George Weyham provides two outright betting tips and a complete preview of the 2025 Players Championship snooker in Telford.
Players Championship
What a difference a year makes.
12 months ago, Neil Robertson was heading for the World Championship Qualifiers after the worst season of his illustrious career, devoid of any confidence.
In Hong Kong just over a week ago, Robertson became the first player in history to complete two whitewash wins in ranking event finals and booked his place as a seed for next month’s extravaganza at the Crucible Theatre.
To be honest, it was only a matter of time he turned the corner as he is pure class and far too good to be an also-ran. The Aussie is therefore in potent mood for this coming week’s Players Championship in Shropshire for a second successive year.
The Melbourne ace has a solid Players record. He won this title in nearby Wolverhampton in 2022 and was runner-up in 2012, 2013 and 2019. Winning big events back-to-back is a hard feat and I’ll oppose him here. Runner-up in Kowloon, Stuart Bingham will be out for revenge as he takes on Robbo in his opening clash.
Between 2007 and 2010, Telford’s International Centre hosted the UK Championship which at the time was a controversial move. Its last final was arguably one of the sport's greatest, with a comeback of goliath proportion from John Higgins, who came from 7-2 and 9-5 down to beat Mark Williams 10-9. At the time, they were both 35-years-old and it’s quite remarkable they are still packing a punch in 2025.
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Defending champion Mark Allen snuck into the event in 15th place on the one-year list and has a blockbuster opener with reigning World champion, Kyren Wilson. They have played six previous best-of-11 and its 3-3.
If Judd Trump is entered in an event, he’s naturally favourite and quite rightly he’s the strong market leader to win this event for the third time after the successes in 2017 and 2020. I’d love to take him on; however, I think given his draw he’s the man they all have to beat.
It could have been different had Trump faced Allen in round one - a player who has given the Bristolian so many headaches down the years. Judd bagged arguably the plum draw facing Scottish Open champion Lei Peifan. He looks a shoo-in for the quarters.
Barry Hawkins or Shaun Murphy await in the last eight. They will hold no fear for the Ace in the Pack. Trump has played Murphy and Hawkins eight times each since 2022 and has only lost to either of them once, winning 14 of their 16 meetings.
On form, Xiao Guodong and John Higgins look the more likely semi-final opponents - Trump leads the head-to-heads 11-2 against Xiao (10 wins in a row) and if you exclude the ‘Mickey Mouse’ Championship league and invitational encounters, you have to go back to the 2018 China Championship for the last time Higgins beat Trump. Trump has won a staggering 12 in a row against the Wizard of Wishaw.
Even if it’s Wu Yize or Chris Wakelin, Trump has a 14-0 record over Wakelin and 3-1 over Wu. You don’t need to be a mathematician to see Trump’s route to the final contains a mesmerisingly strong head-to-head record against all possible opponents which of course isn’t bombproof but they are engaging statistics all the same. Judd has won seven of his last 10 ranking finals too but let’s get there first!
I’m happy to draw a line through his semi-final loss in Hong Kong to Bingham. He received a bye in the last 16 where he should have faced best friend, Jack Lisowski, however the Gloucester man withdrew due to the passing of his father.
I expect that hit Trump hard mentally. Trump did slam in four centuries in the proceeding last eight ‘exhibition’ win over Hossein Vafaei though the Iranian was like a lamb to slaughter with an ongoing shoulder injury.
A week to freshen up, Trump will be desperate to keep the centuries flowing in Telford, with £100,000 on the line if he accumulates 100 or more ton ups for the season. He’s currently on 86. I don’t see many negatives in Trump’s assault for a fourth ranker of the season. He’s 5/2 for glory which is more than fair.
That’s the top half sorted, now for a small poke underneath.
Mark Williams has fairly bad memories of the International Centre which I’ve already mentioned. Since winning the Champion of Champions in November, he’s lacked any zest since. In fact, since just before Christmas, he’s played six times, losing five.
One of those defeats came at the hands of Ding Junhui at Ally Pally for the Masters and it’s the master technician from China who I like to come through this section at 14/1.
Dating back to 2008, Ding has beaten Williams five times in a row in best-of-11 and unlike the Welshman, Ding has very good memories of this venue winning his second UK title here in 2009.
I’m not someone who is overly fussed about past performances and success in certain venues or places. However, Ding is the exception to that rule, very much a player who does go well in certain territories.
He’s won two rankers in Beijing, two in Shanghai, two UKs at the Barbican in York (four finals), won one, lost one in Newport for the Welsh Open and at the Wembley Arena for the Masters. Ding has also won the 6 Reds World Championship twice and the team World Cup in Thailand.
After a blot of five years, Ding got back on the winners trail in his homeland (for the seventh time) at the International Championship in November. That was vintage Ding who still on any given day has the capability to beat anyone in the game. I would even call a hard draw an advantage when it comes to Ding.
If Ding can get a foothold, 14/1 is good value to make it a sweet 16th ranking title and a repeat of his win in this event 12 years ago.
