The first round of World Championship qualifying comes to a close on Wednesday and the second round gets underway as another 24 players begin their quest to reach the Crucible with that dream ending for eight of them.
We see some of the biggest names of all time on show on Wednesday with the likes of Stephen Hendry, Jimmy White and Ken Doherty taking to the baize but the mere fact that they are in this early shows that time waits for nobody.
Tuesday Recap
It was a busy day in the qualifying competition on Tuesday with 16 players making it through to the second round and keeping their campaign alive. The afternoon matches saw Allan Taylor completing a 10-0 win over Filips Kalnins while Iulian Boiko overcame Muhammad Asif 10-2. Florian Nuessle beat Michael Judge by the same score and it was a frame closer in wins for Asjad Iqbal over Jenson Kendrick and Alfie Burden against Rebecca Kenna as well as Aaron Hill over Baipat Siripapoon. Adam Duffy beat Billy Castle 10-8 in the closest match in that session.
The matches which started in the morning and finished in the evening saw Andrew Higginson beating Andy Lee 10-3, Michael Georgiou taking care of Peng Yisong 10-4, Barry Pinches beating Ross Bulman 10-6 while there was a 10-7 win for David Lilley over Rory McLeod, a 10-5 win for Ross Muir against Oliver Brown and a 10-7 win for Sanderson Lam over Liam Pullen. The other three matches were all pretty close. Dechawat Poomjaeng took care of Mink Nucharut 10-7 while Andrew Pagett and Sean O’Sullivan came through deciding frames against Gao Yang and Liam Graham respectively.
Morning Session
The last eight matches in the first round begin in the morning session and then they will come back and conclude in the evening. Stephen Hendry will occupy the main streamed table when he takes on James Cahill who is no stranger to going from the first round of qualifying through to the Crucible. Ken Doherty will be on another of the streamed tables when he takes on the female legend Reanne Evans. The other two streamed matches see Ben Mertens meeting Victor Sarkis and Ashley Hugill facing George Pragnell.
The other four matches sees the lower ranked professionals on show away from the streaming cameras. Fergal O’Brien is in the draw once again and he’ll look to make it through to the second round at the expense of the Welsh amateur Liam Davies while Zak Surety will go up against Farakh Ajaib in a match which could have been on a streamed table. Ng On Yee is another in action on Wednesday. She faces Michael Holt who will be looking for a big run as an amateur while Ryan Thomerson meets Ian Martin in the other match.
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Afternoon Session
We move into the second round of the competition in the afternoon on Wednesday with these matches starting out before they finish on Thursday afternoon. All eyes will be on the main table where Jimmy White will go in search of a spot in the third round when he meets Martin O’Donnell. Ben Woollaston is the highest ranked player on show in this session and he will be on one of the streamed tables when he takes on Daniel Wells. Mark Joyce will also be on a streamed table when he takes on the youngster Anton Kazakov while the even younger Stan Moody meets Zhang Anda.
That leaves us with four other matches as always with Craig Steadman being in action in one of those. He meets John Astley for a place in the third round while Andy Hicks is another veteran who will be looking to make some progress. He faces off against Jamie O’Neill. The other two matches see Peter Lines meeting Haydon Pinhey while Ian Burns might have his work cut out when he takes on the talented Dylan Emery.
Betting
I took on John Astley in the previous round and thought I was going to collect when Steven Hallworth came from 7-3 down to lead 9-8 but he couldn’t get over the line. I didn’t see anything from Astley that suggests he is going to come past Craig Steadman though. Astley made a couple of tons but he only had one break over 50 in the other 17 frames against Hallworth and that was only 51 and he has to play better here.
The reaction Astley gave when he potted match ball against Hallworth shows how desperate he is to win and it might be that is too desperate. Steadman will want to win here and if he plays like he can then I think he has every chance here. Steadman is astute in the tactical department which probably let Hallworth down, but he is an underrated scorer. He probably hasn’t been in the best form this season but not many draws have been kind to him. I expect him to have been practicing hard in the build-up to this and I think the 11/8 on Steadman to win is a little too big.
Tips
Back C.Steadman to beat J.Astley for a 3/10 stake at 2.38 with Betway
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