German Masters Preview

This coming Wednesday brings full ranking event snooker back to the calendar for the first time in full since the UK Championships in December, as the snooker tour rolls on to the German Masters at the Tempodrome in Berlin. The German Masters has quickly become one of my favourite events on the tour outside of the Triple Crown events, and the Tempodrome venue in Berlin is one that I've heard nothing but good things about and is one I certainly hope to get to for the German Masters in the near future. The defending champion this year is Ding Junhui, after he beat Judd Trump in last years final. Last year also saw 64 at the venue over the five days which wasn't particularly attractive so this year we're back to 32 at the venue after each player had to play two qualifying matches to make the venue in December and we certainly have a large range of players through to the final stages from all areas in the rankings, and even an amateur player.

As I say it all starts on Wednesday afternoon with the bottom half of the draw playing their Last 32 matches, with 4 in the afternoon and 4 in the evening, while the top half plays there's on Thursday with 4 in the morning and the other 4 in the afternoon before the bottom half of the draw plays their 4 Last 16 matches on Thursday evening. Friday afternoon sees the remaining 4 Last 16 games, before the 4 quarter-finals take place on Friday evening. Obviously from there the 2 best-of-11 frames semi-finals are then on Saturday as we get down to one table, and the final is over the best-of-17 and two sessions on the Sunday. So, as always it should be a brilliant event and I'm really looking forward to it and here is how the draw for the event looks:

Quarter 1

Last 32 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Ding Junhui Vs Ryan Day
Alfie Burden Vs Michael Georgiou
Liang Wenbo Vs Li Hang
Stuart Bingham Vs Matt Selt

The top quarter of the draw is home of course to the defending champion Ding Junhui, but also the Shanghai Masters champion Stuart Bingham, along with Lisbon Open runner-up Matt Selt, AT3 quarter-finalist Alfie Burden, Ryan Day and Liang Wenbo. Of these players, I think that there are 3 players in particular who I see as having the best chance of winning this quarter.

Defending champion Ding Junhui obviously has to have a good chance after he won this tournament in pretty convincing style in what was a purple patch in his career last season between September 2013 and April 2014. However, since this period that saw 5 ranking titles and one other final, he has only won an Asian Tour event and made one full ranking event semi-final in what is an incredibly barren run for a player of his class. Poor performances at both the UK Championships and Masters exposed the poor run of form that he is currently on at the moment, and he is going to need to improve big time to win this event or even get close. A huge test awaits him at the very start of this event when he takes on his bogey player Ryan Day. Ryan beat him at both the 2012 UK Championships and 2013 World Championships, as well as taking him to a semi-final decider in this tournament last year, so Ryan is clearly a player that Ding struggles to overcome. Another player who he badly struggles to beat is Stuart Bingham who has a brilliant recent record against and could be a potential quarter-final opponent if Ding can get that far. You can't rule out a turnaround in fortunes for him in this event, but I think you have to be fair in saying that he's showed no signs of being anywhere close to his best form at any point so far this season.

Matt Selt is a player who has coming on leaps and bounds at the moment and is finally starting to see the rewards for all of the hard work that he has been putting in in recent times. There were signs that it was coming with good results at the start of the season in the European Tour events, before he went and got to the final of the fifth event in Lisbon where he just lost out to Stephen Maguire. The next thing that Matt achieved is smaller in stature but will still provide him with no end of confidence going forward and that is the fact that after a late call to play in the second group of the Championship League at the beginning of January, he managed to win the group beating Judd Trump in the final and several other great players along the way in a star studded group. Selt now poses a great threat to the top 16 players as he can beat most players on his day and I expect him to be in the top 32 by the end of the season and qualifying to play at the Crucible again. As for this week a tough start against Stuart Bingham will make things tough for him, but as I said he can beat anyone on his day and if he does overcome Stuart there is every chance that he could go very far in this event.

Stuart Bingham is in really good form at the moment and he will be a really big handful in this event in my opinion. After winning the Shanghai Masters which was a great victory for Stuart, he's also been performing well again in the Asian Tour events again this season and another UK Championship semi-final has put him nicely into the worlds top 8 this season and someone I look to as a threat to win most events now because he has proved he is a winner, and not just a decent player. Bingham played in all of the first four Championship League groups and as well as getting some very valuable match practice, he showed his consistency and form by making the final in two of those groups and of course, winning the fourth. I think Stuart has to look at his draw, sense a certain opportunity that if he can beat Selt and really get into the tournament, that a deep run is his for the taking, and therefore with the great position that his game seems to be in at the moment, I want to see him take the bull by the horns in this tournament and attack things.

Quarter Winner: Stuart Bingham

Quarter 2

Last 32 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Mark Allen Vs Mark Williams
Shaun Murphy Vs Michael Wasley
Joe Perry Vs Jimmy Robertson
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Mark Davis

This quarter is really packed full of players that could easily come along and win this tournament never mind the quarter, and you know that whoever does win it will have received a work out and will be in a great position to kick on. We have UK and Champion of Champions Ronnie O'Sullivan, Masters champion Shaun Murphy, twice ranking finalist this season Mark Allen, recent Asian Tour 3 winner Joe Perry, and two players hovering just outside of the top 16 in Mark Davis and Mark Williams. All of those six that I have listed are huge threats to win this tournament and it's going to be hard to pick a winner from them.

Shaun Murphy completed his triple crown just a couple of weeks ago when he romped to the Masters title at the Alexandra Palace in London, but that is certainly not the end of what Shaun wants to achieve as a player. He's in the prime of his career now, at the optimum age where a lot of players become the complete player and win a lot of their titles and that is no different for Shaun as he has already won two European tour titles this season as well, and he has really started to settle with his life and snooker at the moment. The one obstacle you see for Murphy in the this event is that he has a very tough draw and needs to play great stuff from the start, and he may not yet have gotten his feet back on the ground following one of the biggest wins of his career just a couple of weeks ago, and one that certainly means the  world to Shaun.

Ronnie O'Sullivan is always a huge name in the draw for any event, just as he is here in an event he conquered back in 2012. He doesn't seem to be a player that plays badly anymore, but equally he's not always at the very very peak of his game in every match he plays. At the Masters he did get to the semi-finals, but did suffer from a very heavy defeat against Neil Robertson, and despite his work with Dr Steve Peters you can tell from the way that he talks about his game that he's not always happy and that such defeats and performances that aren't near his best cause huge amounts of self-doubt and paranoia in himself regarding his game, as he goes into great detail with in his book (which I've read again very recently). A tough draw awaits the Rocket here in Germany and one where he is going to have problems throughout the tournament however far it is he may progress in the event. His starting match against Mark Davis is a very difficult one because Mark is an incredibly solid player, who reached the UK Championship quarter-finals in December and has played himself into some good form with some incredibly handy match practice at the Championship League, getting the group 3 and 4 finals, before beating the Rocket over the best of 5 frames in the group 5 final to book his place in the Winners group. I expect Mark to push Ronnie all the way in that encounter and it certainly has the look of a match in my mind that could easily go against O'Sullivan despite his winning run that he was on between the start of the Champion of Champions before his eventual defeat in the Masters semi-finals.

Joe Perry is another man whose game has improved massively over the last couple of years and he showed this again incredibly recently as he won the Asian Tour 3 event just over a week ago to book his place in the Players Championship finals and win his Asian Tour event in his career. Coupled with a great win against Ding Junhui to make the Masters quarter-finals, and of course his run to the final of the Wuxi Classic early on in the season we know that Joe is a quality player well capable of winning a full ranking title, and I think he's been quite unfortunate so far not to have won one, and I believe that he certainly provides another huge challenge in this quarter, and a certain contender to go on and possibly even improve on his showing here last season where he lost out in the quarter-finals to Ding Junhui.

Mark Allen is another guy who is in cracking form this season and he has showed possibly one of his most consistent performing seasons in his career so far. He's won one European Tour event, made the final of another, lost out in two ranking event finals in China and started off this year very well by beating John Higgins and Joe Perry to make the Masters semi-finals before being unlucky to run into the steam train that was Shaun Murphy, who I think he has a better chance of beating if the pair meet again in the Last 16 here over the best of 9 frames. First off though, Mark has to see off another Mark in Williams who he had a classic encounter with at the International Championship semi-finals at the start of November, and I'm certainly expecting more of the same when the pair meet this week, and the winner of that one could well go very very far again in this tournament. The one thing I've been comfortably saying with Mark Allen's form in recent months following all of his great performances in the last few months, is that it is all building up to a big title and for me he has to win a ranking event before the end of the season, and the way he's playing this certainly wouldn't be a bad one for him to win and if he can play as he has done at times in the first half of the season, a draw like the one in front of him in this quarter will not faze him one bit.

Quarter Winner: Mark Allen

Quarter 3

Last 32 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Neil Robertson Vs Fergal O'Brien
Xiao Guodong Vs Liam Highfield
Stephen Maguire Vs David Gilbert
Barry Hawkins Vs  Mark King

As we enter the bottom half of the draw, the third quarter isn't in the same uncallable league as the second quarter but we still have three top quality players, and three others that can cause problems. Masters runner-up Neil Robertson is always a huge threat as will be Lisbon Open champion Stephen Maguire and Barry Hawkins. Xiao Guodong's style always makes him an enormous threat on his day, and David Gilbert seems to have played himself into a decent little bit of form having got some great match practice at the Championship League.

