George Weyham previews the UK Snooker Championship and gives his betting tips for the tournament.
UK Championship
It can’t be time for the U.K. Championship at York? It can!
The first triple crown of the season as always starts at the Barbican, the setting for this wonderful Championship. It’s the 20th staging and goes equal with Preston’s Guild Hall which was the venue from 1978 to 1997.
What a fantastic spectacle this will be with slight second favourite with the bookies Judd Trump back as defending champion and who would have believed he hasn’t won any silverware since last year’s triumph. That goes to show the standard now in the modern game where there’s been 11 different winners of the 11 titles up for grabs this season.
That isn’t to say Trump has been out of form, making two of the last three ranking finals however he promised to ditch his cue if he lost to Mark Selby in the World Grand Prix and that duly happened. He used an old one in Riyadh and was narrowly beaten by Zhao Xintong in the semis so your guess is as good as mine to what he’ll be using in York. He opens with a rejuvenated Stephen Maguire in his opener.
Here’s a stat for you: 2006 was Peter Ebdon’s year and since then every winner (eight different) is now currently a seed for this year’s Championship. In fact, the last 28 winners, only two aren’t here this year (Ebdon and Matthew Stevens).
One of those is of course Ronnie O’Sullivan, the guv’nr in every sense of the word and he has captured eight UK’s including five here; the first ever in 2001 then 2014, 2017, 2018 and 2023. The now Dubai based resident has recently stated he’ll be bypassing the Masters in January which will disappoint every fan in the world let alone his fellow Londoners but make no mistake he’ll be desperate to make it nine here and win a first ranking title since the 2024 World Grand Prix. Dismiss him at your peril.
Midnite
Big contenders this year include Kyren Wilson who has the U.K. firmly on his bucket list though the 2023 World champion has a rotten record in this only making two past semi-finals. His form has been more out than in since winning the Shanghai Masters in early August and needs vast improvement this coming week.
A record breaking 12 Chinese are at the Barbican, seven of which came through qualifying in Wigan and five seeds.
One is the guv’nr of those shores, Ding Junhui who has a love affair with York, winning here in 2005 and 2019 plus finishing runner-up in 2022 and 2023. Ding’s levels just seem to elevate here and he’s certainly on my shortlist.
Zhao Xintong is a faint outright favourite and is looking to become just the eighth player in history to hold the UK and World titles at the same time. Zhao won his first title since becoming World champion at the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship pocketing a sweet £250,000 and won his first triple crown here in York in 2021. A mesmerising talent who could take some stopping now he’s broken his duck.
Wu Yize is the new kid on the block who blew everyone away in his barnstorming maiden ranking success in the International Championship and surely triple crowns will be coming his way along the line. He’s a seed for the first time.
I give arguably the form player of the season Shaun Murphy a fair chance of winning the UK Championship for the first time in 17 years. He’s maturing like a fine wine however my main fancy for York glory comes from Melbourne’s very own, Neil Robertson.
The Aussie is always opposable in the Worlds at his nemesis the Crucible but the other two majors he’s got a fine track record in. He’s a two-time Masters champion and three-time UK champion.
Like Ding, he’s won twice here at the Barbican in 2013 and 2015 then captured his third win during Covid year (2020) in Milton Keynes 10-9 on the pink against Judd Trump which unfortunately had no spectators.
No qualifier will be easy however Robertson is drawn against debutant Julien Leclercq from Belgium in the first round who’s an out and out potter which should be food and drink to Robbo even though he’ll be on a high from qualifying impressively.
Robertson won ranking title number 26 at the Saudi Masters in mid August with a typical gutsy display in a format not too dissimilar to here.
In recent times, he made the final of the Riyadh Snooker Championship, the semis of the Champion of Champions, and Tuesday won an invitational event, the Crucible Cup played under shot-clock rules beating Stephen Hendry, Mark Selby and John Higgins to collect the £25,000 first prize.
Robertson has lost his last four UK first rounds but I have no doubt he’s got a great chance of becoming a four-time champion, with only O’Sullivan, Steve Davis and Hendry with more victories.
He has a woeful record in the event but don’t let that put you off Geordie Gary Wilson who is a lively outsider at 40/1 to finally become a triple crown winner.
Wilson’s best run came in 2019 when he lost in the last 16 but he’s a different animal nowadays. Wilson made the Wuhan Open final in late August losing in a decider to Xiao Guodong and beating a whole host of world class players on the way in Murphy, Trump, John Higgins and Mark Allen. He then beat O’Sullivan on route to the semis at the Xi’an Grand Prix where Murphy got his revenge.
I have no idea why this event hasn’t been Wilson’s cup of tea down the years but the same could be said for Barry Hawkins who made the final last year after rarely threatening for decades.
Wilson made the semis of the Worlds back in 2019 and since then has captured three ranking titles, all in Great Britain. Once Wilson gets his eye in, there aren’t many more destructive scorers in the game and I rate him the best outsider in York.
Outright Betting Tips:
Neil Robertson 9/1 Betfred/Ladbrokes/Coral 0.50pt ew
Gary Wilson 40/1 SkyBet/Paddy Power 0.25pt ew
