Snooker remembers one of its finest sons this weekend as 128 of the world’s best players head to Furth in Germany to do battle for the Paul Hunter Classic named after the wonderfully exciting talent who was tragically taken from the world and the sport far too early.
Some of these European Tour events are ignored by the very top players but that isn’t the case with this one. Purely by the name this one carries it ensures the field for this tournament is very strong and that is the case again this year.
With the tournament being live on Eurosport across the weekend there will be many memories of the great Paul Hunter revoked. Personally I’ll never forget his two Masters wins but it wasn’t just what he won it was the style he played in and I always feel that leads to some real attacking snooker in this tournament almost as a tribute to Hunter himself.
Neil Robertson, Ronnie O’Sullivan and Ding Junhui aside this is a really strong field. We’ve already got the draw completed and the first thing that leaps off the page is that Stuart Bingham takes on John Higgins in the first round! Clearly a top player will be packing their bags early after that draw.
My strategy for these European Tour events is to take someone in each quarter and hope we get one or two of them to what I call finals day on Sunday. Anyone who makes it to Sunday will be able to win so it becomes a survival of the fittest from there. The good thing this week is we have two firms offering four places on outright bets which makes finding a return a little easier.
Mark Allen is my pick in the top quarter. He’s in the same quarter as Bingham and Higgins but we know one of them isn’t getting past the first round. Barry Hawkins is another tricky customer but he wouldn’t have to face him until Sunday which is a bonus. Allen has been working with Terry Griffiths again which should help his game and I think we’ll get a run from him this weekend.
In the second quarter I’m a big fan of Michael White and I don’t really see why he is the price he is, especially as his first round opponent has withdrawn from the tournament. Shaun Murphy is the only other recognised top name in White’s quarter but he isn’t in great touch and White wouldn’t play him until the quarter final anyway by which time we’d be one win away from a place payout so we could even back Murphy to guarantee a return.
The third quarter is a little trickier to assess. Judd Trump is the obvious favourite in it but he is beatable so I’m inclined to take him on with the improving Matt Selt. Selt made the quarter finals in Riga earlier in the season so he’s in good touch and wouldn’t face Trump until the quarter final so much like with White we would have room to guarantee a pay out were Selt to play Trump. At 66/1 he’s probably overpriced given that he would expect to make the quarter final at least.
The bottom quarter has a few good names in it but I always like Stephen Maguire in these sort of tournaments and he’s a nice enough price to be backed this week. Mark Selby, Ali Carter and Ryan Day are obvious dangers but Maguire is so aggressive and when he is bang on form he can take care of these tournaments in fine style. I’ll take the chance he’s bang on it this weekend.
Back M.Allen to win Paul Hunter Classic (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 21.00 with Skybet (1/4 1-4)
Back M.White to win Paul Hunter Classic (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with Boylesports (1/4 1-4)
Back M.Selt to win Paul Hunter Classic (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 67.00 with Boylesports (1/4 1-4)
Back S.Maguire to win Paul Hunter Classic (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Skybet (1/4 1-4)
