I'm betting on Murphy to lay down the law at the UK Championship

Snooker / David Croft / 13 December 2007 / 1 Comments

The BBC's David Croft previews two of the semis and tells us why Sean Murphy is the form man

Mrs Croft has been a worried woman of late. Apparently I've not been getting enough sleep. Trouble is there's been plenty of good sport to keep me on the sofa, what with the cricket in Sri Lanka ensuring an early start and then of course the boxing in Vegas last week keeping me up till dawn. She was most concerned to find me jumping around the living room when Floyd put The Hitman on his back but when I mentioned that I got a price of 65 with Betfair for him to win in the 10th, she understood the celebrations. I hope those of you that read my column on the big fight had a bit of that as well, and it more than made up for a string of duff bets at the Darts recently.

Either way the wife suggested I spent some time relaxing this week with a more sedate sport and as there's nothing more sedate than snooker, I've been following the UK Championship on BBC 2.

And after a week of upsets, where 10 of the worlds Top 16 failed to make it past the first round, we're now down to the final four

First up is Stephen Maguire against Shaun Murphy with Maguire, the man who won this event in 2004, a fractional favourite with Betfair at [1.9]. It's the second time these two have met in the semis of a ranking event and Maguire just won the last time. Not this week though, Betfair punters can back Murphy the former world champion and provisional world number 1 at [2.04] and I fancy him to take it, but only just. His quarter final against Ding Junhui was a real tough one and I was more than impressed with the way he put together a break of 74 in the 16th frame to take the match 9-7. In what had been a terrific tussle he not only showed glimpses of his world title winning form but also managed to steady his nerves in the closing stages.

Shaun has been the most consistent performance on the circuit in the last year and only once has he failed to make the quarter finals. Including this tournament he now's reached the semi finals in 4 of the last 5 events and is more than capable of taking the trophy on Sunday, Betfair offer [6.4] for that which is worth taking, even if he comes up against the Rocket in Sundays final.

Tags: David Croft, Sean Murphy, snooker betting, Snooker UK Championship