There are three days left in the first stage of the Championship League Snooker event and the first of those comes along on Wednesday when yet again another eight players get the chance to open up their new campaign inside the Morningside Arena in Leicester.
We’ve seen many of the big names already start their campaign and on Wednesday the beaten world finalist Shaun Murphy will headline the action on what looks like being another very good day of snooker overall.
Day 13 Recap
We expected both the favourites to dominate proceedings on Tuesday and that is exactly what happened. I say dominated, that was certainly the case with Yan Bingtao who won all three of his matches and wasn’t really ever in any danger in any of them. Matt Selt had to work a little harder for his place in the second stage after drawing his opening two matches. That meant that he had to beat Ashley Carty to secure top spot which is exactly what happened.
After an excellent day of betting on Monday it wasn’t quite our day on Wednesday. We were on Fraser Patrick to beat Lukas Kleckers and had he done that he would actually have won the group but the pressure told and he saved his worst performance of the day for the last match and went down 3-1. I hoped he would get us a push when he made it 1-2 but to be fair to Kleckers he played a very good final frame.
Group 17
Fixtures
Shaun Murphy vs Michael Collumb
Jamie Jones vs Chen Zifan
Jamie Jones vs Michael Collumb
Shaun Murphy vs Chen Zifan
Chen Zifan vs Michael Collumb
Shaun Murphy vs Jamie Jones
Preview
The World Championship finalist Shaun Murphy is the man who will headline the action on the main table on Wednesday. He will be expected to make it through to the next phase of the competition but he isn’t guaranteed to have it all his own way because he’s in a group with the very competent Jamie Jones, who remains a man on a mission after his return to the sport at the beginning of last season. Chen Zifan will be out to upset the applecart while Scottish amateur Michael Collumb gets a chance to show his stuff on the TV table.
Group 15
Fixtures
Mark King vs Andrew Pagett
Matthew Stevens vs Ross Muir
Matthew Stevens vs Andrew Pagett
Mark King vs Ross Muir
Matthew Stevens vs Mark King
Andrew Pagett vs Ross Muir
Preview
Two veterans of the tour get another season underway on the second table on Wednesday when the former Masters champion Matthew Stevens and the winner in Northern Ireland a few seasons ago in Mark King both start their competition in Group 15. They will be the two men expected to battle it out for the title. Andrew Pagett was due to return to the tour last season but a medical issue means that was delayed until this term so he’ll be eager to hit the ground running. The other player in the group is the Scottish amateur Ross Muir, who failed to get back on the tour at Q-School.
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Group Betting
The group betting is difficult on Wednesday. I certainly don’t want to oppose Shaun Murphy but I’m not exactly in a rush to back him at 2/5 either. I’ve categorised these big names into players who will treat it seriously and have prepared properly for this and then those who are just turning up and using the event to shake off some rust and not have a whole lot of motivation for anything else. Murphy is very much in the former category. That said, Jamie Jones will be a tough nut to crack but I still can’t be opposing Murphy.
In the group on Table Two I think it is a pick ‘em between Matthew Stevens and Mark King but neither strike me as players who will have prepared fantastically for this competition. In many ways there could be a case for taking them on but Andrew Pagett hasn’t played at this level in a while and whenever Ross Muir has operated on the main tour he has often been found wanting. Nothing stands out as huge value so I’ll leave the group betting alone.
Match Betting
There isn’t a huge amount I like in the match betting department on Wednesday but I will play Mark King to beat Matthew Stevens in the main match on Table Two. There are a couple of reasons why I fancy King. I think this is a bigger day for him than it is for Stevens as he has dropped right down the rankings so any money he can win from this event will certainly do him no harm. I’m also not convinced this is the kind of tournament that Stevens will be putting tons of work in on the practice table for.
The other reason why I like King in this match is that he is on the table in the match before this so he will have his cue arm warm and won’t have been waiting around for hours in between the matches. Whatever happens earlier in the day this will be a big match for King with money on the line whereas Stevens doesn’t really need the ranking points. He treats these smaller events as a jolly up at the best of times so I can’t believe he’ll take this too seriously. I’ll go with King without the draw at odds against in this one.
Tips
Back M.King to beat M.Stevens (DNB) for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Coral
Back him here:
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