Monte's Multiple: Follow The Wizard and The Tornado for this week's treble

Monte's Multiple / Jaymes Monte / 30 March 2010 / Leave a Comment

44-year-old Tony Drago is one of snooker’s in-form players this season.

Back Drago to beat Perry @ 3.1
Back Whitlock to beat Baxter @ 2.4
Back Dundee United to beat Hibernian @ 3.1
Treble pays @ 23.0

Monte's Multiple offers a big priced treble this week with action from snooker's China Open, darts' Premier League and the top of the Scottish Premier League...

Bet 1: Snooker - China Open

It's been a while since snooker's last ranking event, two months to be precise, and in that time chairman Barry Hearn has completed his manifesto aimed at restructuring and resurrecting the game. It was no surprise to see a ProTour circuit introduced similar to the one used in darts and a new single frame shootout tournament under shot clock conditions will be full of razzmatazz and aimed at the younger fans. Yet the proposed scrapping of the Grand Prix which will be replaced by a World Open may have raised a few eyebrows.

However, none of these changes will come into effect until this season is done and dusted and the 2010 World Champion is crowned in May. This week's China Open is the penultimate tournament of the snooker year and although competitions in Asia can traditionally be difficult to predict, this one's proximity to the World Championships means that players are fully focussed on the task in hand.

The seeds have had it pretty much all their own way on day one but I fancy an upset or two on the second day. Tony Drago has won 17 of his 22 matches this season to prove that he does still have the ability to mix it with the lower echelons of the top 32. Joe Perry has slipped into that category with a poor season of his own and the Maltese Falcon can make it 18 out of 23 by beating him.

Selection: Back Drago to beat Perry @ [3.1]

Bet 2: Darts - Premier League

Simon Whitlock put in his best performance of the Premier League so far to take maximum points against Mervyn King last week and in doing so moved up to fourth in the league table. One place above him is this week's opponent Ronnie Baxter who also got back to winning ways last week with a win over Raymond van Barneveld.

There appeared to be clear signs that Barney was getting back to his best in recent weeks whilst Baxter had looked to be coming off the boil after his own impressive run of form. Yet 'The Rocket' continued to defy Premier League expectations with another impressive win, and he will have to do so again this week to take all two points.

Although 'The Wizard' has been suffering with a heel injury the new shafts which he has introduced to his darts seem to be counter-balancing the problem. If and when he shakes off this heel problem he will be a fearsome proposition for any player in any tournament including Phil Taylor. Until then he is more than capable of beating Baxter and at the odds on offer I'll be siding with him to do so.

Selection: Back Whitlock to beat Baxter @ [2.4]

Bet 3: Football - Scottish Premier League

When Craig Levein left Tayside to take up position in the dugout of the national team there were fears that Dundee United's season would collapse. And it looked like doing just that when they came away from Ibrox with a 7-1 drubbing in one of Peter Houston's first games in charge.

However, that result turned out to be the catalyst which helped the players forget about the loss of their manger and they have subsequently beaten Rangers to secure a Scottish Cup semi-final place and moved to third in the SPL table. This Wednesday they face fourth placed Hibernian where a win would go a long way to securing European football for next season.

Hibs are on a stuttering run of form having lost to Edinburgh rivals Hearts then exited the Scottish Cup at the hands of Ross County in the last two weeks. On current form they are there for the taking and United have the quality to oblige.

Selection: Back Dundee United to beat Hibernian @ [3.1]