UK Championship

The UK Championship is a professional ranking snooker tournament. It is one of snooker's prestigious Triple Crown events, along with the World Championship and the Masters. It is the second-biggest ranking tournament, after the World Championship. Ronnie O'Sullivan has won the tournament a record seven times, followed by Steve Davis with six titles and Stephen Hendry with five. Ding Junhui is the reigning champion.[1]

UK Championship
Tournament information
VenueBarbican Centre
LocationYork
CountryEngland
Established1977
Organisation(s)World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association
FormatRanking event
Total prize fund£850,000
Current champion(s) Ding Junhui

History

The UK Championship was first held in 1977 in Tower Circus, Blackpool as the United Kingdom Professional Snooker Championship, an event open only to British residents and passport holders. Patsy Fagan won the inaugural tournament by defeating Doug Mountjoy by 12 frames to 9 in the final and won the first prize of £2000. The following year the event moved to the Guild Hall, Preston, where it remained until 1997.[2]

The rules were changed in 1984 when the tournament was granted ranking status and all professionals were allowed to enter. Since then, it has carried more ranking points than any tournament other than the World Championship[2] until being overtaken by the International Championship and China Open, both of which offer a higher number of ranking points based on the amount of money in pounds sterling on offer for winning the event.

The tournament has seen many memorable finals. In 1977 and 1979, it provided Patsy Fagan and John Virgo with their first and only major tournament wins respectively. In 1980, it was Steve Davis's first of his 83 professional tournament wins. In 1981, the final between Davis and Terry Griffiths set the stage for four more final battles between Davis and Griffiths that were to dominate the rest of the season before their unexpected losses in the first round of the 1982 World Championship.

In 1983, Alex Higgins beat Davis 16–15 after having trailed 7–0 at the end of the first session. In 1985, Willie Thorne led Davis 13–10 at the start of the evening session, only to miss a simple blue off its spot and lose 16–14. The victory regenerated Davis's confidence after his devastating World Championship loss; Thorne, on the other hand, never won another ranking title.

In 1988, Doug Mountjoy became the oldest winner of the UK Championship aged 46 years old when he was widely viewed as just making up the numbers against the rising Stephen Hendry, producing a stunning display to win 16–12. Even more astonishingly, he was to win the Mercantile Credit Classic the following month, which at the time made Mountjoy only the fourth player to win two ranking tournaments in a row. This made him the second oldest ranking event winner after Ray Reardon (50).

Stephen Hendry's 1989 win prefigured his decade of dominance similar to the one prefigured by Davis's win in 1980; its significance was emphasised by the fact that the losing finalist was Davis himself. Hendry's 16–15 win the following year, over Davis again, spoke to his unique qualities of nerve. The Hendry/Ken Doherty final of 1994 is considered by many players as one of Hendry's best performance, as he won 10–5 making 7 century breaks along the way, six of which were in the span of eight frames played. Doherty has appeared in two more memorable finals.

In 1993, Ronnie O'Sullivan became the youngest-ever winner of the tournament (and any ranking tournament) aged just 17 years old . Eight years later, in 2001, he delivered the final's best winning margin since it had become the best of 19 frames in the 1993 tournament, beating Ken Doherty 10–1. Three years later, in 2004, Stephen Maguire repeated the feat against David Gray. Doherty almost won the tournament in the 2002 final against Mark Williams, but lost 9–10 in a dramatic deciding frame.

The 2005 tournament saw Davis, aged 48, reached his first ranking tournament final for almost two years and make his highest break in tournament play for 23 years. In a match that featured the widest age gap between finalists in professional tournament history, he lost 6–10 to the 18-year-old Ding Junhui. The following year, Peter Ebdon won the title and, in doing so, became the first and only man to have both won and lost a World and a UK Championship final to Stephen Hendry. The event offered £500,000 prize money, with the winner receiving £70,000.

In 2007, the tournament was won by Ronnie O'Sullivan for the fourth time, again with some ease, as he beat Stephen Maguire 10–2 in the final. The tournament was also notable for the longest televised frame (77 minutes) between Marco Fu and Mark Selby and Ronnie O'Sullivan's maximum 147 break in the deciding frame of the semi-final. The 2009 final saw the reigning world champion John Higgins lose to Ding Junhui, after he missed the brown and the chance to go 8–6 in front.

