The second week of the Championship League Snooker tournament begins on Monday as another two first round groups get played out inside the Mattioli Arena in Leicester as eight more players get started for the new season.
We ended the opening week of the season with some low key groups in terms of a lack of top 16 players on show but we make up for that to begin the second week as there is one in both groups on Monday.
Day 6 Recap
Saturday was an interesting day of action with both favourites heading into the day coming out on top in their group although the main table actually had the second seed winning it when Ben Woollaston once again got into the second stage at the expense of top seed Dominic Dale. There were no such problems for Jamie Jones over on table two when he went unbeaten over the course of the day to finish top by a solitary frame.
That meant that it wasn’t a great day for us betting wise because we took Liu Hongyu to come out on top in the Jones group but after winning the opening frame of his match against Ishpreet Singh Chadha he went down 3-1 in that game and never really recovered from that so there was no joy with that bet which meant that we left the opening week marginally in profit and hoping to build on that this week.
Group 7
Fixtures
Tom Ford v Barry Pinches
Sanderson Lam v Robbie McGuigan
Sanderson Lam v Barry Pinches
Tom Ford v Robbie McGuigan
Robbie McGuigan v Barry Pinches
Tom Ford v Sanderson Lam
Preview
Tom Ford had an excellent season last term which resulted in him being seeded for a crack at the World Championship. That didn’t go to plan for him but he is a player very much on the up and he is the top seed on the main table on Monday. The second seed is Sanderson Lam who had a progressive season himself last term and will be out to prove himself this time around too. Robbie McGuigan is the third seed in this group as he begins life as a tour professional and the amateur Barry Pinches will be looking to show that he can still be competitive at this level even though he couldn’t win his tour card back.
Group 8
Fixtures
Jak Jones v Antoni Kowalski
Jordan Brown v Bulcsu Revesz
Jordan Brown v Antoni Kowalski
Jak Jones v Bulcsu Revesz
Bulcsu Revesz v Antoni Kowalski
Jak Jones v Jordan Brown
Preview
The action over on table two on Monday will be headed by the World Championship finalist Jak Jones who will be in competitive action for the first time since he went down at the Crucible Theatre. He is the top seed in a group which actually had the highest ranked second seed in it in the form of Jordan Brown. There is a bit of a cosmopolitan look to this group with the third seed being the Hungarian new player to the tour in Bulcsu Revesz while the Polish youngster Antoni Kowalski, also new to this level, is the fourth seed.
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Group Betting
Usually I look to get stuck into the group betting but we have a couple of warm favourites on Monday. That would normally make me look to see if I can take either on and in truth I’m not sure I can. On the main table it looks so hard to oppose Tom Ford. He is a good deal better than the other three in the group and with this tournament being on his doorstep it is hard to believe his preparation won’t be right. Sanderson Lam probably won’t get it done over three matches while Robbie McGuigan is new to the tour and Barry Pinches has his best days behind him.
I will be interested to see how Jak Jones fares in his new found snooker fame and while I want to take him on as an odds on favourite, he did get out of his first round group last year and needs to be respected on that. I guess if I was to take him on it would have to be with Jordan Brown because the other two players in the group are both very young and new to the tour and they might need their first day to adjust to conditions and everything. I’m not convinced that Brown is going to come through here though so I’ll leave this alone.
Match Betting
I will go with one match bet over the course of the day though and that comes in the form of Sanderson Lam to get the better of Barry Pinches. Pinches had a good run at the World Seniors where he made the semi-finals but he went to Q-School and never really made an impression which shows that his better days at this level are behind him and so I think he is vulnerable over the early part of the day on Monday.
Lam got out of his group last year and went on to achieve some decent results and will be hoping for more of the same this time around. As the second seed in the group he gets the chance to play the two lowest ranked players first and his match against Pinches is actually his second successive match so he will be nicely warmed up for this encounter. Lam picked up a win over Neil Robertson last season and took Mark Williams to a deciding frame in Wales and I think he’s fair value at odds against to win this one.
Tips
Back S.Lam to beat B.Pinches for a 3/10 stake at 2.15 with William Hill
Back him here:
