The first week of the Championship League Snooker concludes on Friday when two more groups of action takes place inside the Morningside Arena in Leicester as another eight players get their season up and running.
We are starting to get to the stage where the big names enter the fray and one of those will be the star of the show on Friday in the form of Mark Williams. We’ll see what sort of form he is in on another good looking day of snooker.
Group 6
Fixtures
Mark Williams vs Daniel Holoyda
Dylan Emery vs Ken Doherty
Mark Williams vs Ken Doherty
Dylan Emery vs Daniel Holoyda
Ken Doherty vs Daniel Holoyda
Mark Williams vs Dylan Emery
Preview
All eyes will be on Mark Williams on the main table on Friday as he goes in search of the group win that will propel him into the next stage of the competition. He looks to have landed a decent draw with Dylan Emery one of the lower ranked second seeds that he could have drawn. The former world champion Ken Doherty could be a fly in the ointment for the two Welsh players over this format as he gets another campaign on the pro circuit underway. The other player in the group is the Polish amateur Daniel Holoyda who might well be a little out of his depth at this level.
Group 27
Fixtures
Jordan Brown vs Joshua Thomond
Julien Leclercq vs Barry Pinches
Jordan Brown vs Barry Pinches
Julien Leclercq vs Joshua Thomond
Barry Pinches vs Joshua Thomond
Jordan Brown vs Julien Leclercq
Preview
The former Welsh Open champion Jordan Brown is the top seed in Group 27 over on Table Two and he will be expected to make it through to the second round without too much fuss. Julien Leclercq showed at the Shootout last season though that he doesn’t mind these shorter formats when he made the final of that competition and he’ll be hoping to make progress through this group. The other two players in this section are now amateurs. Barry Pinches will have been disappointed to lose his card but has the chance to win a few quid here and maybe begin his quest to get his tour card back the hard way. The same offer goes to Joshua Thomond.
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Group Betting
Group 6 will be the centre of attention on Friday where Mark Williams is a massive favourite to come through the draw. If this was later in the season there could be no issues with that but this early in it when we know Williams spends most of his summer playing golf and not attacking the practice table has to make us look elsewhere and oppose him at cramped odds. To add onto the uncertainty, his young lad plays in a tournament in Ireland this weekend and Williams might be thinking more about that. Ken Doherty might be competitive but I don’t expect the same from Daniel Holoyda but it is Dylan Emery that I’ll take Williams on with. Emery has looked a talented cueist for a while and now that he has had a year to establish himself on tour I expect bigger things from him here. It might be that the natural talent and class of Williams is enough to get him through but I think Emery will give him most to think about and at 15/2 he looks good value in Group 6.
The other group looks between the two professionals and it might be that Julien Leclercq can spring a bit of an upset on a Jordan Brown who hasn’t really done much on the circuit for a while now. There is certainly reason to oppose Brown but at the time of writing we don’t have too many priced up for this group because there has been a late change to the line-up. If the odds go up and Leclercq is a price I might side with him but we can’t get involved just yet.
Match Betting
As has been the case in this tournament since this format came into play, I like to find a vulnerable favourite first up who could be turned over by someone at a big price. That has already worked on the opening day and would have worked in other groups as well. I’m not so sure it will be the route to profit on Friday though because both of the top seeds look to have very comfortable assignments against players who might struggle at this level.
The second seeds are a little more vulnerable with nobody really knowing how consistent Julien Leclercq will be at this level, although I’m sure he’ll be buoyed by watching his countryman Luca Brecel win the world title last month. I’ve already mentioned that Dylan Emery is the value to beat Mark Williams to the Group 6 win and I would expect him to open up with a result of some kind against Ken Doherty so nothing appeals in the matches.
Tips
Back D.Emery to win Group 6 for a 1/10 stake at 8.50 with Coral
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