The penultimate day of first round group action forms the schedule in the Championship League snooker event as the first tournament back from lockdown continues to head towards the business end of proceedings inside the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.
We’ve seen plenty of established names make it through to the semi-final groups over the first six days of the tournament and a number of others will be looking to join them across the two groups of play on Sunday.
The Format
The whole tour were invited into the tournament with the highest ranked 64 players getting into the draw. The 64 man field have been split into 16 groups of four in the first round. Each group is a round robin with everyone playing everyone else over the best of four frames with two points for a win and one for a draw. The player who tops the group goes through to the group winner stage where the 16 remaining players are split into four more groups of four over the same format. Those four winners then go into the Championship group which is once again played out over the same format. Whoever tops that group is the champion. Two groups will be played on each day until the final day when the Championship group is played. The entire tournament is live on ITV4 in the UK.
Saturday Recap
It was a dramatic day of action on Saturday with both groups going down to the final match before the winner was determined. On the main table things went with the form book where the favourite Stuart Bingham obliged courtesy of making the highest break out of him and Ricky Walden after both men finished level on five points. Ben Woollaston went into his final game with Jimmy Robertson needing only a draw to progress and having taken a 2-0 lead the fact he then got pegged back to 2-2 was irrelevant as it was the Leicester man who went through.
It wasn’t such a great day for us betting wise as Liam Highfield blew a good chance to win the opening frame of his match against Ben Woollaston and the snooker gods never really forgave him as he suffered a poor run of the ball for the remainder of the game. That meant our punt on him to win without the draw in play was a loser and gives us a bit of work to do moving forward in the event.
Group 7
Fixtures
Anthony McGill vs Craig Steadman
Barry Hawkins vs Hammad Miah
Barry Hawkins vs Craig Steadman
Anthony McGill vs Hammad Miah
Barry Hawkins vs Anthony McGill
Craig Steadman vs Hammad Miah
Preview
Competency looks to be the order of the day here with two established runners combining with two solid professionals to play out what should be a very competitive group. Barry Hawkins is the man expected to come through as the highest ranked individual in it but his wretched season will sure give the other three men reason to fancy their chances. Anthony McGill is therefore ranked as the man most likely to take advantage should Hawkins not be at the races but Craig Steadman shouldn’t necessarily be discounted without a second thought. Hammad Miah has been in the news over the last couple of days for an interview he has given and now he gets to attempt to be in it for on table pursuits too.
Group 16
Fixtures
Neil Robertson vs Ashley Carty
Kurt Maflin vs Ken Doherty
Kurt Maflin vs Ashley Carty
Neil Robertson vs Ken Doherty
Ken Doherty vs Ashley Carty
Neil Robertson vs Kurt Maflin
Preview
The star attraction over the course of play on Sunday is Neil Robertson. Along with Judd Trump he has been one of the features of the season and had Covid-19 not got in the way the Australian would have gone to the World Championship as one of the favourites to land the title. He is one of the fancied contenders in this tournament and looks to have a nice group to begin his quest with. That said, if the Australian isn’t at the races when Kurt Maflin is more than good enough to take care of this section. You can never write off Ken Doherty either. He is a canny player who knows what is needed to survive. Ashley Carty will be in alien territory but a player with nothing to lose can often be a dangerous customer.
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Group Betting
In the group on the main table it is hard to oppose Neil Robertson, in fact it is near enough impossible to oppose him. We know he will have been practicing in the build up to this tournament which is half the battle but this is not a format that lends itself to 1/3 shots as we’ve seen already. If I was opposing him then Kurt Maflin would be the one to do it with but we don’t know how he’ll go or anything. I would be surprised if Robertson doesn’t win the group but his price isn’t for me.
The other group is more interesting though and my gut feeling is that Barry Hawkins is too short in it. He is a renowned slow starter to a season and although this isn’t a new season, it is still a long break that he is coming off. He hasn’t exactly been in scintillating form this term anyway. The question is who to take him on with and I’ll go with Anthony McGill. The Scot is a winner of the Shootout in the past so we know that he can get out of the blocks. He has also won in India as well so the shorter formats tend to suit him. He’s a canny player who will get the permutations and things and the fact he’s the only Scot to compete in the event might be a tip in itself. He’s here for a reason and at 2/1 I think he can extend his stay in the competition by winning this group.
Match Betting
There isn’t a whole lot I like on the match betting front on Sunday but one thing I have noticed on the main match table is that class is generally telling in the first match where the highest ranked player opens the show against the lowest ranked player in the section. We’ve had six groups on the main table now and four of them have been opened up with a 3-0 win by the top seed in the section. One of the other two was a 3-1 win for Mark Selby but he was up against a very experienced campaigner in Lee Walker. The other was Kyren Wilson who didn’t win his group and was nowhere near his best anyway.
That makes me think that the even money on Neil Robertson to cover a 2.5 frame handicap, or in layman’s terms win 3-0, in his opening match against Ashley Carty could be worth a go. Carty won’t have experienced the TV conditions very often, if ever, so this will all be new to him and while he has shown his talent on a couple of occasions this term, it has been a season of struggle overall. We know Robertson will have been putting work in for this tournament and the two big ones to come so I expect him to be sharp out of the blocks. If Carty needs a frame or two to adjust to everything and play himself in then Robertson might be away and gone. I see no reason why the Australian can’t or won’t continue that trend of fast starts from the top seeds on the main table.
Tips
Back A.McGill to win Group 7 for a 2/10 stake at 3.00 with 888sport
Back him here:
Back N.Robertson (-2.5 frames) to beat A.Carty for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
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