Neil Robertson has taken a break from the day job of snooker this week along with a large number of the pros this week to play in the World 8 ball Pool championships in China, and he has been one of the more successful snooker players in the event as he made the quarter-finals before being beaten by top Pool player Darren Appleton 13-12. Of course Neil started the year in fantastic style to get to the Masters final for the third year in four before losing out to Shaun Murphy in a total thrashing in that final. Neil seemed to be lacking something in that final, but I can't really work out why because he had played fantastically in his three games previously. You have to wonder whether he was lacking in a little bit of energy or concentration, and perhaps his Vegan diet is still taking a bit of getting used to. However, he is consistently getting into the latter stages of anything he enters now and is showing on a regular basis why he is up in the top three players in the world in my opinion and many others. His draw isn't completely horrible for his chances of getting to at least the quarter-finals, and when he gets to that stage of a tournament that is usually when he kicks on and goes a lot further.

Stephen Maguire is another player in great form though at the moment, and even though he lost the Masters quarter-final to Shaun Murphy he was playing some very very good snooker and will also have been pleased to carry that form on from before Christmas where he won the Lisbon Open and narrowly lost out in the UK Championship semi-finals. His confidence is certainly higher at the moment and you'd think that would extend into another big ranking title in 2015 for my money. This week could easily be his week if his attacking style continues to be strong and that will make him tough to play against as Judd Trump found out at the Masters. I don't believe that Maguire has been at the World Pool in China and that I think will help his preparations for this event and could help him on a bigger run this week.

Barry Hawkins is having a mixed time of things this season to be completely honest. The scars from his UK Championship Last 64 defeat from 5-0 up may be hard to see off, and an incredible performance from Ali Carter saw him fail to get past the first round of the Masters again to start the year. However, he did win the first group of the Championship League before the Masters and make a 147, but clearly that hasn't transformed his form yet, and I'm not sure how much good he would've done by going to China for the Pool and having a few thrashings handed to him there, feeling perhaps like he'd wasted his time and one things for sure (even if it is a totally different game) it's not going to do your snooker any good by doing that and he certainly needs to turn that around.

Quarter Winner: Neil Robertson

Quarter 4

Last 32 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Judd Trump Vs Michael Holt
Martin Gould Vs Ashley Carty
John Higgins Vs Peter Ebdon
Mark Selby Vs Anthony McGill

The final quarter of the draw is home to world champion Mark Selby, UK and Champion of Champions runner-up Judd Trump, as well as plenty more top quality names in John Higgins, Peter Ebdon, Michael Holt and the heavy ranking climber in Anthony McGill who reached the UK quarter-finals in December, while the other player in this section is the sole amateur in the draw in Ashley Carty.

At the time of writing World Snooker Champion Mark Selby is also trying to become World 8 Ball Pool Champion in China, and is into the semi-finals there after a pretty dismal time on the snooker table since becoming World Champion and having his first child with wife Vikki. So far this season Selby has lost in the first round of the Masters to Shaun Murphy, the Last 64 of the UK Championships to David Morris and the Last 128 qualifying round for the International Championships from 4-0 ahead against Oliver Lines. The particular dip has happened since little Sofia came into his life, but I don't think you could blame his dip in levels on that, though going away to China for the pool this week seems to have done him some good and maybe this time away and some good showings on the smaller table, will extend to some better performances on the snooker table this week in Germany. He faces a tough test in the first round though against Anthony McGill who beat John Higgins amongst others on the way to the UK quarter-finals and has become a very solid player, and a tough player to beat on his day, so Mark will have to be on it here from the first shot.

Peter Ebdon comes into this event as a possible threat to those around him in the draw as he has had two weeks of very nice match practice with 8 days of play at the Championship League at Crondon Park against some pretty good opponents and he looks to be playing pretty well. From those eight days he played some good stuff for six of them, only really struggling to get going on the Monday's of both weeks. That's not my only reason of course for thinking that he will go well this week, there is of course the fact that he has had some very good performances on the European Tour this season making the Last 16 in Lisbon, the semi-finals in Bulgaria and the quarter-finals a while back in Riga. He was unlucky in the UK Championships to run into Neil Robertson in the Last 32 who was certainly inspired that day and beat him 6-2. An Asian Tour 2 quarter-final as well is another high point in what has been a very consistent season and the only thing he has been missing is a strong ranking event run, and a couple of victories this week would certainly see to that. His first round opponent is John Higgins who again isn't in great form at the moment and has been pretty inconsistent over the last 18 months to 2 years, playing fantastically in patches but throwing a lot more mistakes into his game than he'd like, and if he's not on his game 100% against Peter, the vegan is certainly in good enough form to send him packing.

Finally, last years finalist and recent UK and Champion of Champions finalist and Australian Open champion Judd Trump will be one of the favourites both for this quarter and the tournament as a whole. Judd's return to form came around this time last year when he got the final of this event, losing out a machine-like Ding Junhui, but of course he'll be aiming to go one better this time around. He says he's been working a lot harder, but I also think in a similar way to how Shaun Murphy has picked his form up in the last 12 months, Judd had got a little bit too negative at times as a result of putting a lot of hard work into improving his safety game, he'd started to out think himself and take on less of his shots, because when he's on form they'll go in and he can win the frame from them. His finals at York and Coventry at the back end of last year against O'Sullivan showed us just how much character he now has as well to stick in there and not give up and he's looking a lot closer to a complete player, which at a young age leaves him with endless possibilities. In the opening rounds I don't think there is anyone he has to play before the quarter-finals who would frighten him that much as he has beaten Michael Holt his first round opponent and his possible Last 16 opponent Martin Gould plenty of times before. In fact a year ago at this event Michael was beaten 5-0 in very quick time by Judd, and that is exactly what he can do when he's on form and he certainly looks up for it more in the UK and Europe which makes him a lot more threatening. Judd Trump is a perfect example of a man that needs that bit of inspiration from the big crowd, and he will certainly get that at the Tempodrome in what he claims is one of his favourite venues of tour.

Quarter Winner: Judd Trump

Tournament Runner-Up: Judd Trump

Tournament Winner: Mark Allen


As you can see from that the line-up does look incredibly strong and I think the final stages will be particularly strong in this tournament and it is very hard to call the winner from the start but I've tried my best here and I'm sure that we'll be entertained very strongly for five full days here as snooker returns to our TV screens on Eurosport for the first time since the Masters at the beginning of the month. I hope you've all enjoyed my preview, and I will be back later on in the week with frequent updates on the event as I see it.

Championship League: Late arrival Woollaston wins Group 6

Ben Woollaston was a late arrival for Group 6 after Ronnie O'Sullivan withdrew from the group after losing the Group 5 final on Tuesday night, but he certainly made the most of it just as Matt Selt did in Group 2, by coming through the pack to win the group and book his Winners Group place alongside Barry Hawkins, Matt Selt, Ali Carter, Stuart Bingham and Mark Davis.

Ben Woollaston didn't even look like qualifying for the semi-finals after day one and things looked even less likely as he needed a 3-0 victory against Peter Ebdon who was already into the semi-finals, in the final match of the round robin stages. He managed to get that 3-0 win though and made it into 4th place just ahead of Fergal O'Brien who went winless in his two games on Thursday. Meanwhile, it was Rod Lawler and Kurt Maflin who were relegated as Rod could only manage one win in total, coming on Thursday while Maflin couldn't add to his one win from four from Wednesday which would've disappointed him. Meanwhile, David Gilbert and Dominic Dale got two wins from their last three group games to move onto four points, while one from his final two was enough for Peter Ebdon to do the same.

David Gilbert ended up topping the group on frames won so went through to play Ben Woollaston in the semi's and Ben looked in trouble early on finding himself 1-0 down in the match and 60-0 behind in the second frame before coming back to win that frame by a point and that was the killer blow as he took the next two frames of the match to win it 3-1 and get into the group final. Meanwhile, Peter Ebdon made a century on his way from recovering from a poor start against Dominic Dale to win that match 3-1 and produce a final that was a repeat of the round-robin whitewash that got Ben into the semi-finals just a few hours before. This time around the standard wasn't quite as great as both players struggled, but it was Woollaston who had the best of things and he won the match 3-0 to win Group 6 in incredibly unlikely fashion. Here's a complete round-up from the notepad of Thursday's results and the final group 6 table:

The Championship League gets a break now as next week sees the German Masters in Berlin, but when it comes back on February 9th it should be John Higgins, Mark Williams, Xiao Guodong, Peter Ebdon, Fergal O'Brien, David Gilbert and Dominic Dale battling it out for the final spot in the Winners Group, which is on the 11th and 12th of February.

Cue Action Blog Fantasy Snooker League: Points update and German Masters Players

After the action in the Championship League with groups 5 and 6 it's time for a points update in the Fantasy Snooker League as well as to release and price up the players available for selection for the German Masters which starts on Wednesday so the deadline for that is Wednesday at 2pm.

League Table:

1st: Andrew Brooker 327 points
2nd: SnookerFollower 250 points
3rd: Ezgi Ulutas 201 points
4th: Gary 199 points
5th: Michael Coudray 195 points
6th: Gorkem Kurt 180 points
7th: Tungsten Darts 166 points
8th: LTD 143 points
9th: Anthony Ward 138 points
10: Kjetil 110 points
11th: Sean 99 points
12: Guillermo 64 points


It's time then to have a look at whose up for selection for the German Masters, as always it's 8 million allocated to spend on 2 players, but if you have money rolled over from other tournaments this is added to the 8 million to give the total budget, so tweet me if you want to know if and how much money you have rolled over.

German Masters Players: (Deadline Wednesday 4th February 2pm)

Ding Junhui £6 million
Mark Selby £5.8 million
Neil Robertson £5.6 million
Ronnie O'Sullivan £5.5 million
Barry Hawkins £5.3 million
Mark Allen £5.1 million
Judd Trump £5 million
Stuart Bingham £4.9 million
Shaun Murphy £4.6 million
Stephen Maguire £4.5 million
Joe Perry £4.3 million
John Higgins £4.2 million
Mark Williams £3.5 million
Mark Davis £3.5 million
Xiao Guodong £3.5 million
Ryan Day  £3.5 million
Michael Holt £3.5 million
Liang Wenbo £3.5 million
Martin Gould £3.5 million
Fergal O'Brien £3.5 million
Anthony McGill £3.5 million
Peter Ebdon £3.5 million
David Gilbert £3.5 million
Mark King £3 million
Matt Selt £3 million
Jimmy Robertson £3 million
Alfie Burden £2 million
Li Hang £1.5 million
Liam Highfield £1.5 million
Michael Wasley £1.5 million
Michael Georgiou £1.5 million


Right then folks, as always if there are any questions please tweet me, otherwise get picking for the German Masters.

Championship League Group 6: Day 1

It was a fairly mixed day yesterday at the Championship League in terms of the day one table in group 6, and it really is anyone's group to win in many respects as the everyone is beating everyone in this group and there is no one stand out top quality player that lights up this group, just several top 32 players who are all great on their day.

This came after the withdrawal late on Tuesday night of Ronnie O'Sullivan who'd made the group 5 final, while Martin Gould had pulled out slightly earlier and the pair were replaced by Ben Woollaston and Rod Lawler.

After day one it is Rod Lawler and Ben Woollaston who currently make up the bottom two in the league. Rod has in fact only won two frames in his three matches combined and both of those came in his match with Peter Ebdon which finished at roughly 10.30pm after an 8pm start for a best of 5. Meanwhile, Ben Woollaston had a mixed day losing two matches 3-0, but winning his only match in three on the day 3-0 also. He's only behind Kurt Maflin by one frame won as Maflin has won one match, but his has come in four matches so he has more work to do. Dominic Dale and David Gilbert are the next two players up as they have both won two matches our of three so far and are looking in good early positions for a semi-final spot, but need to continue their good play today. Finally, our top two after day one of the group are Peter Ebdon and Fergal O'Brien who have each won three matches out of their four, with Ebdon's only defeat coming to O'Brien while Fergal's was against Gilbert.

One of the stand out points from yesterdays play was that out of the 12 matches played on day one yesterday, there was only one decider, three 3-1 results while the other eight were all 3-0 whitewashes which just signals that this group is wide open and anything can happen today. This is my classic notepad picture of all those results:

That means, looking ahead to today, that Fergal O'Brien and Peter Ebdon are looking very good for semi-final spots and only need one more win to absolutely guarantee those spots, though they may already have enough wins, depending on how things turn out. Dominic Dale and David Gilbert both have two points with three games left, so will be targeting at least the one win, but know that if they can repeat yesterdays performance and get two from three that they'll be in the semi-finals for sure. Kurt Maflin meanwhile needs to win both of his last two games just to avoid elimination you feel, though one win may be able to see him scrape into group 7 in a couple of weeks. Ben Woollaston will also be targeting a couple of wins to guarantee safety, but he has the extra leeway of three games to get them within, so while he's still up against it, he's not in the same boat as Kurt. Finally, Rod Lawler is in serious trouble and has to win at least two of his remaining three games to have any chance, but for two wins to be enough to survive elimination he'll have to win those games very convincingly after his poor results yesterday, and he'll need to get a frame or two on the board in a match if he does end up losing it today.

That's everything from me today, and i'll be back at some stage tomorrow to round-up the results from today and reveal the sixth man through to the winners group.

Championship League: Davis fights back to win Group 5

Mark Davis took the group 5 crown yesterday at the Championship League as he came back from 2-0 down in the final against Ronnie O'Sullivan to win 3-2. He's now booked his place in the Winners Group alongside Barry Hawkins, Matt Selt, Ali Carter (who beat Mark in the Group 3 final) and Stuart Bingham (who overcame Mark in the group 4 final).

After a day of dominance on day one of the group from Ronnie O'Sullivan and Mark Davis, that continued as the pair finished as the top two in the group with 5 wins each, Davis's defeat coming against O'Sullivan, while Ronnie lost a decider against Peter Ebdon. They were joined in the semi-finals by David Gilbert whose 3 wins on the first day were enough to get him through after he lost his remaining two games on Tuesday, Fergal O'Brien won one of his remaining two to join David on three points and scrape into fourth spot. In the no-mans land spot of 5th was Peter Ebdon who clawed two wins from his final three games, and in taking Liang Wenbo to a decider in his final game, was able to win enough frames to see him finish above Michael White who was eliminated on two wins from his six games, after only one win from two on the final day. Liang Wenbo propped up the table, only managing to win his final game of six and he is also eliminated from the group.

In the semi-finals Mark Davis was a fairly comfortable winner against David Gilbert 3-1, after Davis had beaten Gilbert in the final group game 3-2 only an hour or so before. Meanwhile, Ronnie O'Sullivan stormed into an early 2-0 lead against Fergal O'Brien before the Irishman came back to force the decider, but it was O'Sullivan that was able to do enough to get through to the group final. Once in that final, Ronnie looked very comfortable to win the first two frames again, but Davis played well to fight back, avoiding a third consecutive group final defeat and beating Ronnie O'Sullivan 3-2. This is my nice notepad picture of everything that happened yesterday in full:

In today and tomorrow's group six we have a slight change which has seen Martin Gould and Ronnie O'Sullivan withdraw from the group and they have been replaced by Rod Lawler and Ben Woollaston. That will certainly see one for the purists at some stage of the group when Lawler plays Peter Ebdon, and with Dominic Dale and Fergal O'Brien in the group as well it's not going to be a fast paced group. The other new addition to the group is big Kurt Maflin, while David Gilbert is the other player moving across from group 5. You have to say that this group is wide open with David Gilbert, Peter Ebdon, Ben Woollaston and Rod Lawler probably being the four best challengers if you ask me.

As always i'll be back with you tomorrow morning to run through what has happened on day one of the sixth group.

Championship League Group 5: Day 1

After day 1 of the fifth group down at Crondon Park for the Championship League we certainly have a tale of two halves in the end of day table as there have been some dominant performances at the top while others at the bottom have not had a great day. The certain inclusion in group 5 of Ronnie O'Sullivan has got more people watching and talking about the Crondon Park action that wouldn't normally.

Ronnie got off to the perfect start on day one as he made three centuries on the way to three wins from three, the last of which took the small matter of 20 minutes for three frames against Fergal O'Brien. He's joined at the top by group 3 and 4 runner-up Mark Davis who is looking to go one better this time and has got off to the perfect start himself with three wins from his opening three games. Two victories in the evening session from David Gilbert meant that his day was a very good one as he held on for three victories from his opening four games. Fergal O'Brien had a mixed day as he won half of his four games, losing to Davis and O'Sullivan but beating Liang Wenbo and Michael White. Michael struggled in his four games, despite two centuries in beating Peter Ebdon 3-0, that was his only win of the day as he was disappointing otherwise. Liang Wenbo and Peter Ebdon meanwhile were very disappointing as they couldn't manage a win between them, both having played three games each so far, so they need dramatic turnarounds today. Here's everything that happened yesterday, courtesy of my notepad:

So then as you can see Ronnie O'Sullivan, Mark Davis and David Gilbert are in fantastic positions today and really only need one win each from their remaining games to guarantee their semi-final places, although they may well have enough points now if other things go their way. Fergal O'Brien you feel could sneak in with only one win from his final two games, but he certainly would need at least that to be certain of avoiding elimination. Michael White has it all to do and realistically he should be looking for wins from his final two games to be certain of avoiding elimination, and then see if he has enough points and frames on the board to get into the top four. Meanwhile, Liang Wenbo and Peter Ebdon are in big trouble and need big responses today to ensure that they avoid elimination, with them having to eye at least two wins from their final three games to have any chance. Though Peter Ebdon was in the same position after day one of group three and a maximum of three wins from his final three games on the Tuesday saved him, so he has that to call upon today, and he certainly needs it.


That's all from me today, but i'll be back at a similar time tomorrow to inform you of the group 5 winner and of everything that happens today, as well as taking a look ahead to the penultimate qualifying group, Group 6, which starts on Wednesday.

FANTASY SNOOKER LEAGUE UPDATE: CL3 Players and First Points Table

After a few events with Championship League 1 followed by the Masters and then Championship League 2 now is the perfect time for me to publish my first points table with how everyone is doing. Of course the Masters was double points so that is why there is a such a big leader at the top of the table, after he picked both Neil Robertson and Shaun Murphy for the Masters who were the two finalists but otherwise things look pretty even, while it has to be mentioned that LTD and Guillermo in 9th and 12th both started late in time for the Masters.

LEAGUE TABLE:

1st. Andrew Brooker 275 points
2nd Snookerfollower 156 points
3rd Gary 150 points
4th Michael Coudray 149 points
5th Ezgi 148 points
6th Gorkem 137 points
7th TungstenDarts 117 points
8th Sean 92 points
9th LTD 69 points
10th Kjetil 57 points
11th Anthony Ward 44 points
12th Guillermo 18 points


As I mentioned it all looks pretty close at the top of the table other than our run away leader but after only 3 of many events it's very early days yet to be predicting a winner.

One thing that does need to be predicted though is this weeks Championship League 3 which encompasses groups 5 and 6 starting on Monday and running until close of play on Thursday, so it's time for me to price up the players who will be involved.

Championship League 3 (Deadline 26th January 12pm)

Ronnie O'Sullivan £5.6 million
Mark Davis £3.5 million
Liang Wenbo £3.5 million
Michael White £3.5 million
Fergal O'Brien £3.5 million
Peter Ebdon £3.5 million
David Gilbert £3.5 million
Dominic Dale £3.5 million
Martin Gould £3.5 million
Kurt Maflin £3 million

As always get picking and the easiest way is by Tweeting or DMing me on Twitter as always and if you wish to know how much money you have rolled over to go with the granted £8 million for this tournament then again let me know. Otherwise, happy picking!!!

Championship League: Fourth time lucky for Bingham in Group 4

We're at the halfway stage now overall of the Championship League and after Barry Hawkins and Matt Selt were the winners of groups 1 and 2 prior to the Masters and Ali Carter was the group winner earlier in the week, it was Stuart Bingham who was able to take the victory and put himself into the Winners Group, after beating Mark Davis in the final (who himself made the final of both groups this week and will be disappointed not to have won one).

To go back to the start of the second day of group four, Matthew Stevens was unable to get any wins from his three remaining games as he finished bottom of the group and was eliminated. Meanwhile, Ryan Day's only win of the day came against Stevens as he was the other player eliminated only managing two wins. A last gasp win for Mark Davis in the final round-robin match against Peter Ebdon saw him secure a place in the semi-finals in fourth place ahead of David Gilbert who was called in late on for this group.

Mark Davis then went on to play Peter Ebdon again in the semi-finals after a very brief break between games and he was the winner again getting over the line 3-1. Such was the length of the final round-robin match between Ebdon and Davis, Stuart Bingham and Michael White had pretty much completed their semi-final where Bingham was a quick 3-0 winner before the other semi even started leaving Stuart a rather long wait. Having played in all of the first three groups and losing the final of the first, Stuart would've been desperate to finally book his place in the Winners Group once his chance arrived and the long period sitting about before the final didn't upset his rhythm too much though and he was the victor 3-1 against Mark Davis. This is everything that happened yesterday in full:

What this all means is that when we come back again on Monday for group 5 of the Championship League at Crondon Park the seven players in competition will be the three new players coming in who are Ronnie O'Sullivan, Liang Wenbo and Fergal O'Brien while David Gilbert, Peter Ebdon, Michael White and Mark Davis are the four players that have come through from group 4. The stand out players there obviously are Ronnie O'Sullivan though it will be interesting to see how he plays in front of no-one with little inspiration while Mark Davis will want to make the Winners Group after his two group finals in the last week.

I'll be back all week next week again with updates from the Championship League groups 5 and 6 with of course my classic notepad pictures. Meanwhile, the Asian Tour 3 event that has also been going on this week is now down to four players ahead of tomorrow which sees the semi-finals and final where Mark Williams will take on Thepchaiya Un-Nooh with both players looking for tour finals spots by making the top 8 on the Order of Merit, while Tom Ford will take on Joe Perry with Joe already looking to be qualified in that top 8, while Tom Ford needs to win that one to qualify, and that would be huge for Tom as he looks to defend the money he earned two years ago by making the Players Championship semi-finals, so to not qualify would be a huge money loss.

Championship League: Group 4 - Day 1

As we approach the halfway point of this seasons Championship League, things couldn't be more even after day one of this fourth group. After writing my piece on both day two of the third group and a look ahead to this group this morning I suddenly realised that Martin Gould the 2013 champion who was meant to be in this group as far as I was aware had been replaced by David Gilbert, but the days play otherwise went off without any further problems.

David is one of four players who have one win from their opening three games with just a few frames won separating those players from 7th to 4th in the as it stands table. Meanwhile, Peter Ebdon and Michael White have won 3 of their opening four games, with Peter at one stage today, having won his first three games, sitting on three points winning all three of those matches 3-0. Stuart Bingham is the man in the middle in 3rd place having picked up two wins from his first four games, so his place in the semi-finals is hardly safe just yet, though you would think that White and Ebdon should be safely through to the play-offs tomorrow evening. Here as usual is my little notepad picture detailing todays results and that all important day one League table in full:

As you can see from this it really is anyone's game for the other two semi-final spots between Stuart Bingham, Matthew Stevens, Mark Davis, Ryan Day and David Gilbert. Due to David's unfortunate frames won tally today you have to feel that he may need two further wins just to make fifth place and survive elimination, and Ryan Day may well be in a similar boat there as two wins probably won't cut it to avoid those bottom two spaces. In terms of semi-finals spots though I also expect that 3 wins from 6 games will be the mark to make it into 4th, so you'd think that one further win from Stuart Bingham's final two games will see him comfortably into the semi-finals, while Matthew Stevens will be in a great position with two further wins and may avoid elimination with just one more win having won 7 frames today, losing the two matches he did in deciding frames. Mark Davis looked the strongest of the players who sit on 1 point from today though and after making the group 3 final it would certainly be a dramatic turnaround in fortunes if he were to be eliminated.

So then, it really is all to play for as we head into the final day of Championship League group 4 and i'll be back either tomorrow night once play has finished or on Friday evening with the final update on all of tomorrow's results and of course the group 4 champion to join Barry Hawkins, Matt Selt and Ali Carter in the Winners Group.

Championship League: Group 3: Captain flies off with group 3 crown

Ali Carter was the winner in group 3 of the Championship League yesterday as he now joins Barry Hawkins and Matt Selt in the Winners Group at the beginning of February following the German Masters. Today obviously sees the start of group 4 of the Championship League where Matthew Stevens, Michael White and David Gilbert (a late replacement for Martin Gould it would seem) are the newcomers to join Stuart Bingham, Mark Davis, Peter Ebdon and Ryan Day.

The day started yesterday with the remaining group games and with Judd Trump 2 wins from 3 games looking for a win or two from his final three games to secure a play-off place, while Peter Ebdon was in big trouble winless from his opening three games. Judd though lost the first game of the day to Peter and that was a possible turning point in the group as Peter went on to win his final two games, making it three wins from three on the day to finish in 5th place and avoid elimination. Meanwhile, Judd lost his remaining two games in the group to become eliminated in 6th place, while Marco Fu was also eliminated having failed to win either of his two games yesterday finishing with 2 wins also from his 6 games.

That meant the semi-finalists were Ryan Day who topped the group, and he played fourth placed Mark Davis, while Stuart Bingham took on Ali Carter. Ali was quickly into his stride and he took that match out 3-0 to get into the group final, where he played Mark Davis who won his match against Ryan Day 3-1. In the final, Ali recovered from losing the opening frame by making a 129 to level the match before winning the next two frames as well to complete the victory and win the group beating Mark Davis 3-1. Here's my lovely notepad picture round-up from yesterdays play:

Today then we see group 4 with 3 newcomers, the 3 newcomers from group 3 and Stuart Bingham who has been in since the opening group. Ryan Day and Stuart Bingham did look good in group 3, as did Mark Davis, while I expect young Michael White to be dangerous in this short format, so this looks like being a tightly contested group and one which is very tough to call the winner.

I'll hopefully be back tomorrow to have a quick round-up of the action on day one of the group, and a look ahead to see what the players need to do to avoid elimination and make the semi-finals.

Championship League: Group 3 Day 1

After a brilliant week at the Masters, we didn't have to wait long for the next competitive snooker on the tour as the Championship League returns this week for groups 3 and 4. Yesterday saw the opening day of Group 3 and there was a little bit to discuss early on as we had another withdrawal. This time Ricky Walden (who has been struggling with a shoulder problem lately and has no other events in the next month having failed to qualify for the German Masters) withdrew late on and was replaced by Peter Ebdon (who was actually a spectator at the Masters Final won by the magnificent Shaun Murphy).

After all that it was hardly a great start for Peter on day one as he was beaten in every single one of his three games, and he was last to finish in the evening as you'd expect. There were better starts though for Stuart Bingham and Judd Trump who had both lost in finals of the opening two groups as Stuart won 3 of his opening 4 matches, while Trump won 2 of his opening 3 games, as did newcomer for group 3 Ryan Day. Mark Davis and Marco Fu also completed two victories on day one, but those were from 4 matches which leaves them a little bit of work to do today. Finally, Ali Carter fresh from his Masters quarter-final, could only find one victory from his opening three games and really needs to string some wins together today to survive elimination from the Championship League by finishing in the bottom two.

This is my picture proof of everything that happened yesterday with the day one table at the bottom:

 

 

 

So, as you can see from that Stuart Bingham, Ryan Day and Judd Trump are looking pretty comfortable and a win or two for Day and Trump should see them into the semi-finals, while Bingham really only needs a further win to guarantee his place. Mark Davis and Marco Fu could do with a win each, but may need two depending on how the other players in that top 3 so far perform, but they really do need at least one to stop them looking too far back over their shoulders. With three remaining games, Ali Carter and Peter Ebdon aren't totally down and out yet. If Ali could win two of his remaining three the chances are that he'd survive elimination, while Peter probably needs a clean sweep of wins, having won only three frames on day one.

 

 

That's all from me for today, hopefully it should be an interesting days snooker today and when i come back tomorrow for a quick update, we'll have another player to join Barry Hawkins and Matt Selt in the Winners Group. 

Robertson and Murphy through for 2012 final re-run

The 2015 Masters final at the Alexandra Palace will see a repeat of the 2012 Masters final as Neil Robertson will take on Shaun Murphy. The pair have been playing sublime snooker just as they did back in 2012, on which occasion Neil Robertson took the title and the spoils with a 10-6 victory in that final, and to make the 2013 final Neil beat Shaun again in the semi-final 6-2. That of course makes this Neil's third final in four years and for Shaun it's his second in four, while he was beaten in the semi-finals on those other two occasions.

Todays semi-finals meanwhile saw comprehensive wins for both Neil Robertson and Shaun Murphy such was the standard that both guys played. First up in the afternoon, Neil Robertson was taking on the defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan. It all went Robertson's way right from the off in this one as he opened up with a century break, and Ronnie made the vital error in the second missing frame ball black and when Neil cleared up with 66 you wondered if that was to be an early turning point. A 48 in the next put him 3-0 ahead and even though a 101 from O'Sullivan got him on the board, he was still 3-1 down at the interval and right up against it. From this position, the Australian grabbed the bull by the horns as a 58 put him 4-1 in front, and even though he needed 3 bites in frame six he was still able to go a frame from victory at 5-1. The 5 times Masters champion really did have no answer to the Robertson onslaught, and when his chance came in the seventh he took it with a run of 60 helping him to secure victory and absolutely thrash O'Sullivan 6-1 to book his final place.

Neil then had the luxury of watching Shaun Murphy and Mark Allen battle it out in the evening (if he so wished) for the right to play him in the final, and it was Mark that made the better start of the two as runs of 83 and 62 put him 2-0 in front early on. A missed blue into the corner in frame 2 when the balls were well placed for him to make it 3-0 turned out to be costly as he let Shaun get into the match as a nice 42 made it 1-2 and he was soon level at the mid-session break thanks to a wonderful 80 and Allen had missed a trick. After the break Shaun played pretty flawless stuff as contributions of 83, 76 and 102 saw him one away from the winning post at 5-2 with Allen failing to pot a single ball in those three frames. After a break of 60 ended on an in-off for Shaun he survived a scare and was able to close out the match and make it into his second Masters final with 6 frames in a row to win 6-2.

 So, can Shaun Murphy get some revenge for his defeats at the Ally Pally in 2012 and 2013 to Neil Robertson? Well that head to head and the head to head record in other big matches within the last three years would suggest not as things certainly don't make for pretty reading for the Magician. However, on the day the head to head record counts for absolutely nothing and more recent meetings would suggest that the match will certainly be close, especially over the best-of-19 frames where there is enough time (though not too much if you make a horrific start) to play yourself into the match.

Both players have played superb snooker in both their quarter-final and semi-final matches, after playing themselves into the tournament nicely in the opening round. It's all about who can sustain that form now and make the least mistakes when in amongst the balls across the two sessions. When in full flow neither players has looked like missing too often in amongst the balls, and breaks have only been cut short when position has been lost and as you can tell from the breaks that have been made by the players that hasn't been very often at all. Since those matches in 2012 and 2013 the one thing that has changed is that both are improved players, but the most drastic change has been seen by Shaun Murphy within the last twelve months after his wins in 3 European Tour events in 2014 as well as his first ranking title in 3 years at the World Open and his return to his all out attacking style has paid dividends for him, and his confidence is back thanks to all of these victories and all of the hard work he's put in with his coach Chris Henry.

This final is such a tough one to call, but as much as Shaun will be focussed and hungry to finally get the job done at the Masters, Neil has been playing at his best as well this week and he knows what it takes to get over the line in these Masters finals and it is tough to ignore the results he's had in so many big matches against Shaun.

Final Prediction: 10-8 to Neil Robertson


It really has been another great Masters tournament and here's hoping that the final will be just as entertaining tomorrow between the two players who have played the best snooker so far this week and deserve to be contesting the final. I hope you all enjoy the match at home.

Cue Action Blog Fantasy Snooker League: Next event

At the time of writing the Masters event at the Alexandra Palace is still in progress so I'm not in a position to tally up the points after the first set of events just yet, but with the second set of events starting on Monday with Championship League 2 which acts as a combination of both groups 3 and 4, I need to give you players the optimum amount of time to make your picks so it's time for me to price up the 10 players that will be involved across the two groups:

Championship League 2 (Groups 3 and 4) DEADLINE Monday 19th January 12pm

Judd Trump £5 million
Stuart Bingham £4.9 million
Ricky Walden £4.8 million
Marco Fu £4.7 million
Ali Carter £4.4 million
Mark Davis £3.5 million
Ryan Day £3.5 million
Michael White £3.5 million
Matthew Stevens £3.5 million
Martin Gould £3.5 million


A quick note on those players is that White, Stevens and Gould are the 3 that will come in at the group 4 stage so obviously only have a chance of playing in that singular group. Meanwhile, the 3rd Asian Tour event will not be priced up, as there are far too many Chinese amateurs in the draw for me to make it fair, so that is all for me from now, so just pick your 2 players for the Championship League coming up by midday on Monday and you'll be in play. I hope all of you playing are having fun so far, and i'll have a league table on Friday after the Championship League 2 is complete.

O'Sullivan, Robertson, Allen and Murphy make up Masters semi-finals.

It's time for finals weekend at the Ally Pally in this years Masters and as always it's a fantastic line-up we have for the semi-finals as the standard continues to get better in this tournament, and I expect the two games to be just as exciting as some of the ones that have gone before. Ronnie O'Sullivan and Neil Robertson were the first two players through to the last 4 on Thursday, as Ronnie broke Stephen Hendry's centuries record on the way to thrashing a poor Marco Fu, while Neil Robertson played some sublime snooker that Ali Carter could really do nothing about as the Australian laid down a marker for the other players. On Friday things were much closer when Mark Allen took on Joe Perry in a match that was very poor for the first seven frames, and after a good break from Perry to make it 4-4 Allen eventually stepped up and played better in the final two frames to secure victory, in a match where he was just pleased to still be in the tournament. He'll now take on Shaun Murphy who played some magnificent snooker in a brilliant match with Stephen Maguire who played very well himself, but in the end it was Murphy who made less little errors in amongst the balls as he made two centuries in getting through a tight one there.

Quarter-Final Results:

Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-1 Marco Fu
Neil Robertson 6-1 Ali Carter
Mark Allen 6-4 Joe Perry
Shaun Murphy 6-4 Stephen Maguire

As I say it's now a superb line-up with 4 players who've played some great snooker at some stage of their Masters campaign so far, and it's very tough to go ahead and pick an overall winner of the tournament from here, never mind a winner of the two semi-finals. The crowds in London have been fantastic this week so far, and they will be treated to some more brilliance looking at the matches we have to come and it's very much going to be a case of sitting back and enjoying the action. Here's what I think we can expect in the semi's:

SEMI-FINAL PREVIEW

Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Neil Robertson - Ronnie O'Sullivan looked a little shaky at times towards the end of his first round match against Ricky Walden he's still been playing pretty close to his brilliant best, though this match against Neil Robertson will be a big test. I thought that Marco might put up a fight on Thursday but instead it didn't turn out that way and he was totally rolled over by O'Sullivan, though Ronnie did say after his match against Ricky that his levels aren't as good as they were 18 months ago, and I think he's beginning to accept that he can't play flawless snooker all of the time unless he enters more tournaments. However, Ronnie is on a winning streak the stretches back through this tournament, the German Masters qualifiers, UK Championship and Champion of Champions to his last defeat on the 30th October against Mark Williams in the International Championship so he's still very much the man to beat at the moment and an incredibly tough scalp to get. Neil Robertson is one of the very few players that can beat O'Sullivan if he plays at his very best, and he did exactly that against Ali Carter with granite safety, and great break building and overall potting. However, coming out and playing like that against Ronnie is a totally different ball game and you feel that Neil probably won't come out with the same approach, though if he gets his chances I expect him to take them and it's going to be a very close game this afternoon I'm sure. Winning runs are always there to be broken, but it's going to be a tough ask for anyone to go out there and do that if they can't play confident snooker against Ronnie and play him like they would any other player which is one of the most frustrating things. Neil can obviously win this game, but he has to decide which approach is going to win him this game and go with it, playing to his strengths rather than any weakness Ronnie shows.

Prediction: 6-3 win for O'Sullivan

Mark Allen Vs Shaun Murphy - These two players are great friends away from the table, but friendship will go out of the window for the pair as they step out into the arena for this semi-final. The first thing to point out here is that neither player has won a Masters title and between them they've only been to one final which was Murphy's 2012 final where he was dominated by Neil Robertson. That means, if this goes close as I expect it to, the pressure and nerves are going to be enormous and tough for either player to deal with. Both players have had to see off close games in this tournament with Allen having to take his chances when they presented themselves against John Higgins and battle hard to see off Joe Perry, showing that the two components he needs to win the tight matches are there. Shaun meanwhile is the only player in the event who has had to come through a deciding frame, so it's always nice to have that under your belt and he showed plenty of bottle in that match with Selby having watched his substantial lead evaporate. Against Stephen Maguire though his long potting was pretty solid again, his safety wasn't too bad and he showed that he was able to win the tight frames, as he did against Selby, as well as making the big breaks with a couple of centuries in a brilliant display against Maguire who was playing just as well. The match could easily come down to which one of the players misses less crucial balls or makes less positional mistakes, or simply one player pushing the boat out too often as I think we're looking at what is going to be another very open game in this semi-final, just as it was when the pair last met in the World Open semi's in March with Murphy winning 6-4 and going on to take the title. Again it's such a tough match to call, and could well go to a decider, and I expect both to produce, because if one player doesn't it will be a romp.

Prediction: A 6-4 victory for Shaun Murphy


As I say it's two brilliant matches we have in store now between four great players, any of whom could step up and take the title on Sunday night. I'll hopefully be back at the same time tomorrow to talk you through my expectations from the final two and to try and predict a winner for the final.

The Masters: Quarter-Final Preview

We're at the halfway stage of this years Masters and so far we've been treated to some fabulous snooker by the best players in the world. That will only get better and hopefully there will be plenty more close matches as we roll into the last 8 and the business end of this tournament as the winner will be decided within the next four days.

As I mentioned in Tuesdays piece at the halfway point of the Last 16, Shaun Murphy, Marco Fu, Stephen Maguire and Neil Robertson were the first four players into the quarter-finals, and they have been joined by Ronnie O'Sullivan, who equalled Stephen Hendry's all-time centuries record on the way to a 6-4 win over Ricky Walden, Ali Carter, who thrashed Barry Hawkins 6-1 as he continues his comeback to the circuit in what is a superb victory for Ali, Mark Allen who was the victor over a John Higgins who made 3 centuries one of which was nearly a maximum break in frame nine and Joe Perry who overcame a very much off colour Ding Junhui to secure his first Masters victory.

Last 16 Results:

Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-4 Ricky Walden
Marco Fu 6-3 Stuart Bingham (included a 147 for Fu)
Ali Carter 6-1 Barry Hawkins
Neil Robertson 6-4 Robert Milkins
Joe Perry 6-3 Ding Junhui
Mark Allen 6-4 John Higgins
Stephen Maguire 6-4 Judd Trump
Shaun Murphy 6-5 Mark Selby


Some of the favourites for the event may have exited early on here, but the line-up is still fantastic as you'd expect from a tournament featuring the 16 best players in the world. As you can see from those results also, most of the matches ran close finishing up either 6-4 or 6-5 and I certainly expect more of the same from the four matches that are coming our way over the next two days at the Alexandra Palace.

QUARTER-FINAL PREVIEW:

Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Marco Fu - Ronnie O'Sullivan may have levelled Stephen Hendry's century record with two centuries in his match against Ricky Walden, but for large parts of the match he looked far from his best, and even he recognised after the match that his playing levels had dipped in the last 18 months (which is tough to tell when he's still breezing to big titles and making world finals) but had Ricky been playing better himself he could so easily have found a way past O'Sullivan. In fact Ronnie somewhat uncharacteristically (at least of the new Ronnie O'Sullivan since his work with Dr Steve Peters) started to show signs that he was struggling at times mentally, becoming frustrated when he continually failed to kill off the match almost gifting Ricky chances to come back at him from behind in frames eight and nine of the match before eventually he killed off the match. The only thing that gave Ronnie such a luxury though was Ricky's own slow start and the start that both players make to this match will be the key. Marco got off to a very good start, and kept that good form going throughout the match as he knocked in some terrific breaks and played well with three centuries including a 147 break. The problems Marco will have though is that in the past he could be accused of possibly being a little bit timid against O'Sullivan as many players have been in the past, and of course his other issue has been keeping his form up from match to match because he has had so many good matches which have been followed immediately by poor ones, or the other way around. However, even when he was playing poorly before Christmas he was managing to pull off good results and now that he appears to be in some better form, if he can keep that up he'll be a handful for anyone, including Ronnie and if Ronnie's not at his best again he could well be in trouble here.

Prediction: 6-5 win for Marco Fu

Neil Robertson Vs Ali Carter - As I mentioned in my piece on Tuesday, Neil Robertson didn't start off great against Robert Milkins but I think the fact that Robert didn't capitalise on a couple of Neil's errors led to him losing focus a bit it seemed and gifting Robert more chances. However, when he was at full concentration from the very start of frames he looked as dangerous as ever and he played some great stuff in the last three frames to seal victory there. What Neil will want to do against Ali is play that way from the start and he knows he can't take any liberties with Ali after how well he played against Hawkins, and Carter is one of those players that seems to bring the best out in Neil and I expect him to play well again here. Ali received a brilliant ovation as he entered the arena last night and that may have been one of the things that inspired him to play so well last night as he looked very determined all night and scored very well, jumping on Barry Hawkins mistakes of which there were quite a few. If Carter plays like that against Robertson then he has a great chance of victory, but equally if Robertson steps up and plays the standard he did towards the end of his match with Milkins then Ali will have to play that way again to stand any chance. After long periods out of the game though, which Ali has unfortunately suffered having fought off cancer, consistency is one of the hardest things to obtain on return in the early stages. However, one of the things that stands out from all of the things Ali has said about his battles with cancer, and that is that he has nothing to fear now in life, especially on a snooker table.

Prediction: 6-4 to Neil Robertson

Joe Perry Vs Mark Allen - This should be yet another close match, and will probably become tense as the four players in the bottom half of the draw sense an opportunity as neither of them have ever won a Masters title, yet one of them will be in Sunday's final. Joe Perry's victory over Ding Junhui saw him play some good snooker in what was a very good win (and his first in seven attempts at the Masters), although he did receive a little bit of help from Ding Junhui who performed very poorly once again and really does need to step up before the seasons end. Joe did a good job of taking most of the chances that were gifted to him though, and didn't show much sign of nerves as the winning line approached. However, against Mark Allen Joe is going to have to take every chance that comes his way, if Allen plays the way he did against John Higgins. Mark had to be in ruthless form here as Higgins was playing so well that he just had to convert any small chance or risk losing the frame against a man that made 3 centuries (and could've had 4) in the four frames that he won. Allen however, seized on the occasional mistakes that Higgins made, and scored very well himself so I expect him to keep this up against Joe, because Mark has been playing very well this season and had good form at the beginning of the season despite disappointing in the UK Championships. It is time though that Mark Allen started to convert the chances he's got here in big tournaments into a big more, as I believe that a big BBC tournament win can't be very far away for him and the way that the draw has opened up in his half, could make this year his.

Prediction: 6-4 to Mark Allen

Stephen Maguire Vs Shaun Murphy - This match jumps out more than the other two as a match that could become very close towards the back end, but especially so between two players neither of whom have ever won a masters title, while both will be desperate to do so and as the bottom half really is anyone's in my view the match could certainly become cagey in the latter stages, and it could all come down to nerve. Both players had to show plenty of nerve in the last 16, so they'll certainly be ready when the time comes to show it again on Friday night mind you. Firstly, Shaun Murphy looked good at times and had certainly improved in one area which was winning frames that he couldn't kill off in one visit, which was a massive thing that let him down a lot against Marco in the UK's and Shaun has been working very hard ahead of this tournament and in between matches (having played on Sunday and had the luxury of four full days off) to make sure that he's in the best shape possible to have a run at winning the event that he so desperately wants to add to his CV and that could well spur him on in this match as it did against Selby on Sunday. Stephen Maguire however, is in fantastic form and he had to be to beat Judd Trump from 2-0 down and the particular turning point came as Trump should've gone 3-0 ahead but was suddenly level at 2-2 little over 15 minutes afterwards. From there Maguire fed off of that weakness and was gifted a couple of chances towards the end of the match as Judd started to play quite poorly but the work that Maguire had to do he did to perfection and I expect him to continue in that way again here. It's hard to pick out a clear thing that makes one of these players the favourite against the other to be honest, and the only thing that sticks out at me is how Stephen hasn't quite been consistent and has said he's found it hard to work on the practice table at times between tournaments while Shaun is always working very hard, and Murphy also has the head to head edge on recent encounters and especially the ones that have gone close as well, but this could honestly go either way depending how both players play on their day.

Prediction: 6-4 to Shaun Murphy


I don't think things are any clearer as they were at the start of the tournament as to who will win the event, as anyone left in is capable of taking the title on Sunday night. Of the players I expected to do well, my tournament semi-finalist tips aren't doing so well with only Mark Allen remaining as my tournament winner and runner-up tips fell at the first hurdle which you have to say is poor by my standards and hopefully my tipping luck shall change for the rest of the tournament. That's all from me for now, and I'll be back early on Saturday with a look ahead to the semi-final matches.

The Masters: Round 1: Selby and Trump beaten at the halfway mark.

We're halfway through the opening round games at The Masters at the Alexandria Palace and after four games we've already seen a 147 (as predicted in my preview), a deciding frame on the opening afternoon and plenty of twists and turns.

It all started on Sunday afternoon when World Champion Mark Selby took on Shaun Murphy who is targeting the Masters for the final piece of his triple crown puzzle. It started well for Mark as he went 1-0 ahead with a century break, but from there he went off of the boil and things started to go badly wrong. After a couple of scrappy frames went Murphy's way, breaks 92, 55 and 56 followed as Shaun went one frame away from victory at 5-1. It was never going to be easy though as you never get something for nothing against Mark Selby and Shaun knew that as Selby started to come back at him. Mark won the next four frames in a row with the help of contributions of 120, 92 and 55 to force a deciding frame. The decider went scrappy and both players had chances, but a break of 40 from Shaun really broke the back of the frame and eventually he was able to seal victory and get into the quarter-finals with a 6-5 victory.

Sunday evening soon rolled around as Marco Fu took on Stuart Bingham. A break of 57 got Marco going in the opener and Stuart won a scrappy second to make it 1-1. Marco then got into his stride and showed his very best form as breaks of 70 and 103 came either side of a magical Marco Fu maximum 147 break where he never looked out of position and there wasn't a great deal Bingham could do as he found himself 4-1 behind. Breaks of 50, 54 and 56 helped Stuart on his way to clawing a couple of frames back before Fu's third century of the match put him a frame away at 5-3 and he had no trouble getting over the line beating Bingham 6-3 and he'll now play the winner of Ronnie O'Sullivan and Ricky Walden.

Monday was kicked off with Judd Trump and Stephen Maguire and Judd appeared to be in control in the early stages as a 68 clearance in the first was followed by a 41 and 39 in the second as he forged 2-0 ahead and a run of 54 looked like giving him a 3-0 lead before Maguire got a snooker on the blue and eventually cleared to pull a frame back and a run of 96 followed to square the match at 2-2 at the interval. A scrappy fifth went Maguire's way before he made a nice 82 as four frames on the trot made it 4-2. Trump hit back though and runs of 109 and 71 squared the match one more at 4-4. A key ninth frame went the way of Maguire and a reckless shot from Trump early in frame ten gifted Maguire the chance he needed to kill off the match and a run of 64 was enough to secure the match and a 6-4 Stephen Maguire victory setting up a quarter-final with Shaun Murphy.

On Monday evening world number 1 Neil Robertson took on Robert Milkins. Robert took the opener with a well played 94 before Robbo made a nice 60 to square the match at 1-1. The next two frames saw plenty of chances for both and somehow the two frames were shared and they went to the interval at 2-2. A one visit 77 gave Robertson squared the match again at 3-3 after Milkin's 69 in the fifth and Neil looked like taking control of the match from there. Milkins however, had other ideas as he stole the sixth on the black to lead 4-3. From there though Robertson stepped up a gear and he had 3 frames of one visit breaks to come back and win the match 6-4 thanks to breaks of 95, 117 and 76 as Robert was left pretty helpless in the end. The Australian will now take on Hawkins or Carter in the quarter-finals.

Still to come at the Masters we have Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Ricky Walden this afternoon and Barry Hawkins Vs Ali Carter this evening and then Ding Junhui plays Joe Perry and Mark Allen takes on John Higgins on Wednesday to complete the opening round, before the quarter-finals get going on Thursday afternoon.

I'll be back early on Thursday with my preview of those quarter-finals and I'm really excited for what the rest of this week will bring.

The Big Masters Preview

This Sunday sees the beginning of the second Triple Crown event of the season as the Masters kicks off at the Alexandra Palace in London, in what is certainly a very exciting time and the point of January where I finally recognise that a new year has actually begun. With the Masters of course being a one table set up featuring the sixteen best players in the world battling it out for one of the most prestigious titles in the sport, you have to say that the BBC's coverage is miles better of this than of the UK Championships (though actually I enjoyed their coverage when they were on the BBC and not hiding behind the red button, which they will be doing for a large amount of the evening matches until the semi-final stages.

The draw for the event is certainly one that excites me as we have a repeat of some quality matches from last year including one of the semi-finals, and one of the quarter-finals, while Trump and Maguire meet in a repeat of the recent UK semi. The favourites for the event in the eyes of the bookies are obviously the likes of Ronnie O'Sullivan, Judd Trump, Neil Robertson, Ding Junhui and Mark Selby. However, does the winner lie within those five? I could certainly be persuaded otherwise.

That's enough background chat from me I think, let's get on to talking about the actual tournament:

Quarter 1

First Round Draw:
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Ricky Walden
Stuart Bingham Vs Marco Fu

Starting in the top quarter with defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan we obviously know that it's going to be hard to back against him to go and defend his title. In the UK O'Sullivan is an inspired man and a completely different man to the one that turns out for events in China, and it's a very rare event when you actually see Ronnie lose in an event held somewhere in the United Kingdom. The snooker that he played in last years tournament was from different planet (especially in that 6-0 drubbing of his first round opponent this year Ricky Walden). If he's on that form again I think he'll breeze to the title as he did 12 months ago, though if isn't at his best at the very beginning of this tournament (which he wasn't at the UK Championships in the very early stages), he will be beaten by the quality opposition that stands before him. There's no edging through this quarter, it's going to take a player at their very best to win it.

Ricky Walden wouldn't have picked Ronnie O'Sullivan as his ideal first round opponent in this years Masters after that quarter-final last year, but it could present Ricky the ideal opportunity to pull off a result. It seems everyone's views I've read or at least heard on this match have it down that Ronnie will breeze past Walden again this year, and it seems that everybody has written him off. Here's my view: Ricky Walden is a quality player who knows what it takes to win at the very highest level as he showed most recently at the International Championships which he won in November. His deep runs in the past to both World and UK semi-finals shows he has the potential to win a big event in the UK and go on a deep run in the Masters at some stage. Having been written off left, right and centre Walden can relax with no pressure on his shoulders because for some ridiculous reason no-one seems to expect a lot from him. Can he beat O'Sullivan? Absolutely. Can he win this quarter? 100%. The one thing Ricky will need on Tuesday though is a good start. Without that I can't see him coming back from a few frames behind, so the first four frames of the match will be key and Walden has to be in the match after those opening exchanges.

Stuart Bingham is one of the only players who has challenged Ronnie O'Sullivan consistently when they've met in the last couple of years and the thought of possibly playing the defending champion is one that Stuart will relish, rather than be running away from in this section of the draw. First up though he has the very large matter of playing Marco Fu in the opening round on Sunday evening. Stuart played reasonable snooker at Crondon Park in the Championship League in the last week, and that will certainly have blown away those Christmas cobwebs for Bingham. For me, if he's on his game he'll be strong favourite against Marco because he's just that little bit stronger than the Hong Kong player. Last year at the Masters it would be a fair admission to say that Stuart wasn't really in it against Higgins in round one and he was convincingly beaten. Disappointments like that are ones that Stuart will be wanting to put right and hopefully he'll be in a better frame of mind for this tournament. I expect to see an inspired Bingham who will be motivated by another UK semi-final last month, and aspirations of repeating that here in London this coming week and righting the wrongs of the last couple of years at the Masters which have certainly not been kind to him overall.

His first round opponent is Marco Fu who always provides everyone with a tough game, whether he's playing anywhere near his best or not. Marco hasn't been at his best of late, getting to the UK quarter-finals despite playing incredibly poorly in the Last 16 against Shaun Murphy, such is the nature of Marco's game and his ability to grind results out from seemingly impossible positions and completely against the run of play. It was a mixed week for Marco last week at the Championship League where I personally think he could've done better and he wouldn't be too happy overall with his form coming into this clash with Stuart. It may only be a small marker, but both round robin matches he played against Bingham in groups one and two he lost and it certainly wouldn't be a huge coincidental if Stuart put it all together to see of Fu again at the Ally Pally.

Quarter Winner: Ronnie to beat Walden again, with Bingham beating Fu before Stuart Bingham upsets the odds to make the Masters semi-finals.

Quarter 2

First Round Draw:
Barry Hawkins Vs Ali Carter
Neil Robertson Vs Robert Milkins

Neil Robertson is the highest ranked player in this section of the draw, and one of the hot favourites to come through it and into the Masters semi-finals. It's been a mixed season so far for the Australian with a good start in the summer seeming long gone now after poor showings at both the International and UK Championships. He seemed to be in decent early January form at the Championship League where he made the semi-finals of group one, but you have to question the reasons behind his strange withdrawal from the second group and how that changes his preparations for this tournament. What he has recognised is that he has a tough match first up against Robert Milkins who has beaten him a few times in big tournaments, and certainly won't be afraid of the prospect of playing the Aussie in round one. For me Robertson has to step his game back up after a disappointing couple of months on the table, otherwise he's very vulnerable to an exit in either of the opening two rounds.

Robert Milkins as I have mentioned there will not be afraid of the prospect having beaten Neil on a few occasions in the past, the biggest of which came in the opening round of the 2013 World Championships showing also that he can do it on the big stage in the long format. Robert was unlucky last year to come up against Ronnie O'Sullivan and get beaten 6-0, and of course he'll want to make amends for that defeat and show he can cut it with the best of the best at the Ally Pally. Having made the final of the Ruhr Open and the International Championship semi-finals in the Autumn he appears to be back to some of his best form, though he didn't show it in another disappointing Championship League campaign, though I wouldn't take that into consideration when thinking of his prospects of beating Neil. He certainly has a good chance, and he has to seize on any mistakes the Australian makes in the first four frames which could be the key to that encounter.

Barry Hawkins started his year off in style at the Championship League at Crondon Park where he did a very professional job in winning the opening group and making a maximum 147 break against Maguire on day one there. Having watched a few of Barry's matches in that event he seemed to be returning to some good form there and he has a lot of bad results that he'll be wanting to make amends for this week in the capital. First up is his 2013 match with Judd Trump where he should've made it into the quarter-finals and had shots to win the match but lost from 5-3 ahead there. It got even worse last year as he lost from 5-2 ahead against Ricky Walden, where the key moment was a complete mess that Barry made of a re-spotted black where he could've won the match in that frame had he played the exchange well. It has to be said that the ultimate bottle smashing was handed to Hawkins in the UK Championships where he was somehow beaten from 5-0 ahead in a first to 6 against Nigel Bond, which is a result that still stuns me. It was said on commentary during that game that it could "ruin Barry's season" so the thought in Hawkins mind now has to be to prove them wrong and have a deep run in the Masters for the first time.

Ali Carter of course is still on the comeback trail from Lung Cancer from which he has now been given the all clear which is brilliant news for Ali. So far he's struggled to get his foot back through the door in terms of tour snooker having fallen at the first hurdle in both the German Masters qualifiers and the UK Championships since his return, though his frozen seeding of 13 allows him to play here and there would be no better way to get well and truly back into things with a good run here. 4 wins from 6 games at the Championship League in group 2 is a good return for the Captain and hopefully that will get him back into the groove ahead of his encounter of Hawkins. Both men have a point to prove and it looks to me as though it's a match that you could flip a coin on, but in my mind enough things point to Barry to make him the favourite over Ali here. One last side point I want to bring in on the topic of Ali is that the Ali Carter documentary is being shown on Eurosport at 12.30pm UK Time on Monday before the start of the live Masters action and I'm sure that will be well worth a watch.

Quarter Winner: Robertson to overcome Milkins and Hawkins to edge out Carter before Barry Hawkins makes it into the last 4.

Quarter 3

First Round Draw:
Ding Junhui Vs Joe Perry
Mark Allen Vs John Higgins

Ding Junhui became the first Chinese player to become World Number 1 after the UK Championships despite being knocked out in the Last 32 there and failing to qualify for either of the International Championships or Wuxi Classic earlier on in the season. Last year Ding Junhui admitted he came into the Masters unprepared following a first round exit against Shaun Murphy from 4-2 ahead, and that is something that he simply must put right if he is to beat Joe in the opening round this year. In fact, he has lost every single game he's played at the Masters since his victory in 2011 falling to Ronnie in 2012, Robertson in 2013 and Murphy last year. Is this something Ding Junhui will rectify this week? I have to say that he needs to have been working hard in order to prevent another early exit and you'd think he will have done just that. However, there is nothing in his form that would even give us a small indicator that he could possibly come close to repeating that performance of 2011.

If he's seen some of the statistics that I've just rattled off there about Ding Junhui's early Masters exits in recent years, he will take very big heart and a lot of confidence into this game. Joe's form hasn't been fantastic since reaching the Wuxi Classic final in June, but he still had a very good first half to 2014 and he'll be looking for more of the same in 2015 starting with this tournament. What goes against him? Well Ding has won every major meeting between the two players in recent years and sometimes records like that can be provide daunting prospects. However, if Perry finds the game that got him to the Wuxi final or pushed Ronnie so close at the Crucible he's got a great chance of pushing Ding the full 11 frames and snatching victory.

Mark Allen is one of my big contenders for the Masters title this year. I'm sure that Allen would've been slightly relieved to see that Neil Robertson was nowhere near him when the draw came out for the tournament as he has been the man to beat him in each of the last three years at one stage or another. Allen was in fantastic form during the first half of the season, though a Last 32 exit at the UK's brought 2014 to a more disappointing end for the Northern Irishman. If he has continued his hard work over Christmas though, he will be a huge contender for this title, and I keep saying that he is very close to a run that will see him lift a big triple crown event, so I'm almost sat here waiting for him to do so now, but will it be this week?

John Higgins is the first man that will want to have a big say about that, but can he do so? In the last two years at the Alexandra Palace he's had disappointing quarter-final exits against Murphy from 4-1 and 5-4 ahead, and against Selby from 5-3 up so he'll want to make amends for those and go on further this year. Allen though provides a very tough opponent for John to beat, and Higgins has hardly been in any kind of form for a long while now and you have to feel we are at the stage now where his days in the top 16 could well be numbered if he soon doesn't get himself together. While this week obviously has no impact on his ranking position, a couple of good victories could spark him back to life but there is simply no suggestion or not even a small hint of this happening for John I'm afraid, though of course I may be completely wrong and in some ways I hope I am.

Quarter Winner: Ding to beat Perry and Allen to beat Higgins before Mark Allen takes the quarter

Quarter 4

First Round Draw:
Judd Trump Vs Stephen Maguire
Mark Selby Vs Shaun Murphy

World Champion Mark Selby kicks things off on Sunday afternoon with what on paper could well be the tie of the opening round fixtures against Shaun Murphy. Selby in recent years has really been the king of the Masters and whatever the venue it seems like he owns the place, with a final appearance last year and 3 Masters titles already to his name. However, since becoming crowned World Champion Mark has had a mixed time of things failing to qualify for the International Championships and suffering a Last 64 exit in the UK Championships shortly after the birth of his first child, which some people targeted as the reason behind his demise, but there is another theory which I think could have something behind it possibly. Mark said in interview some time ago that when he first became world number 1 the pressure he put on himself and the expectancy to dominate and perform on a regular basis heaped too much upon himself and resulted in his best game going missing for some time and a certain reliance on his "B game" to survive. It may be complete rubbish, but perhaps getting called out to every arena as the current world champion is heaping a similar amount of pressure and expectancy on him to perform, and the pressures of now having to perform not just for him but for his family as a new father can often prove tough to deal with at first. If he's off his game at all on Sunday, Shaun is a top quality player and will be sure to take advantage.

Shaun Murphy has in fact been ill over the new year period, first with a virus which he tells me became a bacterial chest infection and that it's the most ill he's felt in years. How much may this have affected his preparation? Well, he did have to pull out of the Championship League group one, which is unheard of for Shaun as he enters most things and plays in everything that he enters. However, I'm assured that he has been on the practice table loads and has not let the "snotty mess" get in the way of his preparations for Selby too much, though he may not be 100% in terms of health for Sunday but I'd take a punt that he'll be very close to it. Prior to Christmas, Shaun was in good form winning back to back European Tour events and a bad couple of frames in his UK Last 16 match with Marco Fu costing him what could've been a really big run in York. The Masters of course is the one event that Shaun wants in the remainder of his career the most in order to complete his triple crown. In recent years it seemed like he was edging close but was unable to get over the line, and in the period across 2012 and 2013 where Shaun lost in a lot of semi-finals and finals it would've been his losses in the Masters that hurt the most. He lost to Neil Robertson in both the 2012 final and the 2013 semi-final before being somewhat dismantled by his first round opponent Mark Selby in last years semi-finals. Out of the three it is that one against Mark that hurt the most and you could tell that immediately from his post match interview with the BBC where he even suggested doing something else as well as snooker with things going badly, in an interview that Murphy may be embarrassed to look back on now, and a series of events that Shaun will certainly be looking to avenge this week as he seeks the one title he now wants the most.

Judd Trump is the man at the moment in my view and I even selected him to be my Player of the Year such is the form he's been in of late. It all started to come together fully for Judd in the Champion of Champions where he got back to his very best scoring form and seemed to have found the perfect mix of attacking snooker and safety play. He went on to make the final of that Champion of Champions where he narrowly lost out to O'Sullivan 10-7 and it was O'Sullivan that foiled him again after a stunning UK Championships and an even better comeback from 4-9 to force the decider before losing out 10-9. Trump has also been performing well in the European Tour events and it is these events that seem to be fairing him well in maintaining his performance ready for the big events to follow. The perfect preparation for Judd seems to have come along in the shape of the Championship League where he played some more brilliant snooker over the course of the final three days having struggled on day one of the first group as he shook off the last of his Christmas cobwebs. Ronnie O'Sullivan seems like the only player that come close to Judd at his best over any kind of format around best-of-11 frames or longer and it's my opinion that if the Rocket doesn't make the final here Trump will not be stopped from completing the second part of his triple crown by winning this title.

Stephen Maguire is the first man that will look to have a go at stopping him, and the Scotsman did seem to return to form in December making the UK Championship semi-finals (where he lost to Judd) and winning the Lisbon Open European Tour event. Other than that Stephen has struggled really in the last 12 months and hasn't been anywhere near his best form, and 2015 didn't get off to an encouraging start as he was eliminated from the first group of the Championship League winning only two of the six matches he played and the least frames out of anybody in the seven man group (only 8). When you look at their overall head to head record Stephen seems to have the edge, but when you then look closer and pick out their really major clashes over the course of the last couple of years it is Trump that actually has the advantage, especially in their most recent meetings at the UK Championships and Champion of Champions just this season where Stephen had to seize upon the scraps that Judd left him, and if Judd does play as well on Monday afternoon as he did on those two occasions I can't see anyway that Stephen could win the six frames he'll require for victory.

Quarter Winner: Trump to beat Maguire and Murphy to beat Selby before Judd Trump makes it into the semi-finals


Tournament Runner-Up: Barry Hawkins

Tournament Winner: Judd Trump


Whoever the winner is this coming week at the Ally Pally, you know they'd have beaten some top quality players and will deserve the overall tournament victory and a triple crown win. In terms of other some of the other stuff to look out for, I think there are that many first round and possible second round games that will all be on a knife edge to the extent that I think we'll see a large number of deciders in the capital. The quality will be extremely high though and I'm going to throw in an early call that there will be a maximum 147 break at some stage over the 8 days, though don't ask me to call who it will be because that may be pushing it. I'll of course be back at regular intervals throughout the week with updates from the tournament and I'm really looking forward now to relaxing in front of the television and enjoying the best of the best entertain us with some great snooker.