Hawk eyeing Masters wildcard double

Not the busiest of punting weekends with the Bahrain snooker tourney rather petering out from a betting viewpoint, just didnt see many value bets towards the end, part of the reason admittedly being that the players involved seemed to have rather unreliable profiles, certainly wouldn't have fancied Stevens or Robertson to be contesting the final on recent form, but with the withdrawals of a fair few of the top players, someone had to win it of course, though not convinced either of these would have been there had everyone turned up.
The Masters wildcard qualifiers get underway on Friday when I will probably be in attendance though with it being held in the World Snooker Academy itself you are I believe limited to watching one table at a time.
There is an outright market already up at Skybet but since the Walden win my confidence has evaporated somewhat with a host of first round exits, this betting game's a great leveller!
As usual I shall stick to the tried and tested formula for me anyway of one pick from each quarter. Walden himself doesnt have the most straightforward of runs at this level though if it was a ranking tournament you'd probably think he had a decent draw, however will ignore him as he could play Stevens fairly early on, assuming Matthew turns up this time (was in the draw last year and ended up not travelling). Will take Wenbo at 16/1 from that section anyhow, he ought to beat Chuang and then should get chances against the similarly open Michie and also has a good record against O Brien if he plays him in the next round, plus Fergal has seemed out of form so far this year, otherwise might have considered him.
My main pick is Hawkins also at 16/1 in the second quarter, he won this last year and might be able to repeat Bingham's feat of winning it twice in succession, could play Cooper, Joyce and Swail in the early rounds which should be winnable before things might get a bit tougher.
The third quarter was nearly a no bet with the likes of Cope, Trump and Harold all due to clash in the top half of this section, however the bottom half conversely looks quite weak with the out of form Bond and Norman in there so will have a small speculative e/w punt on the Chinese youngster Li Hang at 175/1. He could easily reach the QF without having beaten too much and at least things would be getting exciting then, remember Kurt Maflin reached the final of this last year but was still relegated off the tour at the end of the season.
In the fourth quarter, not convinced by the form of one or two of these, the possible match up of Bingham-Hicks could go either way I feel on this years form so looking down the bottom Michael Holt at 20/1 seems to be playing reasonably OK not withstanding his 5-4 loss to Milkins from 4-0 up in his last match! He plays Atthasit Mahitti first up and then Dubliner Ken Doherty who has continued to struggle to find any semblence of form this year, next up would probably be Dave Gilbert so certainly the chance is there for the Hitman to progress.
Will probably end up going to see the first and last day (if I can get a ticket for the final), have a few matches in mind but usually end up following the ones where I've had a bet, we'll have to see if anyone prices up the individual matches later on.
On to the dogs and Midway Skipper goes for me in the Kent St Leger final tonight at Crayford, she's now into 4/7 after starting at 13/8 in the ante post market but wont bother laying off, hoping she will find the gaps as she tries to come trough the field with her usual late run, it isn't the best of draws for a railer out in trap 5, but as she usually comes from behind anyway, it might not be as problematic as it would be for a front runner. Indeed she managed second in the St Leger itself from this very box.
Got a double up paying 11/10 on the Nottingham dogs on Saturday night, featuring a short priced pair - Boherbradda Mac who I'd actually inadvertently missed backing for once in midweek, but he obliged comfortably in one of the sprint heats at 2/5 while Wise Thought shook off sickness scares by obliging at the early price of 1/2.
Also took Mac in the outrights for that sprint with Betfred (the final is on Thursday) with 2pts @ 5/2 plus 1pt on Boherduff Monti @ 4/1 who qualified in second place from the other heat, that race will be televised on Sky as part of the Eclipse meeting.
Unfortunately they are drawn next to each other in the final and as they are without doubt the fastest dogs in the race, just hope they dont impede one another and hand the race to something else, would certainly have preferred something else in between them.
Had one more bet in the outright football markets by adding Reading at 9/4 for the Championship following their 2-0 win at Sheffield United, they do seem to be getting up a head of steam and although Wolves have a seven point cushion on them at present, there is a long way to go yet. Leeds who I had backed for League One after putting on a great show at Derby, then slumped to a home loss to Huddersfield, proving once again its a funny old game!!
Can't go without mentioning that I actually managed a 51 and 30 in last night's final frame of snooker practice against my usual opponent which while nothing earth shattering is quite good by my standards nowadays, the trouble was the rest of the evening I was struggling to pot a ball, its another funny old game!!
All the best
Rick