Barbican battle-line

The star-studded spectacular will be staged at the Barbican Centre from December 2 to December 15, the same period it was held with brilliant success last year when York held the tournament for the first time.

All the top players in the world will be in the line-up of 32 players who start out on the quest for a share of the total prize fund of £746,900 - the same as last year and the second richest event of the snooker season behind the World Championship.

The winner will pocket £100,000 and on top of the scheduled prize money there is £25,000 up for grabs for a maximum break during the televised stages and £5,000 for a maximum break before the televised stages.

BBC television covered the later rounds last December and will be there again this time, broadcasting from York every day from December 7 to the finish.

The dates of this year's UK Championship appears in the year's newly issued schedule of tournaments issued by World Snooker, the sport's governing body.

The qualifying rounds for this season's major tournaments started this week at Burton-on-Trent. The first qualifying round for the preliminary round UK Championships started with Pickering's Paul Davison in the field.

The event is hosted by City of York Council as owners of the Barbican Centre.

Ronnie O'Sullivan is the defending UK champion. He trounced Irishman Ken Doherty 10-1 in a one-sided best of 19 frames final last year at the end of two weeks of dramatic and exciting snooker.

In the third round O'Sullivan came from 6-1 down to beat Peter Ebdon 9-8 and on the same night Mark Williams came from 8-5 down to beat Stephen Hendry 9-8.

As a new venue for international snooker York was a great hit with all the players and officials, who were delighted with the Barbican, saying it was an ideal venue for snooker.

Further details of the event, including ticket sales, will be announced nearer the time of the championship.

Updated: 12:38 Friday, September 06, 2002