Success For Milkins And Craigie
Robert Milkins and Sam Craigie progressed to the second stage of BetVictor Championship League Snooker – Ranking Edition at the Morningside Arena, Leicester
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Click here for the results and schedule
Milkins, who finished top of the BetVictor Series rankings last season and scooped the huge £150,000 bonus, got the new campaign underway in his group alongside Dominic Dale, Muhammad Asif and Alex Taubman.
Dale proved to be the biggest threat to Milkins, winning his first first two matches against Asif and Taubman which meant he needed only a draw in the final match against Milkins, who had beaten Taubman 3-0 but drawn 2-2 with Asif. It was Gloucester’s Milkins who secured top spot with a 3-0 victory over Dale.
He said: “I am pleased to get through at the start of the season. I am bewildered by my game. I thought I was playing ok but I miscued 12 times today. I think that’s lack of practice, I’ve not put enough time in. Last season was amazing, I couldn’t have wished for anything better.”
Sam Craigie progressed through Group 23, finishing ahead of Fan Zhengyi, Fergal O’Brien and debutant Ahmed Aly Elsayed. Having beaten O’Brien and Elsayed 3-0, Craigie needed only a draw in his last match against Fan, and the 2-2 scoreline was enough.
Craigie said: “I had a few good breaks, but I have to find some more consistency going forwards. I should have got into the top 32 last season, but after the UK Championship (where he reached the quarter-finals), I fell away. I am not sure why that is but I have a chance to put it right.”
World Championship semi-finalist Si Jiahui begins his season in Group 25 ton Saturday with Mark Joyce, Mohamed Ibrahim, and Haydon Pinhey live on Table 1. Matthew Selt enters in Group 20 alongside James Cahill, Andres Petrov, and Sydney Wilson live on Table 2.
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There wasn’t much at all between Fan and Craigie. Both were unbeaten but neither was at their best, this being the first day of their season. The fact that Craigie played Fergal O’Brien in Fergal’s first match may well be what made the difference. Fergal was probably a bit cold. He is one of the hardest opponents you can get on tour. He gives you nothing, really nothing at all. We had a prime example of that yesterday: he needed snookers in frame 3 during his match against Ahmed Aly. He got the points he needed. Then, still 24 behind on the green, hence with 25 on the table, he snookered Aly and received 48 foul points from that snooker… tell me about being ruthless. Off the table the Ferginator is one of the nicest and funniest guy you may wish to meet … and a good mover too!
The other group was never in doubt despite Milkins’ miscue fest. Asif is a very decent player but he isn’t scoring enough. Alex Taubman is a good amateur, and played in many PTCs years ago. I’m not sure how much he plays nowadays. Even back then, he never really reached the required level to be successful professionally. He wasn’t far away but not quite there.
In other news … this
Everything surprised me here. Kozoom mainly deals with 3-cushions billiards and Dotty is the last I expected to travel to China to play some variant of pool! Also interesting is the mention that there were enough international players to be able to “separate” the two groups in the first round, making sure of a strong international representation in the next round. This is a clever way to “market” the product outside its “native” China.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Todays action was punctuated by some overly verbose commentary spending about 15 mins on the vagaries of the break.
Like staring into the abyss of the middle of a sugary ring doughnut and wishing it was filled in with more doughnut instead of nothingness.
Sometimes less is more and often talk is cheap unless you are being paid by the word.
Yes but I don’t think Fergal O’Brien is anywhere near the force he was a few years ago. He won that last frame due to the total lack of competitiveness of his opponent.
Fan and Craigie were the best players yesterday -on either table, but they missed a few occasionally. Their decisive match could have gone either way, and Fan was the unlucky one. That’s the problem with best-of-4 matches between two attacking players.
Yes I remember at least one occasion when Fan was very unlucky and at an important moment of that match as well. And, of course, you are right, some groups are significantly weaker than others, but that’s the “luck” of the draw…
Yes Fan needed to win 3-1, but Craigie took the first frame with a huge fluke. After that it was always going to be difficult. Fan often plays brilliantly, but doesn’t win. It’s quite a big season for him to turn that around.