The snooker season is in real flow right now and to prove the point the second biggest tournament of the year begins on Tuesday when the entire professional tour get together in York for the UK Championship.
The television coverage for this doesn’t begin until the second round on Saturday but the first round is played over three days from Tuesday so we’ll get stuck into the outright market right away.
Sadly this tournament isn’t the best of 17 frame marathon that it used to be. In fact every match until the final is the best of 11 frames but at least it isn’t one of those best of seven lotteries so we should be able to get stuck into some good bets throughout the event. The final is the best of 19 frames.
Ronnie O’Sullivan won the title 12 months ago but he doesn’t defend it this year so that leaves Judd Trump as the 6/1 favourite to win the event.
In O’Sullivan’s absence the world champion Stuart Bingham becomes the number one seed and with his season being very flat so far you’ve got to think his top half of the draw is the place to target.
In fairness Judd Trump is in the top half but he happens to be in a really competitive second quarter where he may have to come past Mark Williams, Kyren Wilson, Marco Fu and Shaun Murphy just to make the semi-finals.
The other main seed in the top quarter is Ding Junhui but his form is as hit and miss as Bingham’s right now so I’m not sure Mark Allen could have found a better spot for himself.
Not only has Allen landed a dream draw but he arrives in York in excellent form having won in Bulgaria recently and then followed that up with a run to the final of the Champion of Champions so all things being equal he looks a cracking each way punt at 22/1.
In the bottom half of the draw it is hard to immediately find a section to focus on with the likes of Neil Robertson, John Higgins, Mark Selby and Joe Perry around but we saw signs in the Champion of Champions that Stephen Maguire might be coming back into form.
If he is then he could be a danger in this tournament. He’ll beat Jimmy White in the first round and nobody he could face in the second round should cause him too many problems so he’s got the early draw to pick his game up for the big matches to follow and that should suit him nicely.
Maguire is a former winner of this tournament and generally gets going around this time of a season and although Robertson is a stumbling block in the last 16 he’s not unbeatable these days so I’ll take a chance on the 33/1 Scot here.
Although the second quarter is full of competitive names I do think there’s some value to be had in it. Trump is the solid favourite in the section with Shaun Murphy a solid second favourite. Mark Williams comes next at a double figure price.
It wouldn’t take too much to make a case for Kyren Wilson in this quarter and at 22/1 I wouldn’t put anyone off the classy Englishman but one other man appeals to me slightly more albeit at a smaller price.
Marco Fu is in good nick at the minute. He made the quarter final of the International Championship last month and won the General Cup in Hong Kong over the weekend where he beat Mark Williams in the final.
In that tournament he rattled in five centuries and I’ve always said when Fu scores heavily he is hard to beat so I’m going to put my money where my mouth is and take the Hong Kong star to come through this quarter at 14/1.
Back M.Allen to win UK Championship (e/w) for a 1.5/10 stake at 23.00 with Bet365 (1/2 1-2)
Back S.Maguire to win UK Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Boylesports (1/2 1-2)
Back M.Fu to win 2nd Quarter for a 1/10 stake at 15.00 with Betfred
Blog snooker YTD: +103.54pts
