The York Barbican is the setting for the first Triple Crown event of the snooker season, the Betway UK Championship
This is my favourite event and, of the venues I’ve been to, again it’s my favourite. I would prefer the Barbican to the Crucible, much to the horror of the traditionalists!
The event itself is a fairly short format, in being best of 11 up to the final, which is then the best of 19.
The draw has everyone in from the start but it is seeded rather than being random.
There are five amateurs in the draw – courtesy of their place in the Q School Order of Merit and top billing out of these must go to Luke Simmonds who is drawn against none other than Ronnie O’Sullivan. The way that the draw works means that all the amateurs will face top opposition.
As extracted from the draw on Snooker.org, the match ups are as follows –
| 1 |  |
Ronnie O’Sullivan [1] | v | |
Luke Simmonds (a) |
| 17 | |
Judd Trump [5] | v | |
David Lilley (a) |
| 32 |  |
John Higgins [4] | v |  |
Dechawat Poomjaeng (a) |
| 33 | |
Mark Selby [3] | v | |
James Cahill (a) |
| 64 |  |
Mark J Williams [2] | v | |
Adam Duffy (a) |
The chances are that some of these will be on TV, and yes I do consider the Eurosport Player to be TV. At least they have the decency to start from the beginning unlike the BBC who prefer to show “Homes Under the Hammer” or “Celebrity Antiques Road Trip” and other highbrow wastes of licence fee money.
My predictions
Iin a departure from the norm, mainly because I’m not very good at it, I’m going to put down my thoughts as to who I think will perform in York.
I will break it down into the four sections to see who i think will make it to the semis.
Section 1
Got to be Ronnie O’Sullivan as the favourite for this section. He appears to be playing the same standard of snooker whoever and wherever he plays and looking like the man to beat as he sets out to defend the title. Jack Lisowski has been showing lots of promise recently and could be a threat, but after overcoming him I think O’Sullivan will beat Xiao Guodong in the quarters. Sean Murphy will be keen to get his season back on track, but recent form is against him. The pressure to move up the one year list could be working against him if anything.
Section 2
Judd Trump to beat John Higgins in the quarters and that should be one to watch! Trump will be full of confidence following his success in Ireland and should be showing some consistency now. No disrespect to anyone in the bottom half of this section, but Higgins shouldn’t have too much trouble to make it to the quarters. Luca Brecel is for me the potential threat but Higgins has all the experience and will be going there with belief that he can win this event again.
Section 3
Here I’m going for Kyren Wilson to beat Mark Selby in the quarters. Wilson has progressed now to be a real contender for any tournament and many are saying he’s a certainty to win the world title soon. Stuart Bingham has been showing some good form recently and to my mind is the biggest threat to Selby reaching the quarters. Bingham isn’t shy of entering pro-am events and does very nicely too. The winning mentality and keeping match sharp counts for a lot. Barry Hawkins will be calling on all his experience but I don’t think he will manage to overcome Wilson.
Section 4
Mark Allen was looking for all the world like nobody could beat him in China – and nobody did. But then back on home turf for the Northern Ireland Open, to me, he beat himself. Will the real Mark Allen please turn up for this event? I think he will and he will beat Neil Robertson for a place in the quarters. His opponent will be Stephen Maguire who will seen off current world champion Mark Williams. Williams will be back to the caravan for bingo and kebabs sooner than he would have liked and Steve Feeney will be trying his best to get some kind of form back in him in time to defend the world title.
The semi finals
What a couple of matches these could be!
Ronnie O’Sullivan will be looking to get revenge on Judd Trump for the recent Northern Ireland Open, but I think Trump will do it again here. I was there in 2014 when Trump made a wonderful comback to force a decider, but didn’t have quite enough to overcome O’Sullivan. I think he has more than enough now.
Another mouth watering prospect is Kyren Wilson taking on Mark Allen again and I think Allen will be running out of steam again by now and Wilson will claim the place in the final.
The final
The thought of a final between Judd Trump and Kyren Wilson should be enough to make most think about clearing their diaries for that day. Who will win it? It’s Trump for me, but Wilson will make it very difficult indeed!
