The opening day of the Championship League Snooker tournament takes place inside the Mattioli Arena in Leicester on Monday with eight players taking to the two tables looking to make it through to the second stage.
Both tables can be watched on YouTube for us who are in the UK so there is no need to miss out on any of what could be competitive action as the first two spots in the second round of the event will get filled.
Group 15
Fixtures
Stephen Maguire vs James Cahill
Michael Holt vs Liam Graham
Michael Holt vs James Cahill
Stephen Maguire vs Liam Graham
Liam Graham vs James Cahill
Stephen Maguire vs Michael Holt
Preview
All eyes will be on Stephen Maguire on the main table on Monday to see whether he can successfully navigate his way into the second stage of the competition. Maguire isn’t known to be the best starter to a season and he doesn’t always get his juices flowing for events of this kind but it will be interesting to see whether his top seed class comes through. Michael Holt is the man in the second seed spot and he will be looking for all the ranking points he can get so you would imagine he will be up for this challenge. Liam Graham is a third seed who might not completely hate his initial draw while James Cahill will be looking to remind everyone of his best even though he isn’t currently a member of the tour.
Group 26
Fixtures
Lyu Haotian vs Yao Pengcheng
Jamie Jones vs Hanyang Zhao
Jamie Jones vs Yao Pengcheng
Lyu Haotian vs Hanyang Zhao
Hanyang Zhao vs Yao Pengcheng
Lyu Haotian vs Jamie Jones
Preview
There is a large Chinese flavour to the group which will take place over on Table Two where Lyu Haotian is the top seed. His light is fading at the minute so he will be hoping to take advantage of being the highest ranked player in this group to make it through and start to turn things around in the right direction. Jamie Jones will be looking to do some Chinese beating in this group as he is the only man who isn’t from China in it. He is the second seed with the other two players in the section both newcomers to the tour. They are Hanyang Zhao, who has been allotted the third seed in the section while making up the quartet is Yao Pengcheng.
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Betting
As ever in the Championship League we have the group markets and the matches to bet on. Regular readers will know that I usually look for an outsider that we can get behind earlier in the day where the matches are live if I am going to bet on the match in this competition but these two groups do look like being dominated by the top two seeds so there isn’t really anyone in that criteria for me to get after. Therefore I will go with the group betting on Monday.
It is the group on Table Two that I like and I think Jamie Jones is the value to get the better of Lyu Haotian and come out on top in it. Haotian had to battle hard to get past Bai Yulu in Wuhan Open qualifying and then lost comfortably to Robbie McGuigan in British Open qualifying. This all came after he lost his last four matches at the end of last season and he looks to have lost his way. Jones won his first qualifier last week and lost the other on the final black but he scored well in both matches and there might just be enough upside in his game to get the better of Haotian and the Chinese newbies to the tour who didn’t show much that suggests they will be capable of progressing here in their qualifying matches last week.
Tips
Back J.Jones to win Group 26 for a 2/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
Back him here:
