The second stage of the Championship League Snooker tournament begins on Monday and it does so with some of the biggest names in the game in action as the first two spots in the two final groups will be filled inside the Morningside Arena in Leicester.
This is the fifth to last day of the competition and it is the second day of the tournament that we will get to see Ronnie O’Sullivan on show as he headlines what should be a wonderful day of snooker to kick off the final week of the event.
Day 16 Recap
It was a fairly routine day for the favourites on Friday to round off the opening stage of the competition. I think most would have expected Judd Trump to power through his group and that is exactly what the world number one did, winning all three of his matches 3-1. Mark Allen was almost as convincing in his group as he won two of his three matches 3-0 and drew the other one 2-2 to each into the next stage of the event.
It wasn’t a great day for us betting wise on Friday. I thought Allen might struggle for motivation and form but I got that completely wrong and as such Chris Wakelin never really had a chance of beating him. That is exactly how it proved with the Northern Irishman running out a 3-0 winner in next to no time to send us into the second stage of the competition off the back of a loser.
Group G
Fixtures
Barry Hawkins vs Matthew Selt
Yan Bingtao vs Cao Yupeng
Yan Bingtao vs Matthew Selt
Barry Hawkins vs Cao Yupeng
Yan Bingtao vs Barry Hawkins
Matthew Selt vs Cao Yupeng
Preview
The action over on Table Two looks like it will be a competitive affair with four good players competing in what should be quite an open section. There are two standout class acts in this group in the form of The Masters champion Yan Bingtao and the man who was previously a world finalist in Barry Hawkins. The other two men are no mugs though. Matt Selt is a ranking event champion in his own right and Cao Yupeng has reached a final of a ranking event in the past too.
Group H
Fixtures
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Craig Steadman
David Gilbert vs Chang Bingyu
David Gilbert vs Craig Steadman
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Chang Bingyu
Chang Bingyu vs Craig Steadman
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs David Gilbert
Preview
The action on Table One is not too dissimilar to that on the other table in that there are two standout class acts in it in terms of the legend Ronnie O’Sullivan and a Dave Gilbert who amazingly still hasn’t won a ranking event but would be one of the favourites to do that on Friday if he can come through this group. The only difference between this section and the other one is that the support cast isn’t quite as strong. They are Chang Bingyu and Craig Steadman who have done well to make it this far but would be pulling off a huge surprise if they go any further.
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Group Betting
The group betting is interesting on Monday. On Table One I think Ronnie O’Sullivan is a fair favourite but I’m still not convinced this is the sort of event he gets up for and some of the snooker he played in the first group was very questionable but he was good enough to get through. I don’t think he’ll be good enough to overcome Dave Gilbert playing like that though but you just never know how the Rocket is going to treat one day to the next which makes betting hard.
The other group it is odds against the field which isn’t always the case in these four man groups. If I had to bet in the group I’d probably take the front two on because I’m not sure I see anyone winning all three matches in this company. I don’t need to bet on it though because one of my two outright bets is in this section in the form of Matt Selt so I’ll be hoping that he can be the man to make it through and give me a much stronger chance of a pay out.
Match Betting
In truth, there isn’t a huge amount that I like over the course of Monday. I expect the groups to be fairly competitive but in a lot of the matches the favourites are hard to oppose. I’m going to take the chance that with the pressure of knowing he has Ronnie O’Sullivan to come later in the day, that Dave Gilbert feels a little pressure and underperforms in his opener against the talented Chang Bingyu and gets turned over and gives himself a mountain to climb.
Bingyu showed his talent last season and looked very good in his group. He scored centuries in two of his three matches in the first group whereas Gilbert was a lot more disjointed in his. It might be that the former ranking event finalist comes on for the run so to speak but he might need to because the Chinese youngster looked in good form earlier in the competition. He probably doesn’t have much to lose now so I’ll take him to draw first blood in this group.
Tips
Back C.Bingyu to beat D.Gilbert (DNB) for a 2/10 stake at 2.75 with Coral
Back him here:
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