the other teams in this group and while Cyprus have Michael Georgiou, it would be a surprise if the progressing teams are not Scotland and Belgium.
Group D
The other Chinese team of Zhou Yuelong and Liang Wenbo are in the bottom group which means they could meet the other Chinese team in the semi-finals if they win this group and it goes to plan. Wales will look to stop that from happening though and with Mark Williams and Ryan Day on the baize for them they look pretty strong too. Malta, Switzerland, Australia and India are the four sides who will be looking to play spoilers but with no Neil Robertson for Australia that would seem unlikely.
Betting
I’m not going to get massively involved this week as it is still relatively early in the season and the format is something of a lottery which means that anything can happen but I’ve always said in this a team is only as strong as their second player so I’ll go with a couple of teams who have good second options.
Thailand shouldn’t have too many problems coming out of Group A with the four European nations all looking pretty weak. Both Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Noppon Saengkham are good enough to win much better events than this and Un-Nooh in particular has already shown his liking for one-frame matches when he landed the Shootout. Both men have gone deep in ranking tournaments and if they have their scoring boots with them you wouldn’t want to play either.
Ben Mertens might not be the best second player in the field but he is an extreme talent and with Luca Brecel one of the better players in the competition I’m expecting Belgium to go very close here. They have a group that they should breeze out of and once they have done that anything can happen here. If Brecel plays to his best standard then he can carry the side but I would be surprised if Mertens doesn’t contribute somewhere along the line. He’ll win main tour matches this season. At 28/1 they look fair value given the likelihood of them coming out of the group.
Tips
Back Thailand to win Snooker World Cup (e/w) for a 2/10 stake at 11.00 with Betfred (1/2 1-2)
Back them here:
Back Belgium to win Snooker World Cup (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 29.00 with Coral (1/2 1-2)
Back them here:
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