Cue Action: November 2015

Sunday 29 November 2015

Dechawat Poomjaeng 6-2 Ryan Day
Jamie Jones 6-1 Xiao Guodong
Mark Selby 6-0 Oliver Lines

Last 32 Preview (Picks in Bold)

Stuart Bingham Vs Peter Ebdon - Stuart Bingham the world champion has started off his campaign in this years UK Championship relatively well. His win against Anthony Hamilton was impressive even if Hamilton did have chances to possibly get on top of Stuart there, a 143 in the last and the clearance in the first frame saw him show his class and that is what he will need to continue doing if he is to win this match and make himself a real title contender. It is a short turnaround however for Peter Ebdon whose match with Dominic Dale finished less than 12 hours before this one is due to begin in the 1pm session on Monday and it really was a battle in that one with neither player able to play with the same ease that they did in round one winning 6-0. However, the short turnaround will not phase Peter who has plenty of experience on the big stage and is always a tough man to beat whatever the tournament or occasion, despite his struggles to get over the line as he displayed in losing to Shaun Murphy at the Shanghai Masters from 4-1 up. Stuart certainly is not going to have it all his own way, but he knows he is playing well enough to deal with a good battle and being pushed after the match on Saturday with Anthony. He will certainly be the fresher of the two players and having played twice on the TV table in the main arena already, he will feel more at home and has a better chance of settling into the match the quicker of the two.

Jack Lisowski Vs David Grace - This is another major opportunity for these two players to get into the Last 16, as both are on the rise. Jack appears to have found a little bit more form at the start of this season with the help of Terry Griffiths and can already boast a win against Ali Carter in the International Championships, but more impressively given his comeback from 5-2 behind, his win this week against Graeme Dott in round two. Jack is scoring well as always but also seems to have grown a little bit more patient and improved a little on his safety and shot selection from what I have seen and heard and that makes him dangerous. David Grace meanwhile has had two great wins this week only dropping three frames in beating Andrew Higginson and Robert Milkins, although it seems like Robert has plenty of chances in the second of those matches and it may have been one of those nights where he didn't fancy it. Overall, this is a huge match and I could see it running very close. Both have proved this week that they have the bottle and it is an incredibly close call, but with signs of his work with Terry coming off I think that Jack Lisowski has the tools to get into the last 16.

Mark Allen Vs Martin Gould - This is all set up to be a brilliant contest between two high scoring and aggressive players. Both guys have had relatively easy starts to the tournament, while Gary Wilson did push Martin Gould in a game that could have gone either way in the end. Mark Allen has just continued his brilliant form of late, and he certainly does not seem like he is ready to let up yet. I constantly say that it is only a matter of time before Mark Allen wins a big tournament in the UK and the way things are shaping up this week and with his present form I can see no reason why that moment could not come in the next week. Gould is always a threat to the top 16 players, but not often enough for his own liking, else he would already be back in the top 16 (or would never have fallen down the rankings in the first place). If he is to beat Mark here I think he will have to be in better scoring form than he showed on Saturday against Wilson.

Michael Holt Vs Joe Swail - Michael Holt is continuing his nice and consistent start to the season, with this being the fourth full ranking event of the season, and if he can beat Swail it will be his third appearance in the Last 16 to go with a Last 32 exit in Daqing to John Higgins. He has played nicely this week too with a century in both of his wins so far, and he was particularly impressive in beating Wakelin so comfortably by winning each of the final five frames. Joe Swail was very convincing when he beat Joel Walker 6-0 in round one, but he did not quite live up to the same expectations against Adam Duffy where based on his scoring that saw him fail to make another 50+ break after an opening frame 88, he appeared to get bogged down. This is a big chance here if Michael can carry on playing well to get another nice run together and Swail will have to be more consistent to win this match.

Judd Trump Vs Liang Wenbo - Here we have one of the contenders for one of the matches of the round and hopefully one of the first exciting televised matches of the week. Liang is a little inconsistent at times but the way he has started off this week, it could be a sign of one of the Chinaman's hot weeks like he had in Berlin in February. Judd meanwhile looked shaky and certainly had issues with his concentration against Stuart Carrington and if he does not sort that out before this contest he is certainly vulnerable to the way that Liang goes about things. Trump could just as easily tune in on the day and blow Wenbo out of the water, and to be a tournament contender you have to come through matches like this with flying colours. If the Chinese takes his chances when they come along, which they certainly will when you play a Judd who seems ready to take plenty of risks this week, then he has a great chance of causing the upset.

Kyren Wilson Vs Tom Ford - Kyren Wilson's impressive form continued in his second round victory against Mike Dunn. Kyren scored well throughout the match once again and was gutted to miss on 88 going for the maximum in the final frame making light of what could have been a tough match indeed there. Tom Ford meanwhile has been in excellent break lol form and was very stylish in the way he not only came back into the match with Mark Williams from 5-3 down but also to make two 70+ clearances from 69-0 down and to have the bottle to clear in the decider from 50 points down also. He certainly won't give Kyren an easy ride here and I expect this match to go quite close if both are in good form once again. With Kyren riding the crest of a wave right now and progressing with his game and very high on confidence I have to make him my pick here.

Marco Fu Vs David Gilbert - Marco Fu and David Gilbert here looks like an interesting match here but one I have a very clear opinion about. David may have found some form with his Ruhr Open semi-final and International final, but his performance against Gerard Greene in round two will need some improving upon if he is to beat Marco. The man from Hong Kong won the General Cup in his home country and will be after some revenge for his deciding frame defeat to Gilbert in the quarter-final of the International Championship where Fu looked to be in great form and I think he is slowly getting back to his best after quite a slow year in 2015. Against Yu De Lu he was a 6-0 winner scoring heavily and barely giving his opponent (who beat Stuart Bingham 6-2 in Daqing) an inch, winning one of those frames from snookers required on the brown. Marco is another man experienced enough to know how to centre his season around the UK and Masters period and therefore will know to peak at the right time and it would still be a surprise to me if Gilbert came out on top here.

Shaun Murphy Vs Ben Woollaston - Shaun Murphy is looking in amazing form so far this week in York. He has already had three centuries over the course of his two 6-1 wins and looks to me to be playing as well as he has done since nearly capturing a second world title. He'll be spurred on by the disappointments of his last few UK campaigns where he could have gone on so much further into the event. Ben Woollaston meanwhile is lucky to still be here after coming back from 3-0 down in the previous round after his opponent Ross Muir started with three breaks in the 70's before Ben eventually came through the decider. Woollaston will have to hope for an off day from Shaun if he is to have any aspirations of progressing here or to improve upon his own performance which has not quite been as good as he would like so far I would say. This is still a tough match for Shaun but he is playing so well that if he keeps this up then he will get over the line and is a serious contender for the title.

Neil Robertson Vs Thepchaiya Un-Nooh - Again we have another great contender for the match of the round and a tough decision to make on Tuesday night when this match and Trump/Wenbo are on at the same time and I would happily watch both. John Virgo on commentary at the end of Robertson's match with Aditya Mehta rated Neil's performance at 7/10 saying it was average. That sort of sums up the high standards we (or just JV) set for Neil that a performance containing two centuries and a 93 is still considered him not being at his best. His performance to win the Champion of Champions showed he was back close to his very best, but he must be weary of giving his opponent too many chances in this one. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh is a player I rate very highly and I always look for his name in the draw and rate his chances before many other players because I recognise the threat he poses to the top players. His run to the International semi-finals highlighted this to everyone and he certainly has a chance of winning against the odds here. One thing the Thai used to do a lot of is making silly errors but with less of this in his game now the results are starting to come and he scores as heavily as Neil on his day. A man of Robertson's experience should know how to work his opponent down and we could see a more deliberate game plan from Neil prove the real winner on Tuesday.

Stephen Maguire Vs Mark Davis - These two are very closely matched and closely ranked overall and both have played some decent snooker so far. Mark has had a couple of easy wins so far but will not find things as easy against Stephen. Stephen had a scare in round one where he had to play well against Jimmy White who himself found some old form. Then against Jamie Cope, Jamie was poor but Stephen still took his chances well and if he keeps that up he is a contender to go far this week. Mark meanwhile has a good record in York and still has a slim chance of getting back into the Masters so that will be spurring him on, and in any case he is usually a tough opponent to beat. Maguire showed signs in Coventry that he was returning to form and has carried that on here so far.

Jamie Burnett Vs Li Hang - This is one of a few matches in the Last 32 draw where it is a massive opportunity for two players down the rankings to put themselves into the latter stages of an event for the first time in a while or even their careers in the case of Li Hang. Jamie Burnett has also been a while since producing some of his best form but has started this week brightly with some good scoring to get him through two tough games against Sanderson Lam and Alan McManus. Jamie obviously has loads of experience which is where he differs from his Chinese opponent here and that could show if this one goes close in the latter stages. However, Li Hang has already come back to win from both 4-1 down against Walden on Saturday and 4-2 down against Lee Walker in the opening round, so he certainly does not know when he is beat. This really is quite a close match to call, and if it were an event in China then I would probably sway towards Li, but as this is the UK Championship an event where Jamie has far more experience, that makes him my choice here.

John Higgins Vs Ali Carter - Here we have yet another blockbuster of a tie in the Last 32 of the UK Championships. That is certainly not a stage where you would expect two players of John and Ali's class to be meeting, but I do not think that will make a difference to the contest. John has started off his quest for the crown with two convincing wins and good performances on the whole, against opponents that could have given him a tougher time on another day. Ali has had two tough matches against tough opponents in Alfie Burden and Daniel Wells and it does not feel like Carter is necessarily at his best this week. When these two met in the Champion of Champions, Higgins came out on top 4-2 despite two centuries from his opponent but again Carter was not quite at his best and John took advantage. I still feel that there is a way to go before we can say that Ali is back at the top of his game despite his win in Furth in August and that is only natural after everything he has been through. John however, truly is back at the top of his game and when he's like this it takes something truly remarkable to send him packing.

Luca Brecel Vs Robin Hull - This section has been blown wide open with one of Brecel, Hull, Selt or Robbie Williams to feature in a UK Championship quarter-final. Robin and Luca meeting here both came through scrappy affairs but importantly came out on the right side against higher ranked opposition. With the match being played the next day after a late night 12.30am finish for Luca Brecel this may not be ideal for the young lad after what was a hard fought win and this could have a small effect. Robin Hull captured a very nice win against Barry Hawkins without even making a break of above 50, while Hawkins only had one, which was a 54 in the opener. Hull mentioned on Twitter (once translated from Finnish) that the conditions were challenging and I think we can expect a better match against another fluent and usually high scoring player in Luca Brecel. Luca's only break of above 50 in his match with Anthony McGill was a 55 in frame four, which as I say is unusual for him, especially given the fact that it was a best-of-11 match that he came out the right side of. Robin usually goes through phases a couple of times a season since returning to the tour of playing nice snooker and getting some classy wins. This seems like one of those periods now, and he has had to battle hard to get through his two matches against very tough opponents so that stands him in good stead here. Brecel meanwhile has a decent record in the UK Championship making this a very tough call as I believe it could go either way on the day, but with Hull having the experience and the pressure probably being on Luca more to continue his progress in the game, while Hull is on more of a second wind. Robin is also heavily underrated and probably as good as many players in the 20-32 bracket as he really is a class act.

Matt Selt Vs Robbie Williams - This is again an opportunity for guys outside of the top 16 to get into the latter stages and after events in this tournament this will be an incredibly interesting game. Obviously it will be interesting to see if Joes comments affect how Robbie plays or his overall performance. Matt Selt meanwhile will be hoping he can get over a slight blip in form that he had prior to this event and make into the UK Last 16 for consecutive seasons. Matt for me is the stronger player of the two here and I would make him the favourite based on his performances over the last year or two in which he has been much improved and shown he belongs inside the top 32. The key for him now is to continue this progress and make it into more last 16s, quarter finals and beyond starting with a win here.

Dechawat Poomjaeng Vs Mark Joyce - Just like the match before it in the draw, this again is a good opportunity for either Mark or Poomjaeng here to go on. Joyce made the Last 16 in 2012 and has been doing well so far in this tournament. He made light work of Sydney Wilson and has scored well in his matches so far, and seems to have found a little form after making the Last 16 of the Bulgarian Open. Poomjaeng is always a little inconsistent and probably a bit underrated because of his overall antics. He's had a couple of nice results also and been scoring reasonably well, with the best of those coming in round one with two centuries. It's a really tough call here but simply because of some of the Thais inconsistency my pick is Joyce.

Mark Selby Vs Jamie Jones - Mark Selby is another player that is going to take some stopping this week at the Barbican, but Jamie Jones is one man that will certainly not make life a bed of roses for him in this match. Jones gives the top players a fairly decent game more often than not and he has beaten Mark Selby this season, 5-1 in the Australian Open last 16 on the way to losing in the semi-finals in Bendigo. Jones made quite an easy match out of Xiao Guodong winning 6-1 in a game I though would go quite close and making a century on the way. Mark Selby as I said though will take some stopping, and so far he has not lost a frame. He gave Oliver Lines a real lesson today in all departments starting off with a total clearance, and then missing a the 13th black on 97 looking for a 147 break. When he's scoring well it is a great sign for Mark because usually his safety is pretty much there a good amount of the time but he does not always make the big scores when in amongst the balls but so far he has looked impeccable on all fronts and if he keeps that up he is one of the biggest contenders for the trophy this year. His record in York winning on 2012 and being a losing finalist in 2013 certainly vouches for that too.

Despite the amount of top 16 players that have gone out early in this event, we still have a very interesting line-up for the Last 32 which in turn, will produce a Last 16 line-up with many players that we do not always see in these stages, and with the Last 16 going down to two tables from the four table set-up that the Last 32 will be played over, it is a big opportunity for some players to get their faces back out there on the TV after big absences for some in particular.

The Last 32 matches are played over the next couple of days, with the Last 16 games then being played over Wednesday and Thursday and of course I will have another round-up of the action and a preview ready for the Last 16 on Wednesday.

Friday 27 November 2015

Ding Junhui out in first round of UK Championships as Hawkins and Maguire survive scares

Former UK Champion Ding Junhui is out of this years UK Championships after losing in the Last 128 round to non-tour player Adam Duffy 6-2. This was by far the biggest shock of the first round, with Michael White being the only other top 16 seed to lose in the opening round 6-5 to Sydney Wilson on the same evening as Ding around 15 minutes before Ding's exit on the next table. Apart from a crazy evening for the top seeds on Tuesday it has been pretty plain sailing in the most part, although Barry Hawkins had to come back from the very brink of defeat against Andy Hicks. Not only was Hawkins 3-1 and 5-4 down in the match, but in the decider Hicks potted what would have been match ball on the yellow before unfortunately going in-off and Hawkins ended up winning the match on the last black. Stephen Maguire survived a similar scare against Jimmy White after being 3-1 down early on, but taking a pretty nice lead with four frames on the trot to lead 5-3. However, Jimmy won the next two to force a deciding frame and he did have a chance in the decider too before a Maguire fluke gave him the chance from which he sealed the match. Mark Williams could have made his life a lot easier against Hamza Akbar, losing four out of five frames after taking a 4-0 mid-session interval lead and eventually winning 6-4.

Wednesday saw some of the best comebacks of the week as Aditya Mehta turned around a 4-0 interval deficit to end up beating Sam Baird 6-5, while Jamie Cope came from 4-1 down to beat Rory McLeod in a deciding frame, which was effectively the deciding leg in winning my 30/1 15 fold accumulator on Wednesdays games ending quite a bad losing streak. Arguably the best came on Thursday when Fergal O'Brien was 5-2 down to Thor Chuan Leong, but won the next three to force a decider. They were then taken off with the evening session set to start imminently and had to wait a further 3 hours or more to play the decider but a break of 66 from Fergal did most of the damage earning a 6-5 victory.

I said it had been easy business for most seeds and Shaun Murphy was evidence of this as he cued superbly in beating local lad Ashley Hugill 6-1. John Higgins won 6-1, as too did Stuart Bingham, Judd Trump, Ricky Walden, Joe Perry and Ryan Day while Marco Fu was a 6-2 winner. Neil Robertson got through comfortably in the end 6-3, although he did lead 4-0 at the interval before losing three of the next four and a good clearance in the ninth prevented further nerves for the Australian.

Chris Wakelin and Matthew Stevens went down to the very final black in their match, with Chris eventually depositing it for a nice 6-5 victory. Some of the other seeded players to lose in round one included Mark King, Andrew Higginson and David Morris.

Here are all of the first round results in full from the York Barbican:

Stuart Bingham 6-1 Jordan Brown
Anthony Hamilton 6-4 Peter Lines
Dominic Dale 6-0 Michael Wild
Peter Ebdon 6-0 Lu Chenwei
Robert Milkins 6-0 Vinnie Calabrese
David Grace 6-1 Andrew Higginson
Jack Lisowski 6-4 Zak Surety
Graeme Dott 6-2 Nigel Bond
Martin Gould 6-2 Allan Taylor
Gary Wilson 6-3 Martin O'Donnell
Michael Georgiou 6-5 David Morris
Mark Allen 6-2 Zhao Xintong
Michael Holt 6-4 Fraser Patrick
Chris Wakelin 6-5 Matthew Stevens
Joe Swail 6-0 Joel Walker
Adam Duffy 6-2 Ding Junhui
Judd Trump 6-1 Hammad Miah
Stuart Carrington 6-4 Liam Highfield
Jimmy Robertson 6-4 Lu Ning
Liang Wenbo 6-1 Gareth Allen
Mark Williams 6-4 Hamza Akbar
Tom Ford 6-1 Scott Donaldson
Mike Dunn 6-3 Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon
Kyren Wilson 6-3 Paul Davison
David Gilbert 6-1 Jason Weston
Gerard Greene 6-0 Michael Leslie
Marco Fu 6-2 Hatem Yassen
Yu De Lu 6-2 Michael Wasley
Ross Muir 6-5 Mark King
Ben Woollaston 6-1 Steven Hallworth
Zhou Yuelong 6-3 Craig Steadman
Shaun Murphy 6-1 Ashley Hugill
Neil Robertson 6-3 Alex Taubman
Aditya Mehta 6-5 Sam Baird
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 6-3 Darryl Hill
Fergal O'Brien 6-5 Thor Chuan Leong
Stephen Maguire 6-5 Jimmy White
Jamie Cope 6-5 Rory McLeod
Ken Doherty 6-0 Tony Drago
Mark Davis 6-1 Rhys Clark
Alan McManus 6-5 Eden Sharav
Jamie Burnett 6-1 Sanderson Lam
Li Hang 6-5 Lee Walker
Ricky Walden 6-1 Itaro Santos
Ali Carter 6-4 Alfie Burden
Daniel Wells 6-4 Rod Lawler
Tian Pengfei 6-1 Ian Burns
John Higgins 6-1 Leo Fernandez
Barry Hawkins 6-5 Andy Hicks
Robin Hull 6-4 Zhang Anda
Luca Brecel 6-1 Hossein Vafei Ayouri
Anthony McGill 6-3 James Cahill
Joe Perry 6-1 James Wattana
Robbie Williams 6-3 Mitchell Mann
Sean O'Sullivan 6-3 Kurt Maflin
Matt Selt 6-5 Zhang Yong
Ryan Day 6-1 Duane Jones
Dechawat Poomjaeng 6-4 Chris Melling
Mark Joyce 6-4 Barry Pinches
Sydney Wilson 6-5 Michael White
Xiao Guodong 6-5 Noppon Saengkham
Jamie Jones 6-4 Ian Glover
Oliver Lines 6-2 Cao Yupeng
Mark Selby 6-0 Joe O'Connor

As you can see it has been some effort over the last three days to get through the first round, and for the winners, they'll feel like they are part of the main event, because when they come back tomorrow and Sunday for the second round the BBC and Eurosport will be there as full TV coverage of the event begins. The tournament is continuing to prove popular, even with a shortened format and no Ronnie O'Sullivan playing, as my original UK Championship preview was the second most read piece in my blogs history, the only disappointment in that way is that my tournament winner prediction was Ding Junhui (oops). With that said some people may have waited until before the TV coverage starts to have an outright bet on the event so I will have another go with an "updated" one time only prediction at the bottom on the tournament winner. Before that, I am now going to preview each and every single one of the Last 64 games in detail.

Last 64 Preview: (Picks in Bold)

Stuart Bingham Vs Anthony Hamilton - Stuart Bingham the world champion will be a big favourite once again when he takes on Anthony Hamilton. Hamilton did get a very nice win over Peter Lines, and this game is sure to be on one of the TV tables, something that Hamilton has not been able to say for quite some time and with no regularity. The Sheriff of Pottingham has hardly been on top form over the last couple of years and he is really struggling to keep hold of his tour card so could do with a result here. That will not be easy against Stuart Bingham and with Hamilton not in good form, Stuarts own lack of form should not be an issue if he can carry on with the scoring that saw him get two centuries against Brown in the first round as the scoring is the main part of his opponents game that has gone missing over recent times.

Peter Ebdon Vs Dominic Dale - This match between Ebdon and Dale is very closely matched, especially if you take into account that both players recorded 6-0 victories in the opening round of the competition. You pretty much know what to expect from Peter, his very tight game gives you very little and when he is on scoring form he is really able to take advantage. However, Dominic Dale himself has really found some form this season and that was evident when he thrashed Matt Selt in Daqing, as well as the improved results he has shown in the European Tour events this season. This match is always going to be a close one and it is tough to work out the player that has the edge, as it really is all about how they turn up and play on the day, but in terms of consistency Dominic's has been improved this season and I feel that he will edge this one.

Robert Milkins Vs David Grace - Robert Milkins will be a big favourite again in round two after tearing Vinnie Calabrese apart 6-0 in round one as you would very much expect him to do. David Grace was more of a surprise winner when he beat Andrew Higginson 6-1. Milkins will be looking to improve on a pretty poor season so far and I think he has the opportunity to do that here. Grace is a good player but his results show little consistency as he struggles to ever put more than the odd win together and that is the main reason that is the main difference between these two players and the reason that Milkins has to be my pick to win this one.

Graeme Dott Vs Jack Lisowski - An interesting encounter lies ahead with these two guys and it will be another great test of how Jack Lisowski is progressing under Terry Griffiths coaching. Graeme is always a very tight player and offers his opponents very little to go at, which is why this will be such a big test of Jack as one of the main areas of his game that needed improvement was his shot selection and overall patience instead of trying to force chances in matches like these. Jack has had some good results this season and won a good percentage of matches that you would be expecting him to win, but he is far from beating guys like Dott consistently and he has played a couple of top players this season like Fu and Allen and been beaten on both occasions which is no great surprise. Dott played well in round one to make easy work in the end of what could have been a tough test against Nigel Bond, particularly at 2-1 down, but five frames on the trot gave him the win. Even though this shapes up to be a close match, you would still fancy Graeme to come out on the right side of it.

Mark Allen Vs Michael Georgiou - Mark Allen will be a massive favourite in this match and he should be able to score a pretty comfortable win. Michael Georgiou's 6-5 win in round one against David Morris was hardly convincing and he has failed to win many matches at all since qualifying for the Australian Open right at the very start of the season. Mark Allen meanwhile is in good form and dealt with the threat posed by Zhao Xintong very comfortably in round one and I think things will be just as comfortable against Georgiou if he continues his recent form.

Martin Gould Vs Gary Wilson - Martin Gould and Gary Wilson both managed to pull away at the back end of their first round ties. Gould won all four frames after the interval in a 6-2 win and continued some of the good form that he has displayed at different points in this season. Gary Wilson would have been slightly worried at 3-3 against Martin O'Donnell, especially given the very poor form that Gary has showed so far this season after promising much after his displays at last season's Welsh and China Open's. However, he scored well to get three frames in a row to finish it and that will help his confidence. As I say though, Gould has been far more consistent in this season so far and will be looking to build on that with a win here, which I make him a good favourite to achieve.

Michael Holt Vs Chris Wakelin - The match up between Michael Holt and Chris Wakelin is not necessarily the easiest one to call at first glance. Wakelin is a talented player and scored a very good win against Matthew Stevens in round one, even if I expected him to do that many others would not have. However, that match was far from easy and may have taken a bit out of Chris emotionally coming into this game as he was very fortunate to get through, winning the decider on the black after leading at several points of the game. Michael Holt got off to a slightly slower start in his match against Fraser Patrick, and even though Fraser came back at him well at the back end of the match also, Holty played very well in the middle scoring well and continuing his improved play of this season. He has been far more consistent with results and the general pattern of his season so far is that in each tournament it has taken a very good player and the form horse of the week to beat him. Wakelin does not quite fit the same description, that is not to say he will not break the mould even if I expect him not to this time around.

Joe Swail Vs Adam Duffy (a) - I think that this match-up in the draw is one of the most intriguing ones. Starting with Duffy, he of course was the man who overcame Ding Junhui in the first round, but after a win like that players will always find it difficult to follow that up. That is a very common trend especially if the chances are that they just caught said top player on a day when they looked far from that which was very much the case for Ding on Tuesday. Joe Swail meanwhile beat Joel Walker 6-0 in a match that I and many people would have expected to be closely fought. Joe though played very well and he puts this down to his recent laser eye surgery which he seems to have come to terms with and something like that can seriously rejuvenate your snooker as eyesight is one of the obvious keys to the game. He said afterwards that he was finally starting to give Mark Allen his regular practice partner a 'good game' which Allen responded to on Twitter by saying that he'd been 'bashing him up' on the table, and we know how good Mark's form has been. This match has been priced up very fairly from what I have seen for a bet on Joe to win, and my thoughts are that that is very much something I would do.

Judd Trump Vs Stuart Carrington - This is of course a repeat of a Last 32 encounter from this years World Championship, and sections of that game are very important when thinking about how this game will go. Judd Trump complained of a cold in his 6-1 first round win, which I would respond to by telling him to man up a little as it clearly did not affect his game against a good player like Miah. Trump is the joint favourite to win the competition but his results this season have hardly been extraordinary or showed the kind of consistency that he will need to in York. Stuart Carrington gave Judd a good match at the Crucible and regularly gets good results on the European Tour something that he needs to translate into his performance in main ranking events. If he would have proven himself more in main ranking events against top players I would actually be tempted into tipping him to win this match, but on the other hand he also has to start somewhere and winning this match would not be a bad place to begin on that front.

Liang Wenbo Vs Jimmy Robertson - Again I believe this is another of the most close second round match-ups. Liang Wenbo played very well at the back end of his match against Gareth Allen in terms of his scoring, but the overall match did not really offer the type of challenge that the Chinaman will get here. Jimmy Robertson meanwhile has been quietly going under the radar and getting some great results and putting decent tournament runs together, something that has not gone unnoticed by myself. He came through a tough test against Lu Ning in the first round and could easily have been distracted by the long waits between certain frames as Lu went out for the toilet after 6 frames, which in itself is some achievement. This match could go right down to the wire and I expect it to be high scoring so as always in those types of games, any scrappy matches could be the key to the outcome. With how impressed I've been with Robertson this season I am far more tempted to sway towards him for this contest.

Kyren Wilson Vs Mike Dunn - The good games certainly keep on coming in this draw as Kyren Wilson faces Mike Dunn. Kyren of course has been playing brilliantly this season and he did well to come through against Paul Davison in a contest which seemed to go quite slow and scrappy towards the end which would not necessarily suit him. Mike has also been playing well this season, beating Fu in the Shanghai Masters and playing well in the last couple of European Tour events so he has been displaying that he is no pushover for the top players. However, Mike was not entirely convincing in his first round match especially after leading 3-0 early on, before getting pegged back to 4-3 at one stage. The way Wilson has been going lately I feel that he will be a little bit too strong for Mike at the key points.

Mark Williams Vs Tom Ford - Mark Williams could certainly have had things easier in the first round where after leading 4-0 he was pegged back to 5-4 before getting over the line and he will need to tighten up if he is to get over the line against Tom Ford. Ford scored very heavily in his 6-1 win against Scott Donaldson making two centuries, but that is something that Ford never seems to be able to repeat with the same regularity against top players in the main arenas. On most occasions that these two meet Williams comes out on top with a fair amount of comfort and now that he has played himself into the tournament I think he will get stronger and start showing the form that he has done throughout 2015 making him very tough to beat.

Marco Fu Vs Yu De Lu - Marco Fu will have a tough game on his hands here against Yu De Lu, especially after the win that De Lu scored in the International Championships against Stuart Bingham. Fu though, does seem to be returning to a little bit of form making the quarter-finals of the International Championship and despite not being too impressive in the first round here, that may be a reaction to playing in the General Cup last weekend which he was the overall winner of and played very well during. Marco is still a good favourite to win this match and despite a nice win for Yu in the Last 128 his opponent there offered very little challenge which will surely be in deep contrast to this game.

David Gilbert Vs Gerard Greene - David Gilbert will be a big favourite for this one on paper the way he has played in the last month or so, reaching his maiden ranking final in Daqing, and he displayed the heavy scoring that got him there in his first round win in York which will continue to keep his confidence levels high. Gerard Greene also scored very well in beating Michael Leslie, but on the whole his season has been poor and has lacked any form of consistency whenever he has showed a glimpse of a good result and with his tour place on the line he will be under far more pressure than Gilbert to win here and that could be a deciding factor additionally.

Ben Woollaston Vs Ross Muir - Ben Woollaston is clearly the favourite to win this match against Ross Muir but after Muir's win in the first round, victory for Ben is no formality. Muir came from behind to beat Mark King in the Last 128 6-5, which is a good win despite how inconsistent King can often be. While Muir played reasonably well in that match he did not show the type of form that he would need to trouble someone more consistent like Ben Woollaston who won easily in round one and if he scores well when his chances come and keeps it generally pretty tight which he does a good job of usually, then he should not fall foul to another surprise Muir win.

Shaun Murphy Vs Zhou Yuelong - This for me is the match of the second round between Shaun Murphy and the young Chinese Zhou Yuelong. Of course the first thing to point out here (which Shaun will love me for doing) is that Murphy lost to Zhou's World Cup winning partner Yan Bingtao in the first round of the Champion of Champions, and he'll be looking to play better than he did on that occasion to avoid the same fate that he suffered there. Yuelong will not make that easy though as he has been in very good form, potting balls off of lampshades as the famous saying goes, and generally scoring for fun. Shaun will certainly feel like he has a point to prove and he will want to stamp his authority on the match as he did against Ashley Hugill with some big scores early on and generally it seemed like Shaun was striking the ball as well as he has since the World Championships which goes with my thoughts that he generally tries to play his season like the top Golf professionals and peak for the three majors, putting by far the most work in at this time, but also focussing all aspects of his mind to winning these Triple Crown events. I fancy this to be a nervy match, but if Murphy's on his game then he should be able to take advantage of some of Zhou's youthful inexperience.

Neil Robertson Vs Aditya Mehta - Aditya Mehta played well in the first round to come back from a 4-0 deficit to win, but from the comments of Baird afterwards and some of the breaks in the match it seemed that Sam seemed to crumble, something that we certainly won't expect from Neil Robertson. Neil will be weary of the fact that he did lose three out of four frames after the interval in the first round before wrapping the match up. Knowing what Aditya did Neil will be determined to get ahead early and then keep his focus to ensure no way back into things for the Indian, and to be honest I do not think that that will be too far away from what happens in the match as Neil will be a massive favourite considering the form of both players.

Fergal O'Brien Vs Thepchaiya Un-Nooh - Two more very closely matched players come head to head here as O'Brien plays Un-Nooh. Fergal will be buoyed by his fight back in the first round from 5-2 down to win, and with some nice breaks made in those frames too and he knows he will have to score like that again to keep up with a force like Thepchaiya. The Thai has been in fantastic form this season as he showed en route to the semi-finals of the International Championship. He is an extreme talent and when he is on top scoring form it usually takes great snooker from his opponent to stop him and Fergal will have to be on his usual form to not give his opponent an inch in this one. I expect the match to run close but Un-Nooh has showed over the last few months he has plenty of bottle to get over the line in these close tussles.

Mark Davis Vs Ken Doherty - Mark Davis knows he will have quite the match on his hands here against Ken if the former World Champion plays anything like his first round match. Doherty blitzed past Drago 6-0 with two century breaks included in that, and by Kens own admission it was the best he had played for quite some time. Mark meanwhile won 6-1 in the opening round and is a player who has a good record at the York Barbican where he seems to play some of his better snooker. The one thing Ken lacks now that he is far from his peak is the consistency to come out and perform how he did in round one against Davis also and for that reason if his opponent is in reasonable form you would fancy him to move on to the Last 32.

Stephen Maguire Vs Jamie Cope - Both of these two guys will consider themselves very lucky to even be here in the second round, making for an interesting match as they may well play with a lot more freedom. Stephen Maguire had to play very well against Jimmy White who showed glimpses of his old self and was very unlucky in the decider as Maguire fluked the initial red that he made the match clinching break of 72 from. Jamie meanwhile seemed like he was getting bogged down against Rory, but despite this he was still able to win four frames in a row from 4-1 down and eventually win 6-5. As good as Cope is, Maguire has showed better scoring form since having around a month off before the Champion of Champions and I believe he can go on a very nice win here.

Ricky Walden Vs Li Hang - Ricky Walden got his tournament off to a good start when he beat Itaro Santos 6-1, scoring well in the middle of the match and he'll be happy just to play himself into the tournament and hope his best snooker comes when it is required. Li Hang scored well in coming from behind to overcome a tricky opponent in Lee Walker and he will fancy his chances of upsetting Walden here. Li is a very tough opponent to play when in good form because he can score very heavily, as Ricky also does so well. Walden's record in the UK Championship is good and if he can make his mark on the match early he should be able to keep Hang at bay, but he will need to remain focussed throughout the match with no mid-match concentration dips.

Alan McManus Vs Jamie Burnett - Alan McManus will hardly be pleased to be playing in yet another tough all-Scottish tie. He has expressed on a couple of occasions this season how tough it has been for him to play so many other Scottish players as many of the younger ones look up to him. From 5-2 ahead against Eden Sharav in round one Sharav appeared to find some form pulling him into a decider before Alan got over the line. Jamie Burnett had it much easier in the 128 round as he strolled past Sanderson Lam 6-1 with plenty of heavy scoring to match. When Burnett plays like that it is difficult to see why he loses so many matches that on paper you would give him a great chance in. The key is consistency but also Burnett's mental attitude after admitting a year or so ago he had little motivation for the game, but hopefully with a performance like the other day he will be pumped up to go on much deeper into this tournament.

Ali Carter Vs Daniel Wells - Both of these two guys had tough games in round one and played very well to get through. Firstly, Carter had a very tough draw against Alfie Burden who never let Ali get too far ahead and Carter had to be close to his best not to be taken to a deciding frame. Daniel Wells had the draw nobody wants against Rod Lawler because it means that you're going to have to be on your game and give it absolutely everything to get a victory and after a wait of around seven or eight hours after being taken off in a 5-4 lead, he did equally well to zone in again and get the frame he needed for victory without going into a decider. You have to make Carter a favourite because he is certainly on the way back to his very best and where he should currently be in the rankings as he showed in Furth earlier this season. As for Wells he still has a lot of work to do in my opinion to beat the very top players like Ali because he like many lower ranked players lacks the key element of consistency which some of the top players have naturally.

John Higgins Vs Tian Pengfei - This is all set up to be another very tough early test for John Higgins. His game against Leo Fernandez could have been much tougher than the 6-1 result Higgins came away with, but yet again he continued his fine run of form that he has been on since winning the International. Tian Pengfei has also been playing well in this period however, and Higgins will certainly have no walkover here. If Pengfei is playing well his scoring will leave John sweating to not allow the Chinese player too many chances and to continue on his way of winning most frames in a single visit. As Pengfei showed at the International when he overcame Ricky Walden he has no fear and is able to eliminate how his opponent is playing from the picture if he takes his own chances. If John keeps it as tight tactically as he usually does then he can seriously limit his opponents opportunities and that for me will be the key factor here.

Barry Hawkins Vs Robin Hull - Barry Hawkins stressful affair with York continues after he somehow managed to overcome Andy Hicks in the decider on Thursday morning. After going 3-1 down early he fought back into a 4-3 lead before going behind 5-4, but somehow winning the decider on the colours. This comes after his Last 64 loss last year from 5-0 up and his quarter-final loss in 2013 from 5-3 ahead, and generally this does not appear to be an event Barry does well in. Robin Hull however, may have just managed to win his first match of the season against Zhang Anda but that is a flawed statistic considering how few events he has actually entered. I rave constantly about how good a player Hull is and it showed yesterday against Anda when he managed to recover from losing four frames in a row from 3-0 to 3-4 to end up winning 6-4 in a tense battle. Robin has given many a good player a good battle, and is unlucky in the sense that on qualifying for the World Championship in 2014 and this year that he lost to the eventual runner-up. As I always say it's a great achievement that he is even still in the top 64 and on tour given how few and fair between his tournament appearances are. If Hawkins is still not at his best in this one then I believe Hull is fully capable of causing an upset.

Anthony McGill Vs Luca Brecel - This is arguably one of the toughest matches of the second round to call, and was certainly the last one that I made my mind up on. McGill was simply sublime in the first round making three centuries in the first four frames including the current high break of 142. When someone like McGill, with a very clever tactical game like most of the other Scottish players, comes out and scores as heavy as that too he will be very tough to beat. Luca Brecel meanwhile made very easy work out of what could have been a tough match with Hossein Vafei Ayouri but once again Luca's scoring was the main thing that shined on through. If Luca gets enough chances he certainly is scoring well enough to put McGill away quite comfortably, but on the other hand with Anthony scoring well also then the same could be true for him. The worry for Luca fans may be that the Scot could end up giving him a little bit of a tactical lesson, especially if the match goes scrappy. This could be a very tight match but my head is telling me that Anthony probably has a slight edge on paper, but Luca could easily prove me wrong.

Matt Selt Vs Sean O'Sullivan - Matt Selt had a big struggle in getting over the line against a relative unknown in Zhang Yong. Having led 5-2 he was pulled back to 5-5 before eventually winning a tight decider after laying a snooker on the final red that enough foul points were accumulated from to win the match. Selt has struggled for form in the last month or so, and I believe that Sean O'Sullivan could take advantage of that here. Sean is improving all the time and his victory against Kurt Maflin this week where he scored very well, and held himself together after watching his 3-0 defeat disappear and still winning 6-3. He also held himself together nicely in International qualifying to beat Robin Hull and that will leave him very confident of beating another higher seed here, as I've been very impressed with young Sean over the last year to earn his tour card back and now make it count.

Joe Perry Vs Robbie Williams - Joe Perry had a nice easy starter to this event with a 6-1 win over James Wattana, but things obviously will not be quite that easy against Robbie Williams. Robbie did not seem entirely comfortable in his win against Mitchell Mann and will certainly have to play a lot better if he is to have any chance against the Gentleman. Joe has been in decent form in the main ranking events this season, proving tough to beat and a man that if you do beat, you are safe in the knowledge that you are playing good snooker yourself. Robbie Williams does not exactly come close to the calibre of players it has taken to see off Perry in events this season and that makes Joe a serious contender to this event and he will be focussed in on his goal of winning one of the three triple crown events now he has won a major ranking event at last.

Mark Joyce Vs Sydney Wilson - The place to start in this match is with Sydney Wilson, who was the man to see off Michael White 6-5 in round one. White was very poor and gave Wilson plenty of chances which is one reason why such a victory will be tough to follow up. Mark Joyce on the other hand will be battle hardened after a hard fought victory against Barry Pinches as they often are against him. Joyce seems to have found a little bit of his form back after a tough start to the season and if he can keep that up he will certainly sense an opportunity here to progress through the draw. For me you certainly have to make the more experienced tour pro Joyce the favourite to make the Last 32 here.

Ryan Day Vs Dechawat Poomjaeng - That defeat of Michael White's that I mentioned has a big impact on Day's hopes of making it into the top 16 for the Masters now, if he can go on to the Last 16 or quarter-finals. Day has been in superb form of late and is going to be very difficult to conquer the way that he has been scoring in particular. His opponent in Dechawat Poomjaeng could cause a few problems potentially, after making a couple of centuries but i'm told that his performance was also littered with careless mistakes and Melling was unlucky not to win all told. If the Thai is to have any chance against someone in form like Day then he will have to cut out the silly errors that crop up in his game all too often.

Jamie Jones Vs Xiao Guodong - Once again we have a match where both players had big tests in round one. Jones firstly played on Tuesday afternoon in the first session against Ian Glover, who he could not shake off until very late in the match to secure a 6-4 win. Jones has been improving a lot again this year as his run to the Australian Open semi-finals demonstrated, and in my view his game seems to have matured to maintain more of the performance levels that got him to the 2012 World Championship quarter-finals. Xiao Guodong on the other hand had to play well in a deciding frame to overcome Noppon Saengkham 6-5 despite two centuries earlier in the match. After going behind early it was soon blow for blow in that match and Xiao seemed to be playing pretty well, in contrast to some of the poorer form he's shown over the course of 2015. This has all the makings of being a match that goes all the way but my thought is that on this occasion the Welshman will come out on top.

Mark Selby Vs Oliver Lines - This one is an interesting repeat of a 2014 International Championship qualifier over the same distance where Mark Selby was played at his own game so to speak after Lines won 6-4 from 4-0 behind. After that Mark will always be that extra bit focussed for matches with Oli and be a little bit more cautious perhaps as a result of that. His match in the opening round against Joe O'Connor was really too easy, so I do not think we have learned a whole lot about Selby's form and how he really shapes up for this tournament yet and how he will play against Oliver here. Meanwhile, with his Dad being taken off at 5-3 down on another table, he had to try and switch his mind on to his game against Cao Yupeng which was always going to be tricky. That probably explains the early 2-1 deficit but once he came back from the interval level at 2-2, I do not think it would be too far from the truth to say that his father might have had some inspiring words (though I could be wrong). After that Oliver played very well and scored heavily on the way to an easy 6-2 win before his Dad came back out and lost 6-4. Selby's experience and particularly his TV experience could prove a factor in this match, and he has been playing pretty well over the last couple of months so I still expect the World Number 1 to come out on the right side of this one.

As I mentioned at the top of the blog my original tournament tip Ding Junhui was knocked out in the opening round this week, but some people may still be waiting until the start of TV stages to have an outright bet and I think it's worth having another go. As you'll remember my other three quarter winners were Shaun Murphy, Joe Perry and Ricky Walden and in that top quarter now I think Mark Allen has a massive chance. However, I was particularly impressed with the way Shaun Murphy started off his campaign against Ashley Hugill, he was striking the ball very well and I think he looks like he is really up for the challenge this week.

The start of the TV coverage should be very exciting especially with Eurosport having Jimmy White and Ronnie O'Sullivan doing punditry in competition with the usual BBC coverage which I am looking forward to, seeing the likes of Willie Thorne and Steve Davis amongst others with their commentary and punditry and of course the lovely Hazel Irvine which is an appropriate note on which to end any blog.

Just to remind you all, sessions are now at 1pm and 7pm every day, with the Last 64 being played over two days with eight tables in operation in each of the sessions, before that goes down to four prior to Monday and Tuesday's Last 32 which I will of course be back to preview before it gets going on Monday afternoon.

Sunday 22 November 2015

STAT ATTACK: Preview for York

Another tournament and another statistical preview is upon us. However, the UK Championships is not just another snooker tournament instead forming part of snookers prestigious Triple Crown. That means there are plenty of statistics that range back through the all-time archives but i'm going to try and select statistics that have most relevance, with a mixture of all-time statistics for players in the tournament and key statistics based from the 2011 tournament to now with 2011 being when the tournament returned to York and when the format was reduced to the best-of-11 frames.

Ding Junhui tops the all-time statistics of the players competing in York this week in terms of their UK Championship win percentages. Ding's percentage is 75.61% which leads Mark Williams who has a win percentage of 73.75% narrowly edging out John Higgins 73.68%. Stephen Maguire is next in with a percentage of 72.73% while in fifth place is Shaun Murphy with a percentage of 69.77%.

When it comes to deciding frame statistics, Mark King has surprisingly played the most out of anyone in the field with 14, winning 10 of those so don't be shocked to see any of his matches run the distance this week. The same applies to Shaun Murphy, Mark Williams and Stuart Bingham who have all been a part of 13 UK Championship deciders. Murphy winning the most of those with 8, despite losing in the Last 16 of both the 2013 and 2014 editions 6-5 to Barry Hawkins and Marco Fu respectively. Stuart Bingham has won only 6 of his 13 deciders in the UK Championship, which is less than 50%. Interestingly, in terms of Bingham's season so far he has played in 7 deciders, and only won 2 of those.

Despite only playing in three events in the 2015-2016 season so far (excluding the World 6 Reds Championship) Ding Junhui has already played in 6 deciding frames winning in 4 of those.

Tom Ford is someone you would not want to take on in a decider based on his statistics this season, winning in all of the 5 deciding frames that he has competed in. Scott Donaldson is Ford's opponent in round one.

One thing Ian Burns has in his favour prior to playing Tian Pengfei in round one is his record in deciding frames this season, with 5 wins in 6 played.

John Higgins has been the most impressive player so far this season winning two major ranking event titles and the statistics back that up as he currently tops the prize money list for this season.

However, Higgins will be wanting to break his run of form in recent UK Championships. Since winning the 2010 edition he has lost in the Last 16 every year, twice to Maguire (2011 and 2013), to Mark Davis in 2012 after making a 147 and to Anthony McGill in 2014. In the 2013 and 2014 editions, John was even knocked on the same date, so it's very much a case of remember remember the 3rd of December for John.

In the last 4 finals at the UK Championships, at least one of Judd Trump or Mark Selby has been present but on neither of those 4 occasions did they play each other, and of the two finals each has been in they have both won one and lost one.

Stuart Bingham also has a good record in recent UK Championships making semi-finals in both of the last two years, whilst also making the quarter-finals in 2012.

Shaun Murphy however, will want to go one better than last year after losing 6-5 in the Last 16, just as he did in 2013. In both of those 6-5 Last 16 defeats, he also led at one stage by a 2-0 scoreline.

Watch out for the players that both Michael Holt and Joe Perry lose to this week (if they don't win the tournament). Joe Perry has lost to the winner of all three ranking events so far this season, twice to Higgins in the quarter-final stages and in the first round of the Shanghai Masters to Kyren Wilson. Michael Holt though takes it a step further. As well as losing to Wilson in Shanghai and Higgins at the International, he lost to Gould in Australia who was eventual runner-up, Ford in Riga who was also eventual runner-up. At the Paul Hunter Classic Michael lost in the semi-finals to Ali Carter who went on to beat Shaun Murphy in the final, and most recently in Bulgaria Holt lost in the Last 16 to Mark Allen who again went on to win the tournament. Meanwhile, Perry also lost in the semi-finals of the invitational Champion of Champions event to Neil Robertson who again was the eventual winner.

Stuart Bingham's results this season prove why no lead is ever safe. At the Champion of Champions he lost 4-3 from 3-1 ahead for the third time this season, also doing it at the Ruhr Open to Fergal O'Brien and in the Paul Hunter Classic to John Higgins. Fergal O'Brien also caused him pain in Australia by beating Bingham 5-4 by winning all of the last three frames once more.

Not only has Shaun Murphy had a problem getting past the Last 16 in the last two UK Championships he has also had the problem over the course of this season so far. In all of the International Championship, Champion of Champions, Shanghai Masters, Riga Open and Ruhr Open he has lost in the Last 16. It was a similar problem for Murphy in the 2013-2014 as he lost at the Last 16 stage in six full ranking event tournaments, the Champion of Champions and one European Tour event.

Neil Robertson may not be the best man for a deciding frame this week. The last 10 times he has lost since losing the Masters final, 7 of those 10 losses have been in deciding frames. The exceptions have been at the International Championship, Welsh Open and Players Championship Finals.

Of the 5 different losing semi-finalists in the last three years at the UK Championship, only one of those has ever gotten past that stage previously. Former UK champion Stephen Maguire is the exception while Mark Davis, Stuart Bingham (twice), Ricky Walden (twice if you include 2011) and Ali Carter are the followers of the trend.

The rolling 147 prize has hit £40,000 for the UK Championships and the reason why this is big news is because there has been a 147 in all of the last three UK Championships. Ronnie O'Sullivan made one against Matt Selt in the Last 16 in 2014, while when the rolling prize got to similar heights in 2013 Mark Selby made a magical maximum in the semi-finals. John Higgins made one in a losing effort against Mark Davis in 2012, while another two came in qualifying that year also from Jack Lisowski and Andy Hicks.

If Mark Selby and Ryan Day get as far as the Last 16 and play each other it will be their third meeting in the last 5 UK Championships, with Selby winning the previous two in 2011 and 2012.

Shaun Murphy and Marco Fu are also due to meet in the Last 16 if both make it that far, and that will be a repeat of their Last 16 match from last year where Marco won 6-5. It would also be a repeat of their 2008 UK final which Shaun managed to win in a decider. It would also be their eighth meeting in one of snookers three triple crown events, with Fu only winning one of those.

Mark Williams and Judd Trump are another two payers who could meet in the last 16 this year, and if they do it would be their seventh meeting in the last 12 months starting in last December's Lisbon Open and with the latest coming in September's Shanghai Masters. The previous six meetings in this period have been shared, while three of the six have gone to deciding frames Trump winning two of those.

That's all from this edition of the stat attack, plenty to keep you interested there I hope and give you that extra bit of insight in addition to my full tournament preview, with some good statistics to help you gather your own ideas as to who could win this years UK Championships.

Friday 20 November 2015

The Big UK Championship Preview

One of snookers big ones is upon us once again. The UK Championships at the York Barbican. It's the seasons first triple crown event, but the last in terms of the calendar year 2015. Plenty of good players are starting to bring it together at the right time too. Neil Robertson was the winner of the Champion of Champions where he built 2011 UK finalist Mark Allen in the final, following Allen's recent Bulgarian Open win. John Higgins came out on top in Daqing at the International Championships where Mark Selby lost out to Higgins in the semi-finals. I also think we are yet to see the best of the guys like Shaun Murphy, Judd Trump and world champion Stuart Bingham as well as Ding Junhui despite his Asian Tour win in October.

The UK Championship also takes on added importance with the race for the Masters, and getting into the top 16 to qualify. We also have an interesting first round draw for the battle to make the top 64 at the end of the season and stay on tour. The nature of the draw with seed 64 playing seed 65 in the first round, while 63 plays 66 and so on, makes for some very nervy battles between guys that all have an eye on keeping their tour cards.

When matters kick off in York on Tuesday for the first round, that round (Last 128) will be covered on World Snookers online streaming service and the usual betting streams, as TV coverage begins on the first Saturday as the BBC cover their first event since Stuart Bingham left the Crucible with the World Championship trophy in hand. The first two rounds at the York Barbican see an eight table set up, with 16 games over two sessions on the Tuesday, 24 over three sessions on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday is then used as a rest day before the BBC gets going on Saturday afternoon with 2 sessions of eight matches on Saturday and Sunday to complete the Last 64 games.

The other news to bring of course is that Ronnie O'Sullivan will not defend his UK title and it's anyone's guess as to when we'll see him back on the baize again in proper tournament play. That shouldn't take away from what will be a fantastic tournament with the best in the world battling for a big prize.

I'm sure we can expect the same faces on the BBC coverage, including Willie Thorne who has confirmed he will be there after his recent health troubles and we wish Willie all the best and I can't wait to hear his voice on the coverage once again. Meanwhile on Eurosport, they are going for a similar sort of line-up that brought us the German Masters in February where Ronnie O'Sullivan was on part-time punditry duty when not playing, but this time without that to worry about, he is relishing the opportunity to accompany his good friend Jimmy White in the studio (who himself is in the tournament and playing Stephen Maguire in the opening round before coverage begins and a surprise win there might dent Eurosport's plans). I've also been told that Neal Foulds will be on the Eurosport coverage in some form and that is always good news.

The Last 128 stages are best-of-11 frames and this continues up to and including the semi-finals on Saturday 5th after they were scaled down from best-of-17 frames for the 2014 tournament, while the final remains best-of-19 frames.

That is the background information ready for York, meaning it is time to take an in-depth look through the draw at some of the key clashes, while I attempt to predict the winners of each quarter of the draw and pluck out the eventual winner from the 128 players that start out.

Quarter 1

Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Stuart Bingham Vs Jordan Brown (a)
Anthony Hamilton Vs Peter Lines
Dominic Dale Vs Michael Wild
Peter Ebdon Vs Lu Chenwei
Robert Milkins Vs Vinnie Calabrese
Andrew Higginson Vs David Grace
Graeme Dott Vs Nigel Bond
Jack Lisowski Vs Zak Surety
Gary Wilson Vs Martin O'Donnell
Martin Gould Vs Allan Taylor
David Morris Vs Michael Georgiou
Mark Allen Vs Zhao Xintong (a)
Matthew Stevens Vs Chris Wakelin
Michael Holt Vs Fraser Patrick
Joe Swail Vs Joel Walker
Ding Junhui Vs Adam Duffy (a)

The top quarter of the draw not only features the likes of world champion Stuart Bingham, former UK Champion Ding Junhui and 2011 UK finalist and recent Champion of Champions finalist Mark Allen amongst plenty of other potential challengers. However, there are also some important battles in the race to get into the top 64 at the end of the season as Peter Lines takes on Anthony Hamilton and David Morris plays Michael Georgiou. Morris is just over £2,000 clear of 65th place, while Georgiou is £11,000 adrift (according to the provisional end of season seedings) but with £4,000 guaranteed for first round winners such gaps can fluctuate greatly during the opening round. On the end of season seedings both Peter Lines and Anthony Hamilton are struggling to the extent that the loser of that first round game will be a big favourite to drop off of the tour.

Graeme Dott should be seen as a contender for this quarter with the draw he has and his pedigree. Last year he was a quarter-finalist at the UK Championships before losing to Stuart Bingham and Bingham was again his conqueror in the Last 16 of the World Championships. Dotty loves these big events as much as anyone and his fantastic match-play means that he can beat anyone. On the European Tour he has had a semi-final this season, and I don't think that anyone in his section standing between him and a Last 16 place is in particularly good form making Graeme a big threat. Dott is often underestimated in a draw and if the struggling Bingham continues on his poor run he could easily run riot through the draw.

Stuart Bingham as I say has struggled adapting to life as a world champion. I think it may be an even bigger struggle for someone like Bingham who had probably gotten to the stage of his career where world champion aspirations were fading and he would never be prepared for something like that happening to him. Other than a semi-final appearance at the Shanghai Masters his season has offered very little, with early exits in all of the European Tour events, the Australian Open, International Championship and the Champion of Champions. On the plus side for Stuart, he has a good record in York, making the quarter-finals in 2012 before consecutive semi-finals in 2013 and 2014, and perhaps this tournament could offer a turning point in Ballrun's season if he can keep his recent UK run going. Looking at his draw there is a decent chance that Stuart has a couple of rounds to play himself into the tournament and if he can do that he might be able to pick up a bit of form along the way.

Mark Allen is in fantastic form of late and has been going along pretty nicely all season. He had already reached the Last 16 of the Riga Open and the Ruhr Open as well as the Shanghai Masters semi-finals before winning in Bulgaria. That title got him though to the Champion of Champions where he breezed past Barry Hawkins, Stephen Maguire and Kyren Wilson to reach the final where he lost to Neil Robertson. In terms of his record at recent additions of the UK Championships is relatively good. When the event came back to the York Barbican in 2011 he lost out in the final to Judd Trump. In 2013 he made the quarter-finals before losing out to Ricky Walden. However, he has not necessarily got the easiest first round draw in the world. Having to play Zhao Xintong is not easy as we all know how talented the young Chinese player is, and the fact that he is doing so well out in the World Amateur Championships in Egypt (heading towards the final at the time of writing) is testament to that. If he can get past Zhao his draw does not get that much easier either with a possible Last 32 meeting with Martin Gould who has re-discovered some form over the course of 2015, while Ding Junhui is a potential Last 16 opponent. To progress in York over the next week or so he will have to continue playing as well as he has done recently.

Ding Junhui has been one of the missing men this season, playing very little main tour snooker. Although, when he has played he has looked in better shape than in the disappointing season he had last season. His Last 32 exit in surprise fashion to James Cahill is evidence towards that case, as he did in the 2012 edition of the UK Championships to Ryan Day. His record in York since the tournament came back to the Barbican in 2011 is pretty poor with 2011 being the only year he has achieved much of note reaching the quarter-finals, while in 2013 Ricky Walden ended his amazing winning run (having come to York off of the back of three straight ranking titles) in the Last 16. This year though he'll come to the UK Championships refreshed after skipping all four European Tour events so far, and failing to qualify for the Champion of Champions. He has not been playing badly though as I mentioned, winning the Asian Tour event in October, and reaching the Shanghai Masters quarter-finals before losing a deciding frame to eventual champion Kyren Wilson. His draw looks tasty without being too difficult if he plays well, the possibility of playing the unlucky Michael Holt in the Last 32. (Holt has lost to the eventual champion in two out of the four European Tour events and two out of the three ranking titles, while the Ruhr Open was the only event he did not lose to an eventual finalist). In the section he is in though, it is very difficult not to see Ding as a major contender.

Quarter Winner: Ding Junhui

Quarter 2

Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Judd Trump Vs Hammad Miah (a)
Stuart Carrington Vs Liam Highfield
Liang Wenbo Vs Gareth Allen
Jimmy Robertson Vs Lu Ning
Mark Williams Vs Hamza Akbar
Tom Ford Vs Scott Donaldson
Kyren Wilson Vs Paul Davison
Mike Dunn Vs Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon
Gerard Greene Vs Michael Leslie
David Gilbert Vs Jason Weston
Yu De Lu Vs Michael Wasley
Marco Fu Vs Hatem Yassin
Mark King Vs Ross Muir
Ben Woollaston Vs Steven Hallworth
Zhou Yuelong Vs Craig Steadman
Shaun Murphy Vs Ashley Hugill

In terms of the race for the top 64, there is another huge match between Stuart Carrington and Liam Highfield. Liam is 64th on the provisional end of season seedings only £1,000 clear of 65th place, while Stuart Carrington is 68th with a £3,000 deficit to make up and the two players are very closely matched and I expect quite a nervy game there. Yu De Lu can take a huge step towards safety by beating Michael Wasley. Yu currently sits £3,800 clear of 65th place and with £4,000 for first round winners he would be practically safe from tour relegation. Craig Steadman has a very tough game with Zhou Yuelong and as he is only in 61st place £4,000 clear and if he were to lose that game he could be thrown into a real battle. Gerard Greene also has a big game against Michael Leslie as he is presently 67th on the provisional end of season list £2,000 away from safety, so the pressure will be on as he will certainly be favourite to win that game.

As for the main contenders to win this quarter, Shaun Murphy, Judd Trump, Mark Williams and Marco Fu will all be in the hunt, and the prospect of Last 16 de ja vu for Murphy and Fu after Marco's 6-5 win in the 2014 edition. Kyren Wilson, Liang Wenbo and Ben Woollaston are all reasonable outsiders to win the quarter.

Marco Fu has had a bit of a nothing season so far, entering very few events and doing averagely across those events. A quarter-final at the International Championship is his best effort, but he'll be disappointed not to have gone on further there, whilst he did not qualify for the Champion of Champions but he did show signs of improvement in Daqing and the Asian Tour event beforehand where he was knocking good breaks in for fun. Fu made the quarter-finals of the UK Championship last year, but a year on i'm still unsure as to how he managed to beat Shaun Murphy 6-5 in the Last 16 with how poorly he played and how much better Murphy seemed to be. I don't see anyone seeing Fu off before the Last 16 so there is potential for the pair to meet again which will be particularly interesting.

Mark Williams consistent form is continuing but he has still to that into a tour title. All year he has been playing well with good performances at the back end of last season, and that has continued this term. In the European Tour he boasts a semi-final appearance, as well as two quarter-finals and a last 16 showing. In the ranking events his Last 32 Daqing exit to Un-Nooh was unlucky, while he made the quarter-finals again in Shanghai. Mark has recently been playing in the General Cup concluding tomorrow and he has reached the final there so he will be match sharp for York and if he can get over the travelling he shouldn't have any problems in the opening round. His potential Last 32 opponent could cause him problems but if he can get through that Judd Trump could await in the Last 16 who he doesn't have a bad recent record against and Judd himself has had a shaky season so there could be another quarter-final on the cards for the Welshman if not more in the next week or so.

Judd Trump has been what I would describe as very "hit and miss" so far this season. There have been several examples of this throughout the first half of this season. In Bendigo he lost 5-1 in the quarter-finals to Stephen Maguire but was by no means outplayed, as he could easily have won 5-0 himself. There was also the embarrassing 6-0 loss to low ranked Michael Wild in the International Championship qualifying round just after he'd lost in the final of the Shanghai Masters. He then followed that up a week later with a Last 128 exit in the Ruhr Open to amateur Hammad Miah. At the Champion of Champions he looked like the "old Judd Trump" before he matured and built a useful safety game, particularly with his hit and hope shot from a snooker at 3-2 down which ultimately cost him the match. Even when he has looked good getting to the quarter-finals of ET's 2 and 4 he lost in surprising fashion each time after playing very well to get that far. Even his record at the UK Championships since 2011 could be described as mixed. After taking the trophy home in 2011, he lost from 5-1 up 6-5 to Mark Joyce in the first round defending his title in 2012, while in his 2014 Last 16 exit to Mark Allen he played pretty ordinarily after three brilliant performances in the early rounds on the new Last 128 structure, before losing 10-9 in last year's final to Ronnie O'Sullivan. In terms of his draw, he plays Miah in the first round and he'll be seeking revenge for that Ruhr Open loss, while a possible Last 32 meeting with either of Liang Wenbo or Jimmy Robertson is not too desirable. Therefore, it is not totally inconceivable that the man going into the tournament as the favourite could suffer an early exit just as easily as he could contend for that title as many seem to expect.

Shaun Murphy is somebody that anybody who reads this blog will gather by now that I think highly of. I also have a huge sense that something big is to come from Shaun this season after a little bit of a quiet start. He certainly has not played badly, winning his first three matches on the opening day of his European Tour campaigns for fun to reach Sunday's Last 16, progressing on to the final in Furth and the quarter-finals in Bulgaria where he was unlucky losing out in a decider to Mark Williams. As for the main ranking events he has had a slower start to the season. He would say himself he was underprepared for the Australian Open where he lost in the Last 32 5-4 to Carter and he was disappointed to lose in the Last 16 of the Shanghai Masters after losing four frames in a row from 3-1 ahead. In the International Championships Last 16 there was little he could do being totally outplayed by John Higgins in a 6-0 whitewash. He has been working hard and cueing well as always, without necessarily knocking in as many long pots as he did on the way to winning the Masters in January, or reaching the finals of the German Masters in February and the World Championships. He has been performing well in the big events for some time really, reaching at least the semi-finals of all of the last four Masters, and at least the quarter-finals in the last three World Championships. As for the UK Championships he was a semi-finalist in 2010 before the event came to York in 2011 where he reached the quarter-finals that year, the final in 2012 and has lost out in deciders in the Last 16 in both of the last two editions. If he can get past the local lad Ashley Hugill in round one, then he will either play young Chinese Zhou Yuelong or good friend Craig Steadman in the Last 64 both of which would be tough games. Mark King or Ben Woollaston are possible Last 32 tests, while a Last 16 meeting with Marco Fu is the most likely if Shaun can make it that far. He'll be fired up and determined to play well and win when he turns up in York, of that there is no doubt and after losing to 15 year old Yan Bingtao he'll be fired up even more in my opinion and very much ready to go.

Quarter Winner: Shaun Murphy

Quarter 3

Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Neil Robertson Vs Alex Taubman (a)
Aditya Mehta Vs Sam Baird
Fergal O'Brien Vs Thor Chuan Leong
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh Vs Darryl Hill
Stephen Maguire Vs Jimmy White
Rory McLeod Vs Jamie Cope
Mark Davis Vs Rhys Clark
Ken Doherty Vs Tony Drago
Jamie Burnett Vs Sanderson Lam
Alan McManus Vs Eden Sharav
Li Hang Vs Lee Walker
Ricky Walden Vs Itaro Santos
Rod Lawler Vs Daniel Wells
Ali Carter Vs Alfie Burden
Tian Pengfei Vs Ian Burns
John Higgins Vs Leo Fernandez (a)

Not as many players in the third section of the draw feature in the battle for top 64 places, but both Aditya Mehta and Ian Burns face tough games in their fight for survival. Burns is provisionally 66th at the end of the season, just £2,000 away from 64th with £4,000 guaranteed if he can beat an in form Tian Pengfei. Meanwhile Aditya Mehta is 70th £6,500 away from safety as he takes on recent Bulgarian Open semi-finalist Sam Baird in the first round. Meanwhile, it is a big quarter in terms of the contenders to both win the section and the title. Neil Robertson is recent Champion of Champions, while John Higgins won the International Championships just before that. Stephen Maguire was a semi-finalist last year, while Ricky Walden has twice been a semi-finalist in York in the last 4 years. Mark Davis and Ali Carter could also cause problems in this quarter, as both were losing semi-finalists in the 2012 edition, whilst Davis made the quarter-finals again last year.

Stephen Maguire has had a strange season so far. He started it off by making the world cup final alongside John Higgins, before reaching the semi-finals in Australia a week later. Since then it has been a struggle with a first round (Last 32) exit in Shanghai before also losing in the Last 128 qualifier for the International Championship. With missing the Bulgarian Open, that gave him a month off after his Last 32 exit at the Ruhr Open, ahead of the Champion of Champions. He looked much better in Coventry and scored very heavily in his win against Mark Selby in round one, and did not have a bad game later that evening when he lost 6-2 to eventual runner-up Mark Allen, making a 107 in one of the two frames he won. Last year he made the semi-finals in York before losing out to Judd Trump. The other carrot dangling for Maguire is that he cannot afford an early exit as he currently sits in 16th on the provisional seedings with Ryan Day £10,000 behind him looking to come in and steal the final spot in January's Masters. That could push Maguire into playing some great snooker over the next week or so.

John Higgins has been playing some stunning snooker over the course of this season so far. Winning in Bendigo and Daqing and that has played him back inside the top 8 in the world rankings. Even at the Champion of Champions he was unlucky not to make it into the semi-finals losing a quarter-final decider to Joe Perry. However, at the UK Championships the last time he made it past the Last 16 was when he won the competition in 2010 (the last time it was held outside of York) which is quite an unsuccessful run by Higgins' standards. His draw this year is far from easy with the potential to play in form Chinese Tian Pengfei in the Last 64, while even his first round opponent Leo Fernandez beat several pro's in making the quarter-finals of the Asian Tour event in October, and he could meet Ali Carter again (after their Last 16 meeting at the Champion of Champions) in the Last 32.

Neil Robertson comes into the UK Championships on a good run after bagging the £100,000 first prize by winning the Champion of Champions. He also reached the quarter-finals before losing out to Mark Selby but other than that Neil has played very little and not been at his best when he was playing at the beginning of the season. He opted not to enter European Tour events 1, 2 and 4, while in the third in Mulheim at the Ruhr Open he lost in the first round to James Cahill. He also lost in the first round of the Shanghai Masters 5-4 to Jamie Cope, and previously in Australia 5-4 to Matt Selt. In the really big events is when Neil brings his best snooker, just as I mentioned earlier with Shaun Murphy, and that shows from the fact that he has played in 3 of the last four Masters finals, as well as winning the UK Championship in 2013 after reaching the semi-finals in 2011. His 2012 quarter-final exit came after losing six consecutive frames from 4-0 ahead against eventual champion Mark Selby. Last year he lost surprisingly to Graeme Dott in the last 16 6-5 (although Dott led 5-0 at one stage). In terms of his draw, I think he will not have too many problems getting through the opening couple of rounds. In the Last 32 he could face Fergal O'Brien who is always tough to beat, or another possible opponent at this stage is Thepchaiya Un-Nooh with his incredible heavy scoring presenting it's own dangers so the Australian might not have it all his own way.

Ricky Walden I feel is a big contender turning up at the Barbican this year, even if his season so far has been a little mix and match. At the Australian Open he suffered a deciding frame Last 16 exit to Stephen Maguire, while he withdrew from Shanghai due to the birth of his first child which has had an effect on his form also in my view. Even though he made the final of the Asian Tour event before losing 4-3 from 3-1 ahead against Ding Junhui, he still lost in his held-over Last 128 match 6-4 to Tian Pengfei despite playing very well in portions of the match. I have a very high opinion of Walden and believe that his career will be a little disappointing if he doesn't win a major event in the UK, having won three ranking titles in China. He has much more talent than certain players that have won World and UK titles in the past in my view, although I often believe that Walden suffers issues with concentration and appears to "switch off" for portions of matches. This is something I witnessed up close when watching the first session of his World Championship match with Graeme Dott this year. He looked like a world beater early on as he went 3-1 ahead only to lose four of the next five frames and trail 5-4 at the end of that session. Then when watching the second session on a combination of my phone on the way home, and the TV when I got back I was encouraged to see Ricky playing better again coming from 6-4 behind to lead 7-6 but once again he lost three frames in a row to trail 9-7 and eventually lost 10-8. At times he looked like a world beater, while at others it looked like anyone on the world tour could have beaten him. I have spoken often on the blog about Ricky's inconsistencies, but when he puts it altogether like he did in the 2014 International Championship he is seriously unstoppable. His record at the UK Championships has been good in recent years reaching the semi-finals twice in York in 2011 and 2013, whilst losing in 2014 in the Last 16 to Stuart Bingham after he seemed to completely run out of steam after a busy period of snooker. This year he will be refreshed having played little snooker this season (well as refreshed as you can be as a new Dad) and I think there is certainly a big run in him over the next week or so.

Quarter Winner: Ricky Walden

Quarter 4

Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Barry Hawkins Vs Andy Hicks (a)
Robin Hull Vs Zhang Anda
Anthony McGill Vs James Cahill
Luca Brecel Vs Hossein Vafei Ayouri
Joe Perry Vs James Wattana
Robbie Williams Vs Mitchell Mann
Matt Selt Vs Zhang Yong
Kurt Maflin Vs Sean O'Sullivan
Dechawat Poomjaeng Vs Chris Melling
Ryan Day Vs Duane Jones
Mark Joyce Vs Barry Pinches
Michael White Vs Sydney Wilson
Xiao Guodong Vs Noppon Saengkham
Jamie Jones Vs Ian Glover
Cao Yupeng Vs Oliver Lines
Mark Selby Vs Joe O'Connor (a)

The race for the top 64 continues in the bottom quarter of the draw. Zhang Anda is still out in Hong Kong having just lost in the semi-finals of the non-ranking General Cup, before he takes on Robin Hull in the opening round of York. He currently trails 64th on the provisional end of season seedings by just over £5,000. Meanwhile Cao Yupeng has a massive game with Oliver Lines. Yupeng is 65th on the provisional end of season seedings only £1,000 adrift, but he'll certainly have his work cut out against Lines, who himself is 60th on the list, but is £7,000 clear already and should be safe. The bottom quarter of the draw is also full of contenders, with Mark Selby being a recent semi-finalist in Daqing, while Joe Perry made the semi-finals of the Champion of Champions and Ryan Day reached the final of ET4 in Bulgaria.

Michael White has not had the best of seasons at all so far and has not quite showed the same form that got him to his Indian Open title, since winning that competition. Last 16 exits in Daqing to Selby and at the Champion of Champions to Joe Perry always looked likely. In fact he has failed to get past the last 16 since an Australian Open quarter-final at the very start of the season in any event of ranking importance (including the European Tour). At the UK Championships his record does not look much better, losing in the Last 64 round in both 2013 and 2014 since the event started being played according to the Flat 128 structure. It will not be any easier for him this week, despite two relatively easy looking matches to begin with, his potential Last 32 opponent is the in form Ryan Day who of course is looking for a good run in York to try and get himself into January's Masters.

Ryan Day has been playing well over the course of this season and finally looks ready to get himself back into the world's top 16. This season he has made the Last 16 of both the Chinese ranking events, losing to Ding 5-4 in Shanghai before beating him 6-5 in Daqing before losing to eventual finalist David Gilbert. At the Bulgarian Open he stormed into the final, most notably whitewashing Mark Selby in the quarter-finals. He also made the quarter-finals of the Riga Open and has really looked in fine form since then. His draw for the first round or two should not trouble him if he continues to play as he is, and then it all comes back to that potential Last 32 meeting with fellow Welshman Michael White. Right now, I believe Day is the stronger of these two guys and has the potential to go on and contend in the latter stages at the Barbican this year.

Barry Hawkins had a good start to his season when he won the opening European Tour event of the year in Riga and this has given him the leeway to pick and choose his events since then, missing the recent Bulgarian Open, although he did make the last 8 of the Ruhr Open. In the major events though Hawkins has struggled. He lost in the Last 32 of the Shanghai Masters by quite a surprising scoreline 5-1 to Martin Gould before losing at the same stage of the International 6-4 to Jimmy Robertson. He was unlucky to draw Mark Allen at the Champion of Champions under a week after his opponents Bulgarian success and he hardly played badly in losing that match 4-2. As far as the UK Championships goes, Barry has a point to prove after the events of last year. For those that do not remember (though Hawkins certainly will not be one of those) Barry was calmly going about his business and cruising to victory in the Last 64 leading Nigel Bond 5-0 planning both an early night and probably thinking about the Last 32. A few hours later and Hawkins had totally lost his game and the match itself 6-5 after 6 consecutive frames from Bond. That result seemed to haunt him for a while afterwards as he lost 6-1 in the first round of the Masters, and to Mark King in both the Last 32 of the German Masters and Players Championship finals without ever looking like victory was a possibility. A Last 64 exit to Aditya Mehta in the Welsh Open and being knocked out in the group stages of the Championship League winners group hit him hard, as he withdrew from the Indian Open qualifier as he simply was not interested. With all of that in mind Barry will want to put some of those demons to bed when he returns to York this year, but with a very tough looking draw beyond the first round that certainly will not be a simple task.

Mark Selby has had a decent season so far reaching the semi-finals of the International Championship and the quarters in Bulgaria, after an unlucky Last 16 exit in the Ruhr Open to Mark Williams. He's been going very well without yet getting a major title, although there have only been three major ranking tournaments this year and Selby had to withdraw from one. Marks record in York is particularly good as he won the title in 2012 and nearly defended it the next year. He'll also want to put right his early exit against David Morris last year just after the birth of his first child. His draw could be tricky after the opening round, but that's how Mark seems to prefer playing the game and that may spur him on to a good run this week.

Joe Perry has been in good form already this season and losing to eventual champions for fun it would seem. At the Champion of Champions he reached the semi-finals before losing narrowly to good friend Neil Robertson, while in both the Australian Open and International Championships he lost to John Higgins in the quarter-finals with John going on to win both events. His first round exit to Kyren Wilson at the Shanghai Masters came to another eventual winner so it is not as if he has played badly at all and has been very unlucky. He has not been in quite such good form on the European Tour with early exits but again to good opponents. His losses came to eventual runner-up Tom Ford at the Riga Open, top players like Judd Trump in the Last 64 of the Paul Hunter Classic, and Mark Allen in a Last 32 decider in Mulheim before losing to Michael Holt at the Bulgarian Open in the Last 32. Talking to someone the other day about Joe Perry we discussed that if Joe didn't win a Triple Crown event he perhaps would not be remembered in snooker history as such a good player is he clearly is. With the form he is in now I believe that he could go on and win this week, even though his record in the UK Championships may not suggest this. In the 2011-2014 York editions he actually failed to qualify in 2011 and 2012 on the old tiered structure before reaching the Last 16 and losing to eventual champion Neil Robertson in 2013, and losing in the Last 32 to Mark Davis in a deciding frame. His draw for this years event doesn't look too bad until the Last 32 where he could possibly Matt Selt or Kurt Maflin, though neither has been at their best in the last couple of months. If Joe can play himself into the tournament his form is certainly good enough to make him a title contender at the Barbican over the next couple of weeks.

Quarter Winner: Joe Perry

Predicted Tournament Runner-up: Ricky Walden

Predicted UK Champion: Ding Junhui

That is very much that for the information for the UK Championships, both fact and opinion, but as the UK Championship is a massive event you can expect updates throughout the event, starting with an updated preview for the TV stages with this content repeated with a look at all 32 second round fixtures, along with my round-by-round updates and previews. Now it's time to watch the players put the hard yards in and start our 2015 York story.

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