The Championship League Snooker event continues on Wednesday when another eight players get their new season underway inside the Mattioli Arena as two more intriguing first round groups are played out.
We are getting used to days without the top 16 players taking to the baize and after one such day on Tuesday we have another on Wednesday, however when you look at the schedule things should be very competitive.
Day 8 Recap
I suspected it was a day to take on the favourites on Tuesday and I was half right because on the main table Ricky Walden was seen off by Martin O’Donnell with their group coming down to the final match between the two which O’Donnell came out on top in. I couldn’t find anyone to take Wu Yize on with on the other table and it turns out I was right as the Chinese player won all three of his matches to power through to the next stage.
It wasn’t the day we were looking for betting wise as Allan Taylor failed to get the better of Ross Muir which was a little annoying. Muir won 3-1 but he won the first frame with a fluke on the blue and the second one from 54 points behind so it really could have been 3-1 the other way around with just a little more luck and a bit of composure. We kept our stakes low so we are still in profit for the week but could do with a change in fortune on Wednesday.
Group 26
Fixtures
Matt Selt vs Florian Nuessle
Graeme Dott vs Alexander Ursenbacher
Graeme Dott vs Florian Nuessle
Matt Selt vs Alexander Ursenbacher
Alexander Ursenbacher vs Florian Nuessle
Matt Selt vs Graeme Dott
Preview
We might lack a high ranked player in the group which is being played out on the main table on Wednesday but the offering in Group 26 should be very competitive with three very seasoned players taking to the baize. Matt Selt is the highest of them and as a result he is the top seed in the section but Graeme Dott is rarely not competitive and was probably one of the second seeds to avoid. Alexander Ursenbacher is high up on the list of third seeds you don’t want to meet too and he is in this group while the Austrian amateur Florian Nuessle completes the quartet.
Group 27
Fixtures
Yuan Sijun vs Paul Deaville
David Lilley vs Liam Graham
David Lilley vs Paul Deaville
Yuan Sijun vs Liam Graham
Liam Graham vs Paul Deaville
Yuan Sijun vs David Lilley
Preview
We have another competitive looking group over on table two when Group 27 is played out. The top seed in this section is Yuan Sijun and he won’t have been in this position before so it will be interesting to see how he copes with the added expectation. He does look to have found himself in a nice group though because David Lilley as a second seed isn’t one of the higher ranked players in that slot. Liam Graham is still relatively new to the tour so he isn’t a bad third seed for Sijun to go up against while the last player in the group is the talented Paul Deaville who came so close to reaching the tour with two deep but ultimately fruitless runs at Q-School.
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Group Betting
There haven’t been many groups this season so far where the favourite has been odds against but that is the situation that we have on the main table where Matt Selt can be taken at 11/8. I wouldn’t say that I think that is value but at the same time I’m not really queuing up to take him on with anyone. The format doesn’t really fit Graeme Dott and his best days are probably beyond him anyway while Alexander Ursenbacher isn’t consistent enough. Florian Nuessle might do more than make up the numbers but I can’t be having him over three matches in a competitive group either.
Over on the other table we have Yuan Sijun as a warm odds on favourite. That feels right because you would imagine that David Lilley is the only one with the quality and experience at this level to trouble him and his best days might be a thing of the past too. The one thing I would say about Lilley though is that he can score and I always like being on scorers. Sijun has only come out of his group once which interests me but not enough to oppose him without anyone I strongly fancy to get the better of him.
Match Betting
There isn’t a huge amount that I like in the match betting on Wednesday but the fact that Graeme Dott plays two successive matches to round off the afternoon session and the second of them comes against an amateur in the form of Florian Nuessle makes me think that he might be a bit of value. Nuessle isn’t one of the weaker amateurs in the field but he has had a number of goes at getting through Q-School and the Q-Tour and hasn’t managed it yet so clearly there are limitations to his game.
Dott had a pretty poor campaign by his standards last season but there were signs towards the end of it that all might not be lost with him albeit without that massive tournament to make up for it. He still knows his way around a snooker table and generally doesn’t lose to many players he should beat. The last four tournaments he played it took Xu Si, Luca Brecel, Hossein Vafaei and Jackson Page to beat him and I don’t see any of them in Nuessle. Off the back of playing the previous match I think Dott is worth a bet at 6/5.
Tips
Back G.Dott to beat F.Nuessle for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with William Hill
Back him here:
