Free snooker betting tips: Northern Ireland Open preview

Snooker

Sun November 19, 2017 · 7y ago

Our tipster Simon Crawford is siding with an in-form Ronnie O'Sullivan at the Northern Ireland Open - and also has a 40/1 outsider.

World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn was rightly applauded for introducing the Home Nations series to the calendar last season.

The Welsh Open was already an established ranking event, but it was joined by the English, Scottish and Northern Ireland editions - with the huge incentive of a £1million bonus to any player who could win all four in the same season.

A generous offer indeed, but Hearn will have known the likelihood of it actually happening meant his bank manager would not be unduly worried.

It's rare for a player to win any four tournaments in a season, let alone four specific ones. Last season there were different winners of the Home Nations events with Liang Wenbo winning the English Open, Marco Fu triumphed in Scotland, Mark King claimed the prize in Belfast and Stuart Bingham was the victor in Wales.

So is it an impossible task to win all four? You would have to say it is possible but highly unlikely with perhaps only a handful of players capable of achieving it.

As well as skill, you also need a huge helping of luck and let is not forget each event also has qualifying rounds.

However, Ronnie O'Sullivan is certainly one cueman you would say is capable of giving Mr Hearn at least some cause for concern.

He arrives in Belfast for this week's Northern Ireland Open as the new English champion having dismantled Kyren Wilson in the final last month in Barnsley.

The Rocket is also in fine form, having beaten Judd Trump to win the Shanghai Masters on Saturday - just a week after being a beaten finalist against Shaun Murphy in the Champion of Champions in Coventry.

His win in China was his 30th ranking title success, putting him second on the all-time list behind Stephen Hendry who has 36, while it was his 94th career final and he has won no less than 61 of them.

Although he turns 42 next month, there is no sign of O'Sullivan slowing down and an ominous warning for his rivals is that he has no plans to put his cue away.

"I'm not one for setting myself targets, but there’s nothing that can’t be done," O'Sullivan told worldsnooker.com.

"If you said to me I would have another 10 or 15 years playing snooker and be happy, but not get (Hendry’s) record, I would take that.

"I'd prefer that to playing for two or three more years and getting to 38 titles. It’s all about longevity for me. I enjoy the tour and the travelling and having a good life.

"People are talking about beating Hendry’s records but it doesn’t really enter my thought process. The main thing for me is to enjoy playing and to keep it going as long as I can."

Happiness seems to be the key for O'Sullivan and the demons that have so obviously affected his game in the past now seem to have disappeared and, as a result, his game is back to its brilliant best.

I'm one of his biggest champions and I firmly believe O'Sullivan at his very best is still far too good for anyone else in the game.

With Mark Selby and Ding Junhui not playing in Belfast, O'Sullivan is a strong favourite. The market suggests Trump and John Higgins are his biggest rivals but with recent wins over both of them, sportingbet's standout 7/2 on the Rocket is a price I simply have to get involved with.

He is the man in form on the circuit and he will be very keen to do well with effectively £1m at stake.

Rest assured, if O'Sullivan were to make it two Home Nations wins out of two, then Barry Hearn would certainly not be sleeping quite so well!

Two-time world champion Mark Williams was one of the famed 'class of 92' - along with O'Sullivan and Higgins - who all turned professional at the same time and have gone on to be stars of the game.

The first left-hander to win the world crown, the proud Welshman has won 18 ranking titles which puts him fifth on the all-time list.

Like O'Sullivan and Higgins, he remains a fine player and this season has won the Six-red World Championship and reached the semi-finals of the Riga Masters, as well as the last eight of the China Championship, World Open, European Masters and last week's Shanghai Masters where he was beaten by O'Sullivan.

Williams is still more than capable of winning a ranking title and arrives in Belfast in better form than most of the assembled field.

He is as short as 16/1 in places which I think is a fair reflection of his current form, so with sportingbet offering a very generous 40/1 he is more than worthy of an each-way punt.