Snooker: Premier League 2008

[kevshat]

The 5th Premier League Snooker tournament begins tomorrow night. As ever it's all live on Sky. This year it looks a poor renewal and once again I can only see one winner.

	O'Sullivan, R	2	2.1	2.1	2.1	2	2	2	2	1.9	2.1	1.9	2.1	1.9	2	1.83	1.97
	Ding, Junhui	5	5	5	5	5	5	5.5	6	5	5.5	5.5	5	5.5	5	6	5.2
	Higgins, J	7	7	7	6	7.5	7	7.5	6	6	6	7	7	7.5	7	7	8
	Selby, M	7.5	7	7	7	7.5	7.5	7.5	7	7	7	7	7	8	7	7	7.2
	Hendry, S	8.5	9	8	9	9	8.5	11	9	11	9	10	8	9	8.5	13	8.8
	Perry, J	13	15	15	13	13	13	15	13	17	13	17	15	13	13	15	17.5
	Davis, S	67	67	67	67	67	67	51	67	81	67	101	67	67	67	41	55
Place terms		2 1/3	2 1/3	2 1/3	2 1/3	2 1/3	2 1/3			2 1/2	2 1/3	2 1/3	2 1/3

Just one outright for me. 10pts R.O'Sullivan to win Premier League 11/10 Stan James I don't like having full stakes on short prices over long periods of time but as I did last year I'm happy to waive that for O'Sullivan in this. Since the shot clock came into this event nobody else has won it other than O'Sullivan. Normally we have to wonder about O'Sullivan's mentally but we don't here because he knows the format is set to entertain which he loves doing. The 25 second shot clock is irrelevant to him as he can play 4 shots in that time. Looking at the opposition this looks a weak event. You'd have thought the likes of Shaun Murphy and Stephen Maguire were more worthy of Stephen Hendry's place but that's a help not a hinderance to Ronnie. He's unstoppable in this event. He's just won the NI Trophy so he's in good nick anyway and like Taylor in the darts he owns this event and I'm very confident he'll make it 5 in a row in Norfolk in November.

[kevshat]

Re: Snooker: Premier League 2008

Thursday 11 September 2008	Home	Draw	Away	BPP
Selby, M v Ding, Junhui (19:30BST)	2.64	3.30	3.00	101.52 %	Details »
Hide « Selby, M v Ding, Junhui
O'Sullivan, R v Higgins, J (21:30BST)	1.90	3.75	5.00	99.30 %	Details »

I think those odds for the Selby vs Ding match are the wrong way around. Just one for me tomorrow night. 10pts M.Selby to beat D.Junhui (DNB) 5/4 Skybet Mark Selby makes his debut in the Premier League in this match and I think it's a match he can win. Ding had a shocking 1st round exit in Belfast two weeks ago and didn't play much better in the world championship. In fact he hasn't really played near the top of his game for a while. Mark Selby is ultra consistent and you just know by his personality that he'll bring his best game to these matches with him entertaining full houses. Ding hasn't made a semi final in 2008 which doesn't look too good but he did perform brilliantly in this at times last season. Selby will love this tournament though and I think he can come through this. As ever with these matches the best of 6 frames, I'm betting without the draw, still getting a decent price.