Snooker

Well my first cricket match of the season is out of the way. A pleasant friendly against the local rivals. A respectable 18 for yours truly and one to the side of the head! Anyway lets hope it hasn't blurred my judgement today as we look to the Crucible...

2.30 Stephen Hendry to beat Mark Allen 10/3 (WON +11.20 - Allen gave Hendry the chances and despite a few poor safety shots, he largely took them. But Allen should have seen him off if he wasn't so heavy handed)
Hendry is 6-3 down after the first session, due largely to missing some relatively straightforward pots in the early stages. After taking the first frame 67-0 he then lost 4 consecutive frames, before sharing the final four. However, breaks of 110 and 93 in those final 4 frame showed he was starting to get his touch back, and if he keeps getting the ins he got yesterday he could still turn this around. A couple of early frames and that price will tumble.

7.00 Mark Williams -2 frames to beat Mark Davis 10/11 (WON +12.11 - 8-1 after the first session was quickly sewn up and Williams could provide an interesting second round opponent for Ronnie)
Mark Davis won just two knockout matches in 2006/7 and struggled through qualifying this year to make his first appearance in the knockout stages of a ranking tournament. And while Mark Williams hasn't been in his usual good form for much of this season he did look more like theold Williams we know in hislast outing at the Shanghai Masters. Somewhere near that form will see him ease through and so VCBet's offer of 10/11 giving Davis a 2 frame start seems good value to me.