We are halfway through the first round of qualifying for the World Championship and after just two days of action there has been plenty of nerves, tension and stacks of drama and as we move into the second half of the field setting out on their journey for a place at the Criucible we are set for even more of the same.
Two sets of matches begin in the first two sessions on Friday. Those games starting in the morning session will conclude in the evening session while the matches kicking off in the afternoon won’t finish until Saturday afternoon.
Thursday review
Thursday was an up and down day for our bets. As we predicted Noppon Saengkham was able to turn his overnight deficit to Michael Georgiou around. He ended up winning 10-6 but unfortunately we lost Rod Lawler while Hammad Miah was unable to convert a strong position from 9-7 which was disappointing.
There were defeats for Crucible favourites Joe Swail and Jimmy White on Thursday but the former champion Ken Doherty made it through and is just two wins away from a return to the iconic Sheffield venue.
Friday morning
Ten more matches begin in the morning session on Friday. As yet the streamed matches haven’t been announced and one of the reasons for that could be the number of potentially one sided matches that could occur in this session.
Apart from Craig Steadman who is as big as 8/13 the next biggest priced favourite in this session is Yu Delu at 2/7. That highlights how big the gulf in class is between the seeded players and the non-seeds in this session.
With that in mind if we are going to get involved in the morning session we are going to have to get involved with pretty large handicaps and I think the evidence of the first two days suggest that might not be the best way to make money.
Instead I’m going to accept the bets aren’t there in the morning, appreciate that we’ve both an afternoon session and another day of the first round to go not to mention two more rounds and keep the money safely in the pocket.
Friday afternoon
It is much the same in the afternoon too as both Ali Carter and Cao Yupeng are 1/100 for their matches which says everything we need to know about them. Zhang Anda isn’t a lot bigger at 1/40 so this has the makings of another session of frustration from a betting point of view. The bonus for this session though is we can watch and get involved again in the overnight positions.
There is one man who might be underrated before a ball is struck though and that is Adam Duffy. Duffy is a former tour player who is now an amateur but he retains much of his ability. He has already dumped Ding Junhui out of the UK Championship this season so that in itself shows what he can do.
Duffy faces Mark Davis which in itself is a pretty big challenge and it might well be a challenge too tough but away from the Championship League, Davis has lost four of his last five matches so it is pushing it to suggest that he is in blinding form at the minute.
For all that I would be surprised if Davis doesn’t come through here purely on the experience grounds but Duffy is local and that can sometimes play a part. One thing I don’t think will happen is Davis will run away with it. He’s the one under all the pressure here and that gives Duffy every chance.
Davis is being asked to cover a pretty large handicap at 4.5 frames and I’m not convinced he does that. We’ve seen more than enough from the heavy scoring Duffy to suggest he can make it to six frames at the very least if not to 10.
Tips
WON – Back A.Duffy (+4.5 frames) to beat M.Davis for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Coral
Back him here:
