The third round of the qualifying competition for the UK Championship continues on Tuesday as we work out way down to the two Judgement Days inside the Morningside Arena in Leicester with 48 players looking to move one win from the main draw.
We have another 24 players making their entry into the competition and they all face a winner from the previous round with the aim of winning the six frames that they need to book their spot in the final qualifying round.
Morning Session
There are a number of star names on show in the morning session on Tuesday including the man who will look to make a defence of the Scottish Open once this tournament has concluded. That is Gary Wilson and he meets Zak Surety while International Championship semi-finalist Jordan Brown embarks on his journey in this session. He faces Jamie Clarke. Anthony McGill is another who starts his quest for the UK title when he meets He Guoqiang while Matt Selt, who took care of Judd Trump in the main draw last year, meets Dylan Emery.
Dave Gilbert is another leading light who begins his campaign in this session. He will face the Shootout finalist Julien Leclercq in a good look game while there is an all-Chinese battle when Lyu Haotian meets Xu Si. The other two matches involve a battle of the veterans as Anthony Hamilton goes up against Dominic Dale, who ended the hopes of Stan Moody in the previous round, while Jamie Jones looks to make the final round at the expense of Jiang Jun.
Afternoon Session
There are another bunch of household names on show over the course of the afternoon session on Tuesday. Ryan Day is one of those and he begins his campaign in this session. Lukas Kleckers is the man he will face while Stephen Maguire will be looking to move to within a win of the main draw when he meets Ashley Hugill while Joe Perry will take on Andy Lee. The Shootout winner and Northern Ireland Open finalist Chris Wakelin is also on show. He faces Ken Doherty.
Two Chinese players get their campaign up and running in this session. Cao Yupeng will look to move through to Judgement Day when he faces Ben Woollaston while Xiao Guodong has Mark Joyce as his opponent. Two other matches take place in this session with Joe O’Connor taking on Oliver Lines in what looks like a good contest while Yuan Sijun will face off against Alexander Ursenbacher in the other game.
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Evening Session
Stuart Bingham needs the UK Championship to complete his personal Triple Crown and he begins his quest to add that to his collection when he takes on David Lilley. Hossein Vafaei is another big name getting his campaign up and running in the evening session. He will meet Martin O’Donnell. Former world champion Graeme Dott is also on show in this session. He goes up against Elliot Slessor while Jimmy Robertson faces Craig Steadman who is still in despite starting in the first round.
Zhou Yuelong has been a little quieter than expected this season but this would be a good time to spark into life. Hammad Miah is quietly having a good season and he’ll be looking to stop the Chinese player. Elsewhere, Pang Junxu goes up against the veteran Mark Davis while Jak Jones faces an Ian Burns who was very impressive in the previous round. The other match sees Sam Craigie taking on Scott Donaldson.
Betting
Sam Craigie has been a little unlucky this season. He has twice lost to Jack Lisowski who played well against him and then a couple of weeks ago at the International Championship he ran into Anthony McGill who made three centuries against him in a bit of an insane performance. I would be surprised if Scott Donaldson performs to that level so this one is down to how Craigie goes in my eyes and as such I think he is a bet at 4/5.
Craigie is as talented as anyone on the circuit and already has a win over Kyren Wilson to his name this season so we know he can beat the best in the game. To be fair to Donaldson, he had a solid win over Rory Thor on Monday but I think he needs to go up a level to win this. Donaldson just doesn’t score heavily enough for my liking and over 11 frames I think that will count against him. I like Craigie in this one.
Tips
Back S.Craigie to beat S.Donaldson for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Sky Bet
