Another lengthy snooker season comes to a climax over the next two and a half weeks as the annual finale, the 17 day marathon World Championship takes place with the best players in the world heading to the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield looking to achieve their dreams of winning the world title.
Top class snooker, amazing storylines, tension and drama are all guaranteed in the biggest tournament on the snooker calendar.
Format
The top 16 in the world rankings qualified for this tournament automatically and the last week have produced 16 qualifiers with those qualifiers taking on a seed in the first round.
That first round is the best of 19 frames with the second round and the quarter final the best of 25. The semi-finals are then played over the best 33 frames before the champion is decided in a best of 35 frame conclusion to the event. The term ‘marathon not a sprint’ very much applies to this tournament.
Past winners
2015 – Stuart Bingham
2014 – Mark Selby
2013 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2012 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2011 – John Higgins
2010 – Neil Robertson
2009 – John Higgins
2008 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2007 – John Higgins
2006 – Graeme Dott
Favourites
Ronnie O’Sullivan heads to Sheffield as the market leader and the man expected to win a sixth world title. He has already landed The Masters and the Welsh Open in 2016 and is the man to beat but it is three years since his last title and it will be interesting to see if Father Time has caught up with him over this marathon distance.
Stuart Bingham is the defending champion who has to battle the ‘Crucible’ curse. No former first time winner has successfully defended the title so he will be looking to create even more history in this tournament. His form this season hasn’t been that of a man with a leading chance here though and he’s landed himself with an awful first round draw.
Mark Selby is the world number one but the 2014 champion is defending a lot of points here and will be under pressure for a big run to maintain his lofty position in the rankings. Selby has pulled out of a couple of tournaments recently citing personal problems so his state of mind going into the event is unknown.
Neil Robertson is a former winner of this tournament and he’ll be looking to follow up his win in the Champion of Champions and the UK Championship earlier in the season. Since then his form has been mixed but he always gets himself well prepared for this and we should expect the Australian to be on top form here.
Judd Trump appears to be a world champion in waiting and he’ll be hoping it is his destiny to win it this season. He won the China Open earlier in the month and will be hoping to double up here but nobody has ever done that particular double so he is another in search of history over these 17 days. It must be said that the draw has done Trump no favours.
John Higgins has won two big titles this season and he knows as well as anyone how to reel in the big one having won it four times in the past. Higgins’ ranking is such that he is in the top quarter of the draw and he is entitled to be a really big danger from there as he seeks his first title in five years.
Other contenders
Shaun Murphy shot into contention for this tournament when he won the World Grand Prix last month. That was his first major win since The Masters last season so that will have been a big boost to his confidence. Few in the field cue as well as Murphy and last year’s runner up has to be taken seriously although the draw has gone against him.
Mark Allen won his first major title in the UK last month when he landed the Players Championship and having had a good break since you would think he is nicely primed for a strong tilt at the title. The former semi-finalist is always a threat and has the potential to be the danger for anyone on his day as he has proved time and again.
Barry Hawkins is a former finalist who often comes good at this time of year. He is another who is up against it with the draw but if freshness from an indifferent season is a good thing at this tournament then he has that advantage on many others in the field. He has plenty to prove though.
Qualifiers to watch
Ding Junhui was forced to qualify for the competition after his ranking slipped as low as 17 but he negotiated the three matches he needed to come through and takes his place at The Crucible. He has been drawn in the tricky second quarter which has Judd Trump and Neil Robertson in it but if anyone can come through that Ding can. A first world title for Ding would be massive for the global game.
Kyren Wilson is already a tournament winner this season having won the Shanghai Masters back in September and has already made a couple of major semi-finals since then so he will arrive at the Crucible as a genuine dark horse capable of spoiling many parties and possibly landing the big one.
Ali Carter is twice a runner up in this tournament and if the sequence of his appearances in the final continues he will make it there again this year as the last two Olympic years have seen Carter beaten at the last hurdle. Carter is clearly a better player than his world ranking and he could cause many a problem over these 17 days.
Outright bets
For outright bets in the tournament I am going to ignore the second and third quarters. The second quarter looked a bit of a minefield anyway with Trump, Robertson and Williams in there but now that Ding has landed himself there it is an event without the tournament.
The third quarter has Ronnie O’Sullivan in it and even though I’m not convinced he wins this tournament I certainly wouldn’t want my money opposing him too quickly in the competition I have to say.
In the bottom quarter there has to be all sorts of questions surrounding the state of Mark Selby’s game after his high profile withdrawals recently. Michael White, Joe Perry and Mark Allen are the other seeds in that quarter while Kyren Wilson is a live danger as a qualifier. I wouldn’t rule Perry out per se but having Wilson in round one is clearly not ideal.
That leaves us with Mark Allen, who should be buzzing after his win in Manchester. It would be pushing it to say he played his best stuff there but it is a myth that you have to be on top form to win this tournament. Outlasting the field is as much the required art as bashing in big breaks and destroying opponents.
Allen looks to have a comfortable opener against Mitchell Mann so he has the luxury of being able to feel his way into the tournament and with the draw likely to open up as it always does this could be the year Allen adds the professional world title to the amateur one he secured earlier in his career.
In the top quarter Stuart Bingham is the top seed and the Crucible curse is almost enough to take him on with alone without the standard of opponent he will encounter just to make the semi-finals.
Those opponents include Stephen Maguire, John Higgins and Ricky Walden of the seeded players and of course his first round opponent in Ali Carter not to mention another competent qualifier in Ryan Day.
This is another quarter which has the potential to open right up with the two biggest names landing dangerous qualifiers and Maguire getting a hit or miss battle with his fellow Scot, Alan McManus so the one man to benefit from that could be the in form Ricky Walden.
Walden has made the final of the last two tournaments. He hasn’t won either of them but it shows he is in good form and as a marathon runner his stamina isn’t in question so he’ll see out the 17 day distance no problem if given the chance.
Walden opens up against Robbie Williams in a match he should win and the worst case scenario is that he meets John Higgins in the second round. Walden saw him off in the China Open semis earlier in the month and if he repeats that then this draw could well open right up. He’s overpriced there and I’ll back him for the title from that draw.
Quarter betting
I’m going to go value hunting in the quarter betting. The two I’m backing outright I will also take to win their quarters as neither are favourites to come through but they are the men I think will do that.
I’m leaving the second quarter alone because it would be a surprise if one of the big three don’t come through there but there isn’t much value when you consider what they will have to do to come through so the other bet I’ll take is in the third quarter.
Admittedly it could be folly to take on O’Sullivan and if I’m honest I’d be surprised if O’Sullivan doesn’t win the quarter but he can come unstuck in this tournament as we saw last year and have seen in years gone by.
With that in mind I’ll take a chance at a big price on Anthony McGill. We saw McGill make the quarter final 12 months ago and he looked every bit the part on what was then his Crucible debut. With a bit of experience since then and three emphatic qualifiers under his belt I fancy the Scot could do some damage again.
McGill has Murphy in the first round which won’t be easy but if he wins he wouldn’t be a massive underdog against either Fu or Ebdon in the second round. If he gets to the quarter finals he would be a live shout against O’Sullivan and a much stronger chance against anyone else so at 33/1 it is worth a unit to see how deep he goes.
Highest break
The final market I’m going to get stuck into is the player to make the highest break market. O’Sullivan, Robertson and Trump are all the worthy favourites and were one of them to bang in a big break nobody would be surprised but the standard of the field is so strong that they are all capable of clearing the table from the start so anyone could nail the top break prize.
You might think we need someone to make a 147 to nail the top break but only Stephen Hendry has made a 147 in this tournament since 2008 so that isn’t actually the case. 147s are quite rare and given that there was one recently the prize for one here isn’t massive so O’Sullivan might even turn it down again.
With that in mind I’m looking for someone who is capable of nailing a 140 or above and looking down the odds I’ve got to think that Martin Gould is overpriced at 40/1. Gould is no stranger to clearing the table. He even does it in tournaments like the Shootout.
He might not be in the tournament for a long time but he’ll be in it for a good time as he’ll face two open, attacking opponents to begin with should he get that far. He opens up against Ding Junhui and will face either Judd Trump or Liang Wenbo should he win that. There will be lots of scoring in those matches and at 40/1 I’ll chance it that he nails a big break early and it survives the course and distance.
Tips
Back M.Allen to win World Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Ladbrokes (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back R.Walden to win World Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with Coral (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back R.Walden to win 1st Quarter for a 2/10 stake at 6.50 with Betfred
Back him here:
Back A.McGill to win 3rd Quarter for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Sportingbet
Back M.Allen to win 4th Quarter for a 3/10 stake at 3.75 with Skybet
Back him here:
Back M.Gould to make highest break (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with Bet365 (1/4 1-3)
Back him here:
