The 1996 UK Championship was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place at the Guild Hall in Preston, England. The event started on 15 November 1996 and the televised stages were shown on BBC between 23 November and 1 December 1996.
Stephen Hendry won his third UK Championship in a row and fifth overall by defeating John Higgins 10–9 in the final. Hendry led 8–4, fell behind 8–9 after Higgins won 5 frames in a row, and then breaks of 82 and 77 in the last two frames was enough for Hendry to get the victory. Ken Doherty made the highest break of the tournament with 141.
Tony Drago made the fastest century break in a ranking event with a time of 3 minutes 31 seconds.
Prize fund The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below: Winner £70,000 Runner-up £37,000 Semi-final: £18,500 Highest break £5,000
Main draw
Top half
Bottom half
Final Final: Best of 19 frames. Referee: Len GanleyThe Guild Hall, Preston, England, 1 December 1996. Stephen Hendry 10–9 John Higgins First session: 32–72 (69), 78–32, 105–14 (74), 16–65 (64), 80–28, 108–8 (102), 115–14 (115), 36–70, 4–93Second session: 73–4 (73), 61–33, 108–0 (108), 59–66, 39–68, 32–96, 29–62 (54), 12–62, 82–0 (82), 77–0 (77)115 Highest break 69 3 Century breaks 0 7 50+ breaks 3
Century breaks
141, 140 Ken Doherty 141, 133, 122, 106, 106, 104 Andy Hicks 140, 115, 108, 108, 104, 103, 102 Stephen Hendry 138 Darren Clarke 136, 118, 105, 100, 100 Paul Hunter 135, 132, 109 James Wattana 135, 109 John Higgins 135, 106 Jason Weston 132, 113 Nigel Bond 131 Shokat Ali 130 Tony Chappel 130 Steve Newbury 124, 119, 106, 104 Mark Williams 122, 103 Tony Drago 122, 102 Marcus Campbell 116 Karl Broughton 115 Tai Pichit 111, 100 Anthony Hamilton 110 Peter Ebdon 110 Ronnie O'Sullivan 109, 107 David Gray 109, 101 John Parrott 109 Stephen Lee 108 Jonathan Birch 105 Joe Johnson 104 Gary Wilkinson 102, 102, 100 Terry Murphy 102 Tony Jones 102 Billy Snaddon 101 Quinten Hann
References