The 2010 final turned out to be another dramatic match, instantly described by many commentators as an all-time classic. At one point, John Higgins, playing in his first major tournament after the end of a six-month ban for his involvement in match-fixing discussions, was 5–9 down to Mark Williams. However, he won the next two frames. At 7–9, Williams led by 29 points with only 27 on the table, leaving Higgins requiring a snooker to remain in the tournament. Higgins got the snooker and cleared the colours. Another frame won by Higgins took the match to the decider. Finally, with only brown, blue, pink and black left at the table, Higgins potted the brown into a top pocket by playing cross-double across the long axis of the table and then added a difficult long blue and equally difficult pink, thereby winning the frame and thus the tournament by 10–9. In the emotional post-match interview, he described his win as his finest hour and dedicated it to his terminally ill father.[3]

In 2011 the event returned to the Barbican Centre in York,[4] and the matches until the quarter-finals were reduced to best of 11 frames.[5] In 2013 a 128-player flat draw was used, with all players starting in the first round and all rounds played at the Barbican venue. The tournament was contractually due to stay at the Barbican Centre until 2013,[6] but it also hosted the event in 2014.[7] The 2014 event changed the format once again, with every round up to and including the semi-finals being played over best-of-11 frames.[8] This tournament saw yet another classic final, as Ronnie O'Sullivan won his fifth title 10–9 over 2011 winner Judd Trump, who had recovered from 9–4 to take the match into a decider.[9]

In 2015, the final featured Australia's Neil Robertson and China's Liang Wenbo, the first time that a UK Championship final had been contested between two overseas players.[10] The 2016 final between Selby and O'Sullivan saw five century breaks in the final six frames of the match as Selby won 10–7. The next two editions of the tournament - in 2017 and 2018, were captured by O'Sullivan who became the first player since Stephen Hendry in 1996 to successfully defend the UK title. In addition, O'Sullivan set a new record for most UK titles with seven.

Between 2012 and 2018, the event has been won by either Neil Robertson, Mark Selby or Ronnie O'Sullivan. Selby (2012 & 2016) and Robertson (2013 & 2015) both have two wins in that period while O'Sullivan has won 3 times (2014, 2017 & 2018). The final line ups of 2013 and 2016 featured a combination of these three players. In the former, Robertson defeated Selby and in the latter Selby beat O'Sullivan.

The tournament has had many different sponsors over the years, including Super Crystalate, Tennents, StormSeal, Royal Liver Assurance, Liverpool Victoria, PowerHouse, Travis Perkins, Maplin Electronics, Pukka Pies, 12BET.com,[2] williamhill.com,[11] Coral,[12] and Betway.[13] It is one of the tournaments televised by the BBC and it is held towards the end of each calendar year.

Winners
Sources: cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk,[2] World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (worldsnooker.com),[14] Snooker Scene (snookerscene.co.uk),[15] snooker.org[16]
Year Winner Runner-up Final score Season Venue
UK Championship (non-ranking)
1977 Patsy Fagan Doug Mountjoy 12–9 1977/78 Tower Circus in Blackpool
1978 Doug Mountjoy David Taylor 15–9 1978/79 Preston Guild Hall in Preston
1979 John Virgo Terry Griffiths 14–13 1979/80
1980 Steve Davis Alex Higgins 16–6 1980/81
1981 Steve Davis Terry Griffiths 16–3 1981/82
1982 Terry Griffiths Alex Higgins 16–15 1982/83
1983 Alex Higgins Steve Davis 16–15 1983/84
UK Championship (ranking)
1984 Steve Davis Alex Higgins 16–8 1984/85 Preston Guild Hall in Preston
1985 Steve Davis Willie Thorne 16–14 1985/86
1986 Steve Davis Neal Foulds 16–7 1986/87
1987 Steve Davis Jimmy White 16–14 1987/88
1988 Doug Mountjoy Stephen Hendry 16–12 1988/89
1989 Stephen Hendry Steve Davis 16–12 1989/90
1990 Stephen Hendry Steve Davis 16–15 1990/91
1991 John Parrott Jimmy White 16–13 1991/92
1992 Jimmy White John Parrott 16–9 1992/93
1993 Ronnie O'Sullivan Stephen Hendry 10–6 1993/94
1994 Stephen Hendry Ken Doherty 10–5 1994/95
1995 Stephen Hendry Peter Ebdon 10–3 1995/96
1996 Stephen Hendry John Higgins 10–9 1996/97
1997 Ronnie O'Sullivan Stephen Hendry 10–6 1997/98
1998 John Higgins Matthew Stevens 10–6 1998/99 Bournemouth International Centre in Bournemouth
1999 Mark Williams Matthew Stevens 10–8 1999/00
2000 John Higgins Mark Williams 10–4 2000/01
2001 Ronnie O'Sullivan Ken Doherty 10–1 2001/02 Barbican Centre in York
2002 Mark Williams Ken Doherty 10–9 2002/03
2003 Matthew Stevens Stephen Hendry 10–8 2003/04
2004 Stephen Maguire David Gray 10–1 2004/05
2005 Ding Junhui Steve Davis 10–6 2005/06
2006 Peter Ebdon Stephen Hendry 10–6 2006/07
2007 Ronnie O'Sullivan Stephen Maguire 10–2 2007/08 Telford International Centre in Telford
2008 Shaun Murphy Marco Fu 10–9 2008/09
2009 Ding Junhui John Higgins 10–8 2009/10
2010 John Higgins Mark Williams 10–9 2010/11
2011[5] Judd Trump Mark Allen 10–8 2011/12 Barbican Centre in York
2012[17] Mark Selby Shaun Murphy 10–6 2012/13
2013[18] Neil Robertson Mark Selby 10–7 2013/14
2014[19] Ronnie O'Sullivan Judd Trump 10–9 2014/15
2015[20] Neil Robertson Liang Wenbo 10–5 2015/16
2016[21] Mark Selby Ronnie O'Sullivan 10–7 2016/17
2017[22] Ronnie O'Sullivan Shaun Murphy 10–5 2017/18
2018[23] Ronnie O'Sullivan Mark Allen 10–6 2018/19
2019[24] Ding Junhui Stephen Maguire 10–6 2019/20

Stats

Finalists
Rank Name Nationality Winner Runner-up
1 Ronnie O'Sullivan  England 7 1
2 Steve Davis  England 6 4
3 Stephen Hendry  Scotland 5 5
4 John Higgins  Scotland 3 2
5 Ding Junhui  China 3 0
6 Mark Williams  Wales 2 2
7 Doug Mountjoy  Wales 2 1
Mark Selby  England 2 1
9 Neil Robertson  Australia 2 0
10 Alex Higgins  Northern Ireland 1 3
11 Terry Griffiths  Wales 1 2
Jimmy White  England 1 2
Matthew Stevens  Wales 1 2
Shaun Murphy  England 1 2
Stephen Maguire  Scotland 1 2
16 John Parrott  England 1 1
Peter Ebdon  England 1 1
Judd Trump  England 1 1
19 Patsy Fagan  Ireland 1 0
John Virgo  England 1 0
21 Ken Doherty  Ireland 0 3
22 Mark Allen  Northern Ireland 0 2
23 David Taylor  England 0 1
Willie Thorne  England 0 1
Neal Foulds  England 0 1
David Gray  England 0 1
Marco Fu  Hong Kong 0 1
Liang Wenbo  China 0 1
  • Active players are shown in bold.

Champions by country
Country Players Total First title Last title
 England 9 21 1979 2018
 Scotland 3 9 1989 2010
 Wales 4 6 1978 2003
 China 1 3 2005 2019
 Australia 1 2 2013 2015
 Ireland 1 1 1977 1977
 Northern Ireland 1 1 1983 1983
gollark: ++remind 1h <@319753218592866315> Were you NOT going to go to sleep?
gollark: :ferrisBongo:
gollark: :ferrisGlasses:
gollark: :rust:
gollark: And not actual regexes.

References
  1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/42301866
  2. Turner, Chris. "UK Championship". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 16 February 2012. Retrieved 1 March 2011.
  3. "Higgins – My Finest Hour". worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Retrieved 13 December 2010.
  4. "UK Championship to return to York Barbican". worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
  5. "UK Championship (2011)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 12 October 2011.
  6. "York Return for UK Championship". World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Retrieved 8 May 2012.
  7. "York Snooker Tickets on Sale". World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. 28 April 2014. Retrieved 31 August 2014.
  8. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/snooker/30080548
  9. http://www.worldsnooker.com/page/NewsArticles/0,,13165~4352524,00.html Archived 14 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  10. "Robertson sets up final date with Liang at UK Championship". RTÉ Sport. 5 December 2015. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  11. "williamhill.com To Sponsor UK". World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Archived from the original on 2 December 2011. Retrieved 30 November 2010.
  12. "Coral To Sponsor UK Championship". worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. 20 November 2014. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
  13. http://www.worldsnooker.com/page/NewsArticles/0,,13165~4608877,00.html
  14. "UK Championship Event History". worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  15. "UK Championship". Snooker Scene. Archived from the original on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
  16. "Hall of Fame". Snooker.org. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  17. "williamhill.com UK Championship (2012)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 8 October 2011.
  18. "williamhill.com UK Championship (2013)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  19. "Coral UK Championship (2014)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  20. "Betway UK Championship (2015)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  21. "Betway UK Championship (2016)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  22. "Betway UK Championship (2017)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
  23. "Betway UK Championship (2018)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 26 November 2018.
  24. "Betway UK Championship 2019". World Snooker. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
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