UK Snooker Championship / Paul Krishnamurty / 13 December 2008 /

Paul Krishnamurty files another daily bet from Telford - and it's bad news for Stuart Bingham.

Only nine spots separate Mark Allen and Stuart Bingham in the provisional world rankings, but I can only see that gap widening considerably over the months and years to come. Whereas Allen is one of the very best emerging players, highly likely to be winning an event soon, Bingham hasn't looked a threat to the top-16 for some time.

In fact, those rankings are partly due to their fortunes at the last World Championship, but here the results are misleading. Allen played some of the best snooker of the entire fortnight, only to lose a a classic opening round match in the deciding frame to Stephen Hendry. Bingham earned many more points by progressing to the last-16, but owes that to landing the plum first round draw against Steve Davis.

Bingham did nothing special to win that match, and this season's form offers no encouragement. He's only won the one match, against another struggling opponent; this time Peter Ebdon. Bingham's challenge last time out in Bahrain ended in double-quick time when losing 5-0 to Matthew Stevens. In contrast, Allen reached the semis, playing some excellent snooker. Expect another quick-fire win tomorrow, with Allen strongly fancied at 1.5 to progress, and at 2.3 on the handicap giving up 2.5 frames.

RECOMMENDATION

MARK ALLEN @ 1.5
MARK ALLEN @ 2.3 (-2.5 FRAMES)

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