It will be the first time we have seen any BBC coverage since Mark Selby won the World Championships at the beginning of May (or it will be when they pick up the live coverage from the start of the Last 64 on Saturday). They now have tough rivalry from Eurosport who have been doing very good studio coverage from the first two home nations events, while the recent Champion of Champions on ITV4 was a high point with Stephen Hendry joining Alan McManus, Neal Foulds and Clive Everton.
The format for this event has changed somewhat in recent years but now of course matches are the best-of-11 frames right from the first round through to the semi-finals with the final being the usual best-of-19 frame affair. The set-up will also be the same as recent years with four tables being situated in the main arena at the York Barbican, with another four being placed in the "Sports Hall" in another area of the venue for the first couple of rounds.
Tuesday to Thursday is when the last 128 round will be played, before a rest day on Friday to prepare things for the start of the main TV coverage from Saturday with the Last 64. This years defending champion is Neil Robertson after he made a 147 break on the way to defeating Liang Wenbo comfortably in the final a year ago. He will be fresh after skipping the Irish Open, as will reigning World Champion Mark Selby, 2015 World Champion Stuart Bingham and 2011 UK Champion Judd Trump after their decisions to do the same.
Once again the draw is seeded so seed 1 plays 128 and 64 plays 65 in the first round with this layout carrying forward right the way through, so let's take a look at what sort of match-ups that has provided.
Quarter 1
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Neil Robertson Vs Peter Lines
Alfie Burden Vs Chris Wakelin
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh Vs Liam Highfield
Peter Ebdon Vs Wang Yuchen
Mark Williams Vs Jason Weston
Andrew Higginson Vs Hossein Vafei Ayouri
Ricky Walden Vs Fang Xiongman
Dechawat Poomjaeng Vs Scott Donaldson
Matthew Stevens Vs James Cahill
Michael White Vs Fraser Patrick
Xiao Guodong Vs John Astley
Joe Perry Vs Jamie Barrett
Mike Dunn Vs Darryl Hill
Matthew Selt Vs Michael Georgiou
Li Hang Vs Rhys Clark
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Boonyarit Kaettikun
The top section in the draw features plenty of big names. Following a quarter-final at the recent Northern Irish Open Mark Williams will be hoping that this has turned around his form and that he can have a good run in York. Ricky Walden needs a run in York to get back into the top 16 for the Masters, and that is more than possible as he has twice made the semi-finals of the UK Championship in 2011 and 2013. Joe Perry will also be hoping not to suffer another of his early exits after a loss in the Last 32 of the Northern Irish Open. Elsewhere, Ronnie O'Sullivan may well see it that he is defending the title he won here in 2014 after not entering the UK Championships last year when Neil Robertson was the victor. O'Sullivan lost a tight contest at the Irish Open in the Last 16, after making the final of the Champion of Champions. Over the longer format of best-of-11 frames matches O'Sullivan could have another good run this week and is certainly a contender to capture another UK crown. It is hard to pick someone who could come from the outside in a quarter full of so many top players but young Michael White who made scored very heavily on the way to the Irish Open quarter-finals last week and he could certainly be in with a chance if things go in his favour.
My quarter choice in the first quarter though is defending champion Neil Robertson. Robertson has a good record over recent years of the UK Championship in York. A player of his quality who scores as well as he does is always going to be tough to handle over longer format matches, as opposed to best-of-7 contests when it can be anyone's game. Winning the UK title twice in three years is always going to make the Australian tough to rule out. I think he should get through the early rounds comfortable enough if he's playing well before the possibility of a match up with O'Sullivan. He has beaten O'Sullivan on a few occasions in the past but will be desperate to get one up on him after a 6-0 semi-final loss at the European Masters when they last met. The thing that stood out in Robertson's win last year at the Barbican is how comfortably he got through many matches, which the long format can allow you to do. Taking a week off seemed like it was much needed after a couple of poorer results and he will certainly be ready to go, and you would be a fool to rule him out.
My quarter choice in the first quarter though is defending champion Neil Robertson. Robertson has a good record over recent years of the UK Championship in York. A player of his quality who scores as well as he does is always going to be tough to handle over longer format matches, as opposed to best-of-7 contests when it can be anyone's game. Winning the UK title twice in three years is always going to make the Australian tough to rule out. I think he should get through the early rounds comfortable enough if he's playing well before the possibility of a match up with O'Sullivan. He has beaten O'Sullivan on a few occasions in the past but will be desperate to get one up on him after a 6-0 semi-final loss at the European Masters when they last met. The thing that stood out in Robertson's win last year at the Barbican is how comfortably he got through many matches, which the long format can allow you to do. Taking a week off seemed like it was much needed after a couple of poorer results and he will certainly be ready to go, and you would be a fool to rule him out.
Quarter Choice: Neil Robertson
Quarter 2
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Ding Junhui Vs Igor Figueiredo
Joe Swail Vs Ross Muir
Alan McManus Vs Michael Wild
Jamie Jones Vs Eden Sharav
Ali Carter Vs Christopher Keogan
Robbie Williams Vs Akani Songsermsawad
David Gilbert Vs Adam Duffy
Mark Joyce Vs Lee Walker
Jack Lisowski Vs Mei Xiwen
Martin Gould Vs Gareth Allen
Rory McLeod Vs Jak Jones
Marco Fu Vs Josh Boileau
Jimmy Robertson Vs Thor Chuan Leong
Mark Davis Vs Sydney Wilson
Oliver Lines Vs Martin O'Donnell
Judd Trump Vs James Wattana
Elsewhere in the top half of the draw, there are another load of top players. Martin Gould narrowly missed out on the semi-finals of the UK Championship a year ago when he lost out to David Grace, and will be looking for another good run this week. Marco Fu may have reached the quarter-finals of the UK Championship in the last two years but he has not made it past the Last 32 of a full ranking event in the first half of this season so far, which is incredibly poor form for someone inside of the top 16. Ali Carter played in one of the most memorable matches of the last few years in York, when he lost 9-8 to Shaun Murphy in the 2012 semi-finals, and after winning earlier in the season he will be hoping to follow that up with his first ever Triple Crown tournament win because he is more than capable. Carter also had a week off instead of playing the Irish Open, which I hope was to prepare for the UK Championships and not because of serious matters. Ding Junhui cannot do any worse than his Last 128 exit in the UK Championship a year ago and his recent record in the UK Championships is certainly not the best in this weeks field for a player of his quality. As for possible outsiders in this quarter, Mark Davis made the York semi-finals in 2012 and the quarter-finals in 2014 so he has a good record here and is more than capable if the draw opens up.
My second quarter choice though is 2011 UK Champion Judd Trump. Trump for me has showed signs this season that he could be ready to win a lot more tournaments and perhaps dominate the game in years to come. A winner at the European Masters, he then reached the English Open final and the International Championship semi-finals in consecutive weeks to follow and was scoring for fun. His tactical play has obviously come on a lot since he was UK Champion in 2011, and this showed more in his run to the final in 2014 when he was very unlucky not to beat Ronnie O'Sullivan. He is a bit hit and miss in this event following his win in 2011 with a first round exit in 2012 and then losing in the Last 32 again last year from a comfortable position, but for me he seems to have ironed out some of these frailties and a large percentage of the time, someone will have to play very close to their best to knock him out of a tournament. There is no one in this section he will fear until a potential quarter-final with Ding Junhui, but there are a lot of ifs and buts for both players before we can look forward to that potential match-up. Like Robertson, Trump did not play in Belfast and should be fresh and ready for a big tournament at the Barbican.
My second quarter choice though is 2011 UK Champion Judd Trump. Trump for me has showed signs this season that he could be ready to win a lot more tournaments and perhaps dominate the game in years to come. A winner at the European Masters, he then reached the English Open final and the International Championship semi-finals in consecutive weeks to follow and was scoring for fun. His tactical play has obviously come on a lot since he was UK Champion in 2011, and this showed more in his run to the final in 2014 when he was very unlucky not to beat Ronnie O'Sullivan. He is a bit hit and miss in this event following his win in 2011 with a first round exit in 2012 and then losing in the Last 32 again last year from a comfortable position, but for me he seems to have ironed out some of these frailties and a large percentage of the time, someone will have to play very close to their best to knock him out of a tournament. There is no one in this section he will fear until a potential quarter-final with Ding Junhui, but there are a lot of ifs and buts for both players before we can look forward to that potential match-up. Like Robertson, Trump did not play in Belfast and should be fresh and ready for a big tournament at the Barbican.
Quarter Choice: Judd Trump
Quarter 3
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Stuart Bingham Vs Adam Stefanow
Yu DeLu Vs Nigel Bond
Luca Brecel Vs Adiyta Mehta
Mark King Vs Sam Craigie
Barry Hawkins Vs David John
Fergal O'Brien Vs Zhang Yong
Stephen Maguire Vs Cao Yupeng
David Grace Vs Zhao Xintong
Michael Holt Vs Kritsanut Lertsattayatthorn
Zhou Yuelong Vs Duane Jones
Stuart Carrington Vs Yan Bingtao
Liang Wenbo Vs Kurt Dunham
Dominic Dale Vs Sanderson Lam
Graeme Dott Vs Ian Preece
Robin Hull Vs Jamie Cope
Shaun Murphy Vs Itaro Santos
Both of the home nations champions from this year appear in the draws third quarter, with English Open champion and last years UK Championship runner-up Liang Wenbo being joined by Northern Irish Open champion Mark King who won his first ever ranking title in some style in Belfast. Barry Hawkins was the man that King overcame in the final, and he will be hoping that his run in Northern Ireland will lead to a better showing in the UK Championships after consecutive Last 64 exits in 2014 (from 5-0 up famously) and 2015. Despite this Hawkins could be a major contender this week. As could Stephen Maguire who has a good record in recent years at the UK Championship, making the semi-finals in 2014 as well as the quarter-finals the year before that. This year marks eight years since Shaun Murphy won the UK Championship and he will be hoping to bag another one this year in York. He has lost in the Last 16 three years running in York, and will be hoping to call on form that saw him make the quarter-finals of the International Championship and semi-finals of the China Championship rather than the first round exits that followed in the Champion of Champions and Irish Open. In terms of dark horses for this section Michael Holt could be one of them. Holt has beaten Ronnie O'Sullivan twice this season to make the quarter-finals in Shanghai and Daqing after reaching the Riga Masters final early on in the season.
Who could top all of those players? Well my choice for the quarter is Stuart Bingham. Bingham made the semi-finals of the 2013 and 2014 UK Championships as well as the 2012 quarter-finals. After the trials and tribulations of last season when Bingham struggled under the weight of being World Champion, this season has been a much better display. Three semi-finals in Shanghai, Manchester and Daqing before a loss in the final of the China Championship to John Higgins who played stunning snooker to clinch the match. Having not won since his world title and now seeming to be in much better form, Bingham is long overdue a ranking win. Given his good record in recent years of the UK, and the fact he was a frame away on two occasions from making the final, Bingham is a hard man to count out this week. A relatively tough draw could well sharpen him up for the latter stages, because you would still expect him to come through the early rounds. Having taken the week of the Northern Irish Open off, Bingham should be rested up after a tiring run of good results in England and in China, and ready to go again here.
Who could top all of those players? Well my choice for the quarter is Stuart Bingham. Bingham made the semi-finals of the 2013 and 2014 UK Championships as well as the 2012 quarter-finals. After the trials and tribulations of last season when Bingham struggled under the weight of being World Champion, this season has been a much better display. Three semi-finals in Shanghai, Manchester and Daqing before a loss in the final of the China Championship to John Higgins who played stunning snooker to clinch the match. Having not won since his world title and now seeming to be in much better form, Bingham is long overdue a ranking win. Given his good record in recent years of the UK, and the fact he was a frame away on two occasions from making the final, Bingham is a hard man to count out this week. A relatively tough draw could well sharpen him up for the latter stages, because you would still expect him to come through the early rounds. Having taken the week of the Northern Irish Open off, Bingham should be rested up after a tiring run of good results in England and in China, and ready to go again here.
Quarter Choice: Stuart Bingham
Quarter 4
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
John Higgins Vs Alex Borg
Ken Doherty vs Noppon Saengkham
Ben Woollaston Vs Elliot Slessor
Gary Wilson Vs Paul Davison
Mark Allen Vs Chen Zhe
Rod Lawler Vs Anthony Hamilton
Ryan Day Vs Jimmy White
Kurt Maflin Vs Allan Taylor
Anthony McGill Vs Craig Steadman
Tian Pengfei Vs Zhang Anda
Sam Baird Vs Sean O'Sullivan
Kyren Wilson Vs Mitchell Mann
Tom Ford Vs Hammad Miah
Robert Milkins Vs Hamza Akbar
Ian Burns Vs Daniel Wells
Mark Selby Vs Andy Hicks
The bottom quarter is where we find a number of contenders for the title. Anthony McGill made the quarter-finals of the UK Championship two years ago and seems to enjoy the longer format as his performances in the World Championships would show. Mark Allen was a finalist in the UK's in 2011 but has not reached those highs since then in this tournament. Recent showings with semi-finals at the China