The UK Championship is a professional snooker tournament, the second biggest tournament after the World Championship.
The UK Championship was first held in 1977 as the United Kingdom Snooker Championship, an event open only to British residents. Patsy Fagan won, beating Doug Mountjoy by 12 frames to 9, to win £2000.
The rules were changed in 1984 to allow all professionals to enter (although until 2005, only players from
The tournament has seen many memorable finals. In 1977 and 1979 it provided Patsy Fagan and John Virgo, respectively, with their first and only major tournament wins. In 1980, it was Steve Davis's first of his 73 professional tournament wins. In 1981, the Davis-Terry Griffiths final 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
In 1988, Doug Mountjoy, widely viewed as just making up the numbers against the rising Stephen Hendry, produced a stunning display of character and ability to win 16-12 and become the second-oldest ever winner of a ranking event; even more astonishingly, he was to win the Mercantile Credit Classic the following month to become one of only four players ever to win two ranking tournaments in a row.
Stephen Hendry's 1989 win prefigured his decade of dominance similar to the one prefigured by
The 2001 final is important as Doherty was on the receiving end of the worst loss in UK Championship final history (since it became a 19 frame final in 1993), as Ronnie O'Sullivan (who, in 1993, became the youngest ever winner of the event, and indeed any event, at just 17 years of age) eased to a 10-1 win. Astonishingly, just three years later Stephen Maguire repeated the feat against David Gray. 2002 was Doherty's last
The 2005 tournament saw Davis reach his first ranking tournament final for almost two years at the age of 48 (and make his highest break in tournament play for 23 years) before losing 10-6 to 18-year-old Ding Junhui in the final that featured the widest age gap between finalists in professional tournament history. 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 2007 final was won by Ronnie O'Sullivan for the fourth time, again with some ease, winning 10-2 in the final against Stephen Maguire. The tournament was also notable for the longest televised frame in history between Marco Fu and Mark Selby at 77 minutes and Ronnie O'Sullivan's maximum 147 break in the deciding frame of the semi-final.
The tournament has had many different sponsors over the years including Coral, Tennents, StormSeal, Royal Liver Assurance, Liverpool
Winners
Year Winner Runner-up Final score Venue Season
Super Crystalate UK Championship (non-ranking)
1977 Patsy Fagan Doug Mountjoy 12 - 9
Coral UK Championship (non-ranking)
1978 Doug Mountjoy David Taylor 15 - 9
1979 John Virgo Terry Griffiths 14 – 13
1980 Steve Davis Alex Higgins 16 - 6
1981 Steve Davis Terry Griffiths 16 - 3
1982 Terry Griffiths Alex Higgins 16 - 15
1983 Alex Higgins Steve Davis 16 - 15
Coral UK Championship (ranking)
1984 Steve Davis Alex Higgins 16 - 8
1985 Steve Davis Willie Thorne 16 - 14
Tennents UK Championship (ranking)
1986 Steve Davis Neal Foulds 16 - 7
1987 Steve Davis Jimmy White 16 - 14
1988 Doug Mountjoy Stephen Hendry 16 - 12
Stormseal UK Championship (ranking)
1989 Stephen Hendry Steve Davis 16 - 12
1990 Stephen Hendry Steve Davis 16 - 15
UK Championship (ranking)
1991 John Parrott Jimmy White 16 - 13
Royal Liver Assurance UK Championship (ranking)
1992 Jimmy White John Parrott 16 - 9
1993 Ronnie O'Sullivan Stephen Hendry 10 - 6
1994 Stephen Hendry Ken Doherty 10 - 5
1995 Stephen Hendry Peter Ebdon 10 - 3
UK Championship (ranking)
1996 Stephen Hendry John Higgins 10 - 9
Liverpool Victoria UK Championship (ranking)
1997 Ronnie O'Sullivan Stephen Hendry 10 - 6
1998 John Higgins Matthew Stevens 10 - 6
1999 Mark Williams Matthew Stevens 10 - 8
2000 John Higgins Mark Williams 10 - 4 Bournemouth 2000/01
UK Championship (ranking)
2001 Ronnie O'Sullivan Ken Doherty 10 - 1 York 2001/02
PowerHouse UK Championship (ranking)
2002 Mark Williams Ken Doherty 10 - 9 York 2002/03
Travis Perkins UK Championship (ranking)
2003 Matthew Stevens Stephen Hendry 10 - 8 York 2003/04
2004 Stephen Maguire David Gray 10 - 1 York 2004/05
2005 Ding Junhui Steve Davis 10 - 6 York 2005/06
Maplin UK Championship (ranking)
2006 Peter Ebdon Stephen Hendry 10 - 6 York 2006/07
2007 Ronnie O'Sullivan Stephen Maguire 10 - 2 Telford 2007/08
2008 Shaun Murphy Marco Fu 10 - 9 Telford 2008/09
Pukka Pies UK Championship (ranking)
2009 Telford 2009/10
Eurosport also provide coverage of the event.