Its been mainly a case of sitting on my hands since last Monday with no snooker to go at apart from last nights Premier League which looked priced pretty accurately so have been once again catching up with the horse racing form ready for an assault in the new all weather season.
The prices about the favs in last nights action soon looked very generous however with Ronnie O Sullivan making short work of an out of form Steve Davis 6-0 at 1/3 and Joe Perry doing a similar job on Stephen Hendry, dropping just a single frame after being backed in from 8/5.
There are two events starting on the baize this weekend, the non ranking Austrian Open will act as match practice for a few of the pros no doubt though planned coverage on the internet site Cue Sport TV has fallen through due to technical problems but at least we can see John Higgins' brainchild event the World Series on Eurosport as it moves on to Warsaw in Poland.
This is the final qualifying round before the Grand Final which is held in Moscow in about a months time where 16 competitors will be involved as opposed to the normal field of eight.
Although originally I think the idea was to have an extra leg and only those who reached at least one semi final qualified, due to a clash of dates with the main tour I believe all the pros have been guaranteed a final place, assuming Dott is fit again after his broken arm mishap.
On the face of it this weekend's event looks to offer a great chance for Mark Selby to take some silverware, with Doherty and the Nugget struggling somewhat of late (admittedly the Nugget has reached a couple of ranking quarter finals but didnt greatly impress in doing so) his only realistic opponent would appear to be Ding, who himself has been struggling to find his best form and continuing to show weaknesses in his tactical play to boot.
Ding beat Selby 6-5 in the final of the Jiangsu Classic in the summer but was helped by an outrageous fluke in the decider when he would otherwise have almost certainly lost but the Jester took his revenge in this years Premier League with a barrage of hefty breaks to win 4-2 from 0-2 down.
Selby has flattered to deceive so far in the ranking events, looking quite good in some of the early skirmishes before often being edged out 5-4, he would be especially disappointed to lose in this manner to Ryan Day in the Grand Prix when he missed match ball red rather carelessly and his opponent cleared up.
So perhaps with these slight failings in the back of his mind, he will want to cement a tournament success more than most here and think I will have to side with him though only a couple of books have currently priced up, his odds ranging from 13/10 to 10/11 as I speak.
I did have a slight interest in the aforementioned Premier League matches last night as doubled up the Ronnie highest break with one of my ante post picks in the Greyhound St Leger Bubbly Totti to try and top up my winnings on Tuesday night should he justify favouritistm.
Totti was again impressive in the semi final last week, this time missing the break and being slightly impeded but still powering past the rest of the field to be a good few lengths clear at the line with my other pick Midway Skipper staying on into second place. The original ante post favourite Lenson Joker was eliminated from the other semi final after finding trouble in running and also picked up a muscle strain it later transpired.
The draw for the final has Skipper who is really a railer out in trap five so that is hardly advantageous to her but should give Totti in six plenty of room to work with, especially as my other pick is usually a slow starter so all looks set fair for the favourite next week.
Have had a few dabbles on the NHL ice hockey but not really particularly successfully so far, am analysing the results and not sure yet if I will be in it for the long term but have taken the so far impressive San Jose Sharks at around 4/6 tonight to emerge victorious from their long trip across to Florida tonight, hopefully it will turn around and if not will concentrate on other avenues!!
On the personal front, we managed another win in the local snooker league, defeating a team of newcomers 3-2 so we have started much better than I had originally expected though wouldnt imagine our opponents from the other night will be winning too many matches come the end of the season.
I've still heard nothing about what I thought was a speed camera flashing me on the way home from Nottingham the other night so maybe it was a firework after all, but not counting my chickens on that one just yet, even though its now over two weeks since, still think it would be very harsh though if I was nicked as I said its not a populated area at all and did used to be a dual carriageway all the way along at one time.
Anyway fingers crossed
See you on Monday when the Bahrain snooker qualifiers also start
All the best
Rick
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