China Championship - Local starlet can outperform enormous underdog status

SNOOKER specialist George Weyham (@GWSnookerTips) couldn't wait to tell us about his best bet from Sunday night's China Championship action.

Stuart Carrington v He Guoqiong | Monday 24th September 2018, 03.30 | Eurosport

Bet365 are the first firm to price up all the first round and pre-qualifying matches for the China Championship that commences in the early hours of Monday morning.

Being the ‘first on the scene', it can open up a can of worms to potential big prices as they have nothing to compare with. That's where I come in here for an early big price fancy in the Stuart Carrington v He Guoqiang match.

Bet365 have Carrington as a 1/50 shot – Betway haven't even priced him up but they do make Guoqiang a 20/1 poke and so Carrington a nigh-on certainty in their eyes for this best of nine contest.

However, I think they have looked at the young 18-year-old Guoqiang's only match as a wildcard this season – a 5-0 loss to Neil Robertson – a bit too hastily.

Prior to this, Guoqiang won the IBSF World Under 18 Championship in July and later in the week at the U21 version, he knocked in a 147. Nowadays, hitting maximums doesn't make you a great player, it's just one frame, but a world junior title tells another story. This lad must have something.

There's a prolonging conveyor belt of Chinese wonderkids coming through and most of the young Chinese players are very raw but incredibly fearless. One particular ‘unknown', Pu QingSong, took three frames off Stephen Maguire at the Shanghai Masters.

I’m very good friends with someone who knows Carrington personally and he has told me on many occasions how much he hates travelling abroad. This is a long 15+ hour flight to Guangzhou. Plus, unless he's spoken to Neil Robertson, he won't have much of a clue what Guoqiang is like.

Carrington is a quality player, and his scoring power alone is always a huge weapon. But he has struggled and lost previously in these types of matches against unknown players. He's no world-beater, and definitely no Neil Robertson. Calmer waters for Guoqiang.

It's a shot in the dark, but 20/1 in a two-horse race here is far too big. If Bet365 had done a bit of research, like me, He Guoqiang would be a third of the price. I can't see 20/1 surviving until the weekend.