Solid +4

Despite a 147 from Steve Hendry in yesterdays Welsh Open action, he couldn't stop himself losing to Stephen Maguire and as far as Europa League games go, they're deadlier than early rounds of our League cup.
All in all, another no score draw for the page.
Today we're trying another tactic, we're going with a solid short priced 6 timer to try and boost our weekend funds, then adding a further 4 selections to make merry with.

Solid:

John Higgins Welsh Open v Matthew Stevens
Ding Junhui Welsh Open v Ali Carter
Leicester City 90 mins v Bristol City
Olympique Lyonnais 90 mins v Nancy
Leeds Rhinos 80 mins v Hull FC
Jurgen Melzer Open13 v Dmitry Tursunov

11.77 Stan James 11.75 Paddy Power 11.54 Betfred 11.20 SportingBet

+4:

Mark Williams Welsh Open v Stephen Maguire
Jo Wilfred Tsonga Open13 v Mikhael Youznhy
Fc Nurnberg 90 mins v E.Frankfurt
St.Helens 80 mins v Salford City Reds

64.44 BetFred 64.19 Stan James 61.63 Paddy Power 59.55 SportingBet

Not all of the "Solid" 6 are gimmes, though you would be confident of Leicester continuing their good form v Bristol City tonight. The Foxes sit top of the Championship form table with a 3-0-0 home record, scoring 10 conceding 4.
Lyon have not lost in 9 home games v Nancy and need the win to claw back some ground on the 4 clubs above them in Ligue 1.
Nurnberg are a real leap of faith, they are in good form compared to Frankfurt but recent meetings between the 2 are littered with low scoring draws apart from Nurnbergs 07/08 double over Eintracht.
Melzer may have gone close to being the most improved player on the tour last year despite his 28 year age and Tursunov could probably count semi final appearances in the last 12 months on one hand.
Tsonga's record v Youznhy stands at 2-2 but the two in the Russians favour come from injury walkovers and Tsonga has been in fine fettle in 2011.
John Higgins currently sits at number 1 in snookers World rankings and should be confident of seeing off a somewhat resurgent Matthew Stevens(which we seem to say the same time every year before Worlds in April, then he disappears again.)
Carter has a lot of decent form over the last 6 months but with Junhui breaking the shackles of that first big win, there's a feeling the fllodgates may open and he could be worth an investment in Newport for the outright.
Mark Williams is in fine form, some of the best of his ditinguished career, he's in the plus four due to Maguire being a bit of a spoiler for me over the years.
Early season Super League form can be decidedly dodgy but Leeds have beaten Hull, home and away for the last 3 seasons and Salford are still waiting for new signings to be cleared to play giving St.Helens a nice easing into their campaign.
Apart from Williams(13:00) and Tsonga(17:30) all other fixtures kick off after 19:00.