The round robin phase of the seven-man Partypoker.com Premier League comes to the boil in Llandudno tonight with four play-off spots available.
World champion John Higgins has already done enough to get through while Marco Fu and Neil Robertson cannot qualify.
So that leaves Ronnie O’Sullivan, Shaun Murphy, Stephen Hendry and Judd Trump battling for the three remaining places.
O’Sullivan, an eight times winner of the Premier League title and champion for each of the last five years faces Higgins. In normal circumstances, this would be tough to call but Higgins goes into the match not needing to worry about the result.
But the Scot knows that knocking O’Sullivan out will boost his own chances of League success so he’s unlikely to simply go through the motions.
The maths is a little complicated but O’Sullivan will at least know what he needs to do to qualify as he is on last.
First up, it’s Murphy v Trump. Murphy has five points and Trump six, so former Crucible champ Murphy will need to win to qualify for the semi-finals.
A draw should see Trump through and, were that to happen, Murphy would need Hendry – also on five points – to win no more than three of his six frames against Fu in the second match of the evening.
What’s the most likely scenario?
I’d expect Murphy, with his greater experience, to beat Trump, Hendry to get at least a draw against Fu and O’Sullivan to do the same against Higgins.
That would leave the top four as Higgins, O’Sullivan, Murphy and Hendry.
10 comments:
So much for your predictions Dave. Any other tips mate????
Hi Dave,
What a great exhibition of Snooker tonight at the Premier Snooker League.
And just a thought for the sporting couch potatoes out there:
Prime time: ITV4 - Darts
Sky Sports - Snooker
Lots of advertising, lots of marketing, lots of fun...who is behind it all: Matchroom = Barry Hearn.
Thanks, Joe
That was incredible!
Longest frame in the O'Sullivan-Higgins match was 11 minutes!
This news in the guardian maybe will help some players to make a decision.
Who told the guardian these details ?
Good moment to announce that. :)
Well apart from getting all three results wrong I thought I did pretty well
Snooker © The Fine Art Method
A secret is wasted if not shared
Hi Dave
Good show lad, never loose your “Sense of humour”, it’s priceless. It can’t be begged or borrowed and one natures “Natural Abilities”. Mr hey you
Do you know if Hendry broke his cue (or something) after his match with Fu last night? :o)
Andy
Why did they change the scheduale? Hendry shouldn't have been on first because the result meant the other two werre dead rubbers. At least if they kept the original run there could have been something riding on all the matches. Murphy has been incredibly lucky to get to semis given his results and performances.
Hi Dave,
Television figures suggest that the darts on Thursday night pulled in over half-a-million viewers.
At its peak around 700,000. On ITV4!
Any idea about the snooker figures?
Thanks, Joe
Snooker The Fine Art Method
A secret is wasted if not shared
Dear Dave
Hard lines lad, surely you dont expect to get it right every time!
The powers that be dared not put Mr Hendry, a seven times world Champion on the "graveyard shift".
Mr Murphy will be less than pleased. Mr hey you
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