The 1997 UK Championship (officially the 1997 Liverpool Victoria UK Championship) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place at the Guild Hall in Preston, England. The event started on 12 November 1997 and the televised stages were shown on BBC between 22 and 30 November 1997. This was the last UK championship to be held in Preston, where the event was held since 1978. The following year's competition was held in Bournemouth.
Ronnie O'Sullivan defeated Stephen Hendry 10–6 in the final, ending Hendry's run of three successive UK championship wins. O'Sullivan had been the last player other than Hendry to win the event, as a 17-year-old in 1993. The highest TV break of the competition was 137 made by Stephen Lee and it was worth £5,000.
Prize fund The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:
Winner: £75,000 Runner-up: £39,000 Semi-final: £19,750 Quarter-final: £10,800 Last 16: £5,500 Last 32: £3,450 Last 64: £2,900 Last 96: £1,400
Stage one highest : £1,500 Stage two highest : £5,000 Total: £440,000
Main draw
Top half
Bottom half
Final Final: Best of 19 frames. Referee: John WilliamsThe Guild Hall, Preston, England, 30 November 1997. Stephen Hendry (1) 6–10 Ronnie O'Sullivan (7) First session: 103–29 (89), 75–37, 13–78 (78), 10–115 (78), 63–44 (57), 88–16 (67), 28–67, 73–21 (68), 33–98 (98)Second session: 23–75, 0–89 (89), 0–72, 0–79 (54), 0–82, 80–1, 17–70 (70)89 Highest break 98 0 Century breaks 0 4 50+ breaks 6
Qualifying
1st Round Best of 11 frames
PlayerScorePlayer Michael Judge (56) 3–6 John Read (86) Euan Henderson (44) 1–6 Sean Storey (82) Jamie Burnett (38) 6–1 Craig MacGillivray (159) David Finbow (39) 4–6 Troy Shaw (131) Tony Jones (60) 6–3 John Lardner (130) Paul Davies (48) 6–4 Steve Judd (92) Jason Prince (42) 6–4 Matthew Couch (94) Graeme Dott (33) 5–6 David Gray (152) Joe Johnson (52) 3–6 Quinten Hann (104) Anthony Davies (61) 3–6 Dean Reynolds (51) 6–3 Stephen O'Connor (106) Shokat Ali (59) 6–4 Karl Payne (77) Jason Ferguson (37) 5–6 Ian McCulloch (76) 6–3 Jamie Woodman (71) Dennis Taylor (34) 6–2 Wayne Brown (99) Jonathan Birch (45) 6–0 Mark Gray (150)
PlayerScorePlayer Karl Broughton (41) 6–2 Lee Walker (79) David Roe (49) 4–6 Karl Burrows (78) Paul Hunter (43) 6–3 Nick Walker (67) Mark Bennett (50) 6–4 Darren Clarke (84) Dominic Dale (54) 6–5 Alfie Burden (122) Drew Henry (40) 5–6 Bradley Jones (80) Jimmy Michie (55) 5–6 Peter Lines (90) Mark Davis (47) 5–6 Paul Wykes (69) Tony Chappel (46) 5–6 Marcus Campbell (97) Chris Scanlon (64) 6–4 Joe Perry (123) Willie Thorne (36) 6–2 Peter McCullagh (162) Wayne Jones (58) 6–4 Leigh Griffin (143) Gerard Greene (62) 6–5 Ian Brumby (101) Stefan Mazrocis (65) 5–6 Lee Richardson (105) Dene O'Kane (35) 6–2 Stuart Pettman (87) Nick Pearce (57) 4–6 Gary Ponting (85)
Century breaks
143, 121, 120, 105, 100 Matthew Stevens 138, 129, 119, 115 Anthony Hamilton 137, 121, 119, 115 Stephen Lee 136 Jamie Burnett 134, 115 Peter Ebdon 131 David Gray 130, 126, 113, 107 Alan McManus 130, 100, 100 Quinten Hann 130 Dean Reynolds 124, 113, 105 Ronnie O'Sullivan 124 Mark Bennett 122 Peter Lines 119, 116, 110, 108 Darren Morgan 119 Andy Hicks 116, 114 Bradley Jones 116 Stuart Pettman 115 Mark Williams 113, 100 Ian McCulloch 112, 111 Karl Burrows 108, 106, 105, 101 Martin Dziewialtowski 108 Tony Chappel 107 Rod Lawler 106 Drew Henry 105 Stephen Hendry 104 Jason Prince 103 Shokat Ali 103 Stephen O'Connor 102 John Higgins 102 Gary Wilkinson 100 Mick Price 100 Marcus Campbell 100 Dene O'Kane
References