CalvStar

Grand Prix - UPDATE 12th October 2005

A one horse race……………… or is it?

I hope you all picked up my advice earlier in the week to get on Shaun Murphy. The bookies have smelt a rat and reigned in the odds on this man from 14 into just over 5. Both Mr Murphy and Mr O'Sullivan have gone through the first two rounds relatively untroubled. I am still not keen on Ronnie in the short game format and truly believe he will slip up as soon as he comes up against stiffer opposition. At odds of just over 2's you'd have to be Roman Abramovich to make anything out of this one. Stick with Murphy for the time being and we may look to assess the situation later this week. Barring any major shock, he should have a safe passage through to the semis before it starts getting tougher. Watch this space.....

Read the first part of this report below.......

October 9th

So where are all the characters in the game? Gone are the good old days of the Dracula, Willie ‘the maximum ‘ Thorne, the hurricane, trick shot Virgo and dapper Knowles. It all seems so serious.

So Ronnie seems to be disillusioned with the sport, apparently snooker is ‘a sinking ship’, and soon he will be off to play American Pool. Who can blame him, he will probably make a tidy buck or two and get the Americans whooping and hollering (“you the man” “get in the hole” etc etc).

There’s no doubting when Ronnie is on his game, no-one can touch him. That’s why I can only see one winner in this year’s tournament.

My only reservation is that in the first few rounds its best of nine, which doesn’t leave a lot of room for show boating or being slow out of the blocks.

At best Ronnie is 4’s, which is not a great price but probably where the smart money should go.

If you’re looking further afield then I can only see a couple of viable options.

The current world champion, Shaun Murphy has not been on a good run recently but the Grand Prix is the second biggest snooker event and that should be enough to make him focussed. At 14’s the odds look worth a small wager.

Steve ‘interesting’ Davis will probably have another cameo run before retiring to the commentary box with John Parrott.