The World Championship qualifiers begin on Wednesday as 128 players who haven’t made it automatically for the Crucible look to come through three high pressure rounds of matches in the next week to book their spots at the prestigious event later in the month.
The Field
Everybody wants to play in the World Championship at the Crucible but such is the strength of the game at the minute tournament winners this season in the likes of Kyren Wilson, Ding Junhui and Rory McLeod as well as major finalists like Liang Wenbo, Luca Brecel and Dave Gilbert all have to qualify.
There are plenty of former champions in the qualifying field looking to make it back to the Crucible for another tilt at the title. Players such as Graeme Dott, Ken Doherty, Peter Ebdon and Steve Davis are aiming to get back there while recent finalists Matthew Stevens and Ali Carter add to a really strong core of talent looking to qualify.
With a couple of matches in each session being streamed on the various bookmaker consoles and every match being the best of 19 frames and the draw all pre-determined we should be in for a top week of betting.
At the time of writing this preview only the first 12 groups of the draw have been priced up but there are a few seeds in among that lot that I feel are worth taking on and that’s what I’m doing to do for a bit of extra interest over the course of the week. Remember we’re looking for players to win all three matches and make it to the main event.
Bets
The first of those is Ben Woollaston who I feel is far better over shorter distances than he is the longer ones. Woollaston has a trappy opening game against Chris Wakelin and then the likes of Mark Joyce and Anthony Hamilton could end up opposing him.
At 9/4 Joyce is rated as Woollaston’s biggest danger but I’m not sure I see it that way. I think Anthony Hamilton could be a bigger obstacle to overcome. Hamilton needs a big run in this tournament to secure his tour card for next season.
It has been a poor trot for the ‘Sheriff of Pottingham’ but he showed in an amazing China Open qualifier with Kyren Wilson that he hasn’t lost any of his scoring power and it might be that over this longer distance he can get into a rhythm and really get stuck in. Hamilton could face Woollaston in the second round of qualifying with Mark Joyce in the final round. If he can get onto a roll he could make the 6/1 look quite small this time next week.
In the next group Graeme Dott is an odds on shot to qualify and while the former champion has plenty of pedigree in this tournament down the years he is probably going to be under more pressure than most to make it through having been a Crucible regular down the years.
He isn’t likely to have it all his own way though. Mike Dunn showed he is capable of knocking off the better names when he made it to the quarter finals of the Players Championship recently while another man in this section – Noppon Saengkham should be bouncing after his exploits in China last week.
Among Saengkham’s victims in China last week was the aforementioned Dott which could be significant and he also beat Neil Robertson in the first round there so he could well head to Sheffield in confident mood and could be a real danger. At 7/1 it is worth chancing he can repeat last week’s exploits in China.
Finally although I like watching him Robert Milkins just has to be taken on. He has no form at all to speak of this season and he faces a potential clash in styles with Rod Lawler in the final qualifying round, assuming Kurt Maflin and Joel Walker don’t have their say before then.
Lawler hasn’t qualified for the Crucible for a few seasons so he will be eager to get back there. The Liverpudlian saw off Kyren Wilson in China last week so he could be coming into a little bit of form and over the last couple of years we’ve seen him make the semi-final of the German Masters and go deep in a number of PTC tournaments. At 3/1 he’s the value against the woefully out of touch Milkins.
Tips
Back A.Hamilton To Qualify for a 1/10 stake at 7.00 with Betfred
Back N.Saengkham Top Qualify for a 1/10 stake at 8.00 with Betfred
Back R.Lawler To Qualify for a 2/10 stake at 4.00 with Betfred
Back them here:
