Sports Relief get one of its first large donations for 2010 campaign

The sponsors of this years World Championship Snooker tournament Bet Fred are to donate £147,000 to Sports Relief following the maximum 147 break achieved by Stephen Hendry in his match on Tuesday at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, the last prior recorded professional 147 break belonged to Ding Junhui in the Maplin UK Championship in December 2008.

Sport Relief’s Head of Fundraising, Karl Reynolds said “We are thrilled that Stephen Hendry’s skill has potted Sport Relief an amazing £147,000. A big thank you to Stephen and Betfred for one of the first donations to Sport Relief 2010.”

The founder of Bet Fred;Fred Done said: “It’s fantastic that Sport Relief are receiving the £147,000 donation and I’m delighted that it was a true snooker legend in Stephen that made the 147 break.”

Match fixing at the Maplin UK Championship?

An unusual amount of bets on the first round match of the Maplin UK Championship in Telford had been taken on the match between Stephen Maguire and Jamie Burnett this prompted bookmakers to suspend betting amidst fears of possible match fixing.

A majority of bookmakers had suspended betting on the match 24 hours before the match took place due to the high quantity of bets that were placed on Maguire, the 2004 UK champion, to beat Burnett, a qualifier, 9-3, as the final score.

Cliff Wilds, head of sport for UK betting company Victor Chandler said “When you get accounts opened in Glasgow to bet frame scores, alarm bells go off. We took no money on 9-2 or 9-4 and that set off alarm bells as well. We suspended betting four days ago“.  Burnett is from Hamilton, Maguire comes from the Milton district of Glasgow.

Burnett was beaten 9-3 and the Scot missed a black in the 12th frame which would have made it 8-4, he denies any wrongdoing