UK Snooker Championship: the York years

2001: Rocket Ronnie O’Sullivan demolished Dubliner Ken Doherty 10-1 in York’s first UK Snooker Championship final.

Describing the match as a “bit of an anti-climax”, O’Sullivan claimed the £100,000 prize pot in a desperately one-sided affair – racking up 875 points to Doherty’s 219.

Doherty didn’t get going at any stage of the final, despite a confident 95 that levelled the match in the second frame, and the world number four’s game was blighted by basic errors and missed pots.

O’Sullivan only needed to score one century on his way to victory, and the triumph saw the Chigwell potter become only the fifth player to hold both the UK and world crowns at the same time.

2002: Mark Williams beat Ken Doherty 10-9 in a dogged, gruelling duel which could have gone either way.

From 3-2 down, Williams hit back to lead the Irishman 5-3 going into the interval. But Doherty won the evening’s first three frames for a 6-5 advantage. Williams hit back with a magnificent 119 break – the only century of the final – before going two ahead at 9-7 with winning efforts of 74 and 78.

Doherty, in fighting form compared with 12 months previously, took the match to a deciding frame with a fine 79 in the 18th but, at 28-17 ahead in the last, saw the white roll into a pocket and Williams finished the job with a break of 70.

2003: Welsh dragon Matthew Stevens won a ranking tournament for the first time in his career with a tense 10-8 victory over Stephen Hendry.

The world number nine fought back from 4-0 down against the game’s greatest player, who had looked invincible after establishing a dominant early lead. But a 66 break in the fifth frame, after Hendry had been among the balls, was the turning point for Stevens, who embarked on a run of five successive frames – including a 137 clearance in the seventh.

The Scot took the first three frames of the evening session and went on to lead 7-6 but, on 61 in the 14th, he failed to pot a black off the spot and Stevens stepped in to clear up and level the match.

After winning the next two to leave him one away from the title, Hendry made it 9-8 with a superb 120, before Stevens picked off the colours in the following frame to pocket the £84,500 first prize and his first major crown.

2004: David Gray was totally outclassed as Stephen ‘On Fire’ Maguire smashed him 10-1.

The Scot swept aside his hapless opponent with a brilliant display of potting – taking only 20 minutes to finish the job in the evening session after ending the afternoon leading 8-1.

Gray was rarely in with a shout after losing the fourth frame to go 3-1 down.

When Maguire knocked in successive century breaks of 110 and 131 to establish his huge advantage, it was all over bar the shouting. And he completed his quest for snooker’s second most prestigious trophy with a showcase 122 break, his tenth century plus break of the tournament.

“To win 10-1 is incredible, a dream come true. I couldn’t believe it when I was 8-1 up,” said the new champion, who pocketed £70,000 and added to his European Open victory earlier in the year.

2005: Chinese sensation Ding Junhui ended Steve Davis’ dreams of a fairytale victory with a 10-6 win.

A resurgent Davis had picked off Stephen Hendry and defending champion Stephen Maguire on his way to the final but found the teenage Ding, who had electrified the York audience with his displays of potting, too tough a nut to crack.

Junhui’s world ranking of 63 made him the lowest ranked player to have won the crown and his sharp long potting and clever tactical play proved too good for six-time world and UK champion Davis, whose phenomenal form of the previous two weeks deserted him in the final.

Davis fought hard to be only 5-3 down at the end of the afternoon session but the only time in the evening that he looked anything like the player he was in getting to the final was when he knocked in a winning 72 break to cut the deficit from four frames to 8-5 behind.

2006: Peter Ebdon wore down Stephen Hendry to win 10-6 in the last final York was to stage before the tournament switched to Telford.

As a match it was hardly a classic, but the edgy, nervy affair generated its own excitement and it was Ebdon who composed himself the best to take the title – against the man who beat him the last time he reached a UK final 11 years ago.

His victory had looked a long way away when he found himself 3-1 behind, after Hendry hit breaks of 51 and 59 to put himself in the driving seat. But he emerged energised after the mid-session interval and knocked in efforts of 66, 83 and 135 to move 4-3 ahead.

Hendry took the last of the session and, locked at 4-4, the packed crowd were looking forward to an evening potting feast, but Hendry was woefully out of sorts.

Ebdon took the first three frames of the second session to move 7-4 ahead but he was hardly fluent, while Hendry lost all accuracy on his long potting and was error-strewn with even the most basic of shots.

When Ebdon took the next to lead 8-4 at the mid-session interval it looked a formality he would seize the title but, inexplicably, he then suffered what he termed a “wobble”.

Hendry pulled back to 8-5 following yet another scrappy frame and fired a superb 116 to move just two behind.

But Ebdon composed himself magnificently to take the next and, after Hendry was guilty of missing a very pottable blue, the world number eight struck a magnificent 70 to win his first UK Championship.

Ronnie O’Sullivan plants a smacker on the trophy after winning the 2001 UK Championship in York

Matt Stevens takes the crown in 2003