It is the penultimate day of the first round of the Championship League Snooker tournament on Wednesday when another two groups will be played out inside the Mattioli Arena in Leicester with eight more players starting out their season.
We had the biggest name of them all on show on Tuesday and while there is nobody of Ronnie O’Sullivan’s stature on show on Wednesday, we do still have one top 16 player taking to the baize and another on the fringes of it.
Day 14 Recap
It was a day where the biggest surprise of the lot took place on Tuesday as Ronnie O’Sullivan bit the dust which means that we have now lost the top two seeds in the competition. He Guoqiang was the man who came out on top at the expense of the Rocket. There was no upset on the other table though where Jack Lisowski was the top seed and he went unbeaten throughout the course of the day to successive claim his place in the second round.
It was another of those annoying betting days for us because He Guoqiang won the group with two wins from the three matches that he played, including one over Ronnie O’Sullivan, however the match that we wanted him to come out on top in, against Mitchell Mann in his first game, was the one that he lost which sums up the last few days for us in this event. That leaves us with some work to do as we go into the final week of the competition.
Group 5
Fixtures
Ali Carter vs Joshua Thomond
Xing Zihao vs Kreishh Gurbaxani
Xing Zihao vs Joshua Thomond
Ali Carter vs Kreishh Gurbaxani
Kreishh Gurbaxani vs Joshua Thomond
Ali Carter vs Xing Zihao
Preview
The action on the main table on Wednesday comes from Group 5 where The Masters finalist Ali Carter will be the headline act. The Captain will be looking to get his season off to a decent start before he heads to the Shanghai Masters next month and he probably couldn’t have asked for a better group to take on. Xing Zihao is the second seed in it and he is the lowest ranked in that part of the competition while the third seed, Kreishh Gurbaxani, is new to the tour and might need time to adjust. The quartet is completed by an amateur in Joshua Thomond, who was a match away from coming through Q-School.
Group 16
Fixtures
Zhou Yuelong vs Mink Nutcharut
Fan Zhengyi vs Alfie Burden
Fan Zhengyi vs Mink Nutcharut
Zhou Yuelong vs Alfie Burden
Alfie Burden vs Mink Nutcharut
Zhou Yuelong vs Fan Zhengyi
Preview
There is a strong Asian flavour to the action over on table two on Wednesday where Zhou Yuelong is the favourite to come out of the group as the top seed. He’ll be looking for a big start to a season where he could easily break into the top 16 but his fellow Chinese player Fan Zhengyi, who is the second seed in this group, will be looking to stop him. Alfie Burden is the only player who isn’t from Asia in this section and he is in it as the third seed while the former women’s world champion Mink Nutcharut will make up the quartet in this group.
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Group Betting
We have a very warm favourite on the main table as you would expect when you look how far ahead of everyone else in it in the rankings that Ali Carter is and it is hard to oppose him. The only thing we can really oppose him with is how early it is in the season but even then you would imagine he has enough class to improve through the day and get the job done against three very low tier opponents, two of whom might not be used to the conditions.
The other table should be a little more competitive with two genuine decent players involved and another who can still do it on his day. Zhou Yuelong is the favourite to come out on top in it and I can certainly see that but I do think this one is a match and I would prefer the bigger price of the two and that is Fan Zhengyi. Fan is a decent player and will want to start this season well because he is defending pretty much no money over the course of the campaign so he could do his ranking the world of good. Fan had a fairly solid 2024 so far with a run to the quarter final of the German Masters and at 13/8 I think he’s the better bet here.
Match Betting
The match betting is almost a non-starter for me on Wednesday. I’ve already mentioned that I can’t take on Ali Carter and actually there is a gap between all four players in the group on the main table that all the favourites are odds on throughout the day. I’m in no rush to bet an odds on shot but at the same time I can’t really find a bet I’m comfortable taking the favourite on with in any of the matches so the main group is easy to leave alone.
The other group only really offers up potential in the clash between the two Chinese players. None of the men are a backable price to beat Mink Nutcharut and she isn’t consistent enough in the scoring for me to be interested in backing her. The problem with betting on the Chinese match at the end of the day is the group could very well come down to that clash and I’m already on Fan Zhengyi for the group anyway. I’ll leave the match betting alone on Wednesday.
Tips
Back F.Zhengyi to win Group 16 for a 2/10 stake at 2.63 with Coral
