The penultimate day of the second week of the Championship League Snooker sees two more groups in the first stage of the tournament taking place inside the Mattioli Arena in Leicester on Friday as eight more players get their new campaign up and running.
We have a couple of recognisable players on show over the course of the day on Friday so hopefully the action will heat up in the same way that the temperatures are expected to inside the arena in Leicester.
Day 10 Recap
It was a day where we had our first really big shock of the tournament on Thursday as the world champion Kyren Wilson didn’t have the first day he would have wanted with his new status as he could only finish second to Scott Donaldson to bow out of the competition at the first stage. There were no such problems for Hossein Vafaei over on the other table as he won all three of his matches to make it into the second stage of the competition.
I wanted to take the favourites on across the Thursday action but it turns out I took the wrong one on. I went against Hossein Vafaei where to be fair Louis Heathcote still had a chance to win the group going into their final match against each other but he had no answer to the Iranian and ended up finishing in second place annoyingly. That leaves us needing to turn things around a little bit on Friday and beyond.
Group 13
Fixtures
Si Jiahui vs Peter Lines
Jimmy Robertson vs Zak Surety
Jimmy Robertson vs Peter Lines
Si Jiahui vs Zak Surety
Zak Surety vs Peter Lines
Si Jiahui vs Jimmy Robertson
Preview
The former World Championship semi-finalist Si Jiahui begins what is a big season for him as the top seed in Group 13 which will be played out on the main table. He will know that he has a large chunk of his ranking cash coming off at the end of the season for making the semi-final of the worlds two years ago so he needs a big year. Jimmy Robertson will be looking to take advantage of that as the second seed in the group while Zak Surety will be hoping to start his season off on the right note. Peter Lines is a late call up into the tournament as the fourth seed in the group.
Group 18
Fixtures
Stuart Bingham vs Hamim Hussain
Anthony Hamilton vs Ahmed Aly Elsayed
Anthony Hamilton vs Hamim Hussain
Stuart Bingham vs Ahmed Aly Elsayed
Ahmed Aly Elsayed vs Hamim Hussain
Stuart Bingham vs Anthony Hamilton
Preview
The most recent World Championship semi-finalist Stuart Bingham is the top draw over on the second table on Friday when he heads up Group 18 in what is a big day of action for him as he now looks to push back into the top 16 ahead of the UK Championship and The Masters cut offs. Anthony Hamilton is one of the higher ranked second seeds and he’ll be a danger in this group while the American player Ahmed Aly Elsayed is a weaker third seed. The group is concluded by the amateur Hamim Hussain who will be looking to make full use of his opportunity.
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Group Betting
This doesn’t look like the easiest day to bet on the groups. It hasn’t been a great week for the Chinese players with the exception of Wu Yize who made it through but the other players from that part of the world who have competed have struggled which makes me wonder if Si Jiahui is a good thing on the main table. I’m not sure Jimmy Robertson is consistent enough to take him on with though and the same can be said of Zak Surety. Peter Lines might have interested me here if he had a little more notice to prepare but as it is I’ll leave this one alone.
The other group has Stuart Bingham as a warm favourite and I’m hoping that rings true because he is one of my outright bets in the event and I’m hoping that he can make it through to the next stage from this section. There isn’t anyone I would really want to take him on with anyway. I don’t think that the format suits Anthony Hamilton while Ahmed Aly Elsayed has to be one of the weaker third seeds and we haven’t seen any evidence that the amateurs are good enough to progress yet. I’ll keep my outright interest in Bingham as my focus on his group.
Match Betting
There isn’t a massive amount that I like in the match betting department on Friday either but I just wonder if Peter Lines is worth a go to see off Si Jiahui in the first match of the day on the main table. I wouldn’t say he is a certainty or anything like that but he might feel free of pressure as a late call up and at least we know he has played competitive snooker in the last month having gone to Q-School whereas Si won’t have played since the World Championship.
We’ve seen a couple of the Chinese players start off slowly in this tournament so far and that is unlike them as they are usually well prepared. Si had an excellent season last time around so while there is no disputing he is the better player of the two here but Lines showed enough at the World Championship qualifiers that he can still be competitive and if he can get the first frame here and build some confidence you just never know. 11/2 feels a bit big to me.
Tips
Back P.Lines to beat S.Jiahui for a 1/10 stake at 6.50 with William Hill
Back him here:
