UK Championship

celticfc

The UK Championship has started this week. (The TV stages don't start until saturday though on BBC 2)

I'll be down the bookies tomorrow to put a few quid on John Higgins anyway.

Who do yez think will win?

miju

Higgins defo wont win it

Me reckons Williams is in with a very good shout to win it but when he wins it will be very close

I know one things for certain Lee don't stand a chance and you can gaurentee thats a dead cert and if he does I'll eat my cue and you can hold me to that

eirebhoy

Well Doherty is out already. Bad start to the season for him, he got beaten 9-7 by Nigel Bond.

today's results/scores:

Ken Doherty 7-9 Nigel Bond
Paul Hunter 9-7 Stephen Maguire
Peter Ebdon 9-2 Stuart Bingham
Stephen Lee 9-5 Dave Harold
Joe Perry 9-6 Tony Drago
David Gray 8-9 Mark A King
Quinten Hann 9-8 Chris Small
Graeme Dott 6- 9 Barry Pinches (nice win for the qualifier, this fella beat Fu 9-1 in round 1. Get ready for a suprise contender, he plays Lee in the next round)

Fergal O'Brein will play Mark Williams in round 2, that must be the furthest O'Brein has gotten in a good while.

Here's the rest of the round 2 matches to be played:

Mark Williams -v- Fregal O'Brein
Jimmy White -v- Drew Henry
Mattew Stevens -v- Gerard Greene
John Higgins -v- James Wattana
Ronnie O'Sullivan -v- Ian McCulloch
Alan McManus -v- Dominic Dale
Steve Davis -v- Ali Carter
Steven Hendry -v- John Parrot

After all these matches and the third round I can see the Quarter Finals being something like this:

Williams -v- Bond
Hunter -v- Higgins
O'Sullivan -v- Ebdon
Lee/ Pinches (haven't seen Pinches play to decide) -v- Hendry

Semi's prediction (although it probably won't turn out this way as there has to be a few upsets and there is never 4 top players in the semi's):
Williams -v- Higgins
O'Sullivan -v- Hendry (revenge on the cards for O'Sullivan)

Final:
Williams/Higgins -v- O'Sullivan

Whoever Ronnie plays in the final, if he gets that far, I can't see him been beaten.

eirebhoy

Here are the best odds for each player:

Williams 3/1
O' Sullivan 4/1
Higgins 5/1
Hendry 9/1
Hunter 10/1
Stevens 14/1
Ebdon 33/1
Lee 33/1
Carter 100/1
David Gray 150/1
Hann 150/1
White 150/1
Steve Davis 200/1

miju

cant see Ronnie in the final I'm afraid just call it a gut feeling but I think he will one of the aforementioned suprise upsets

celticfc

Williams OUT!

Our boy Fergal has beaten him tonight 9-7 in a bit of a scrappy match TBH. Very well deserved though.

Saturdays Results:
Fergal O'Brien 9-7 Mark Williams
Stephen Hendry 9-5 John Parrott

Saturdays Latests: (To be completed on sunday)
John Higgins 3-5 James Wattana
Ronnie O'Sullivan 7-1 Ian McCulloch

miju

thats my tenner down the bleeding drain.

eirebhoy

I can see Fergal going far in this tournament. He has Jimmy White next and then the winner in the Bond match. That Barry Pinches fella is 6-2 up over Steven Lee. I am going to put a few quid on Fergal and Pinches to win the tournament. If neither of them win it I can see Ronnie winning it as I said already as Williams and Higgins are already out.

celticfc

Yeah, pity about Higgins getting knocked out, thats a pony gone down the drain for me.

Smithers

would like to see wattana doing well in this one, apart from the Asian invitation one he bet ken in he hasnt done anything on the circuit lately,

think it would do wonders for his confidence , hes been plugging away for years

celticfc

Originally posted by Smithers
would like to see wattana doing well in this one, apart from the Asian invitation one he bet ken in he hasnt done anything on the circuit lately,

think it would do wonders for his confidence , hes been plugging away for years

Yeah, if beating the best doesn't give him confidence, nothing will. I'd like to see him doing well this season.

With all the favourites dropping like flies he might be in with a chance of winning it, likewise with Fergal.

Smithers

ditto - would give wattana and o'brien a great boost in confidence for future tournaments , also always like to see someone coming from the shadows , beating the best and winning deservely, not that all players that win dont deserve it , but sometimes its nice to see a different face receive the cheque

jonno

Well I stuck in an old vote for Doherty In case he ever visits this forum and sees that as least he got one vote.

Anyway I'd say O'Sullivan will take it.

miju

OK this aint gonna prove popular with you all (he beat Fergal) but seeing as how my tip was knocked out (see above) i've now changed to rooting for my actual fave player so in short

COME ON JIMMY!!!!!

Tupelo

What were the last few frames of the snooker like last night, Iwas happily watching it until the other half decided that there was something better on. How did Hendry loose? He seemed to be doing the better of the two when I was dragged away!!

Standard Toaster

Second last frame and Hendry was approaching a 147 only to miss a tough yellow when on 120.

Final frame and Hendry makes a break of 53 only to miss another yellow and then find himself snookered.
Rest is history.

celticfc

There's already a thread here about the UK Championship.


ATTN: Thread Merged

Big Ears

well done to matthew stevens thourouly deserved his first ranking tournament win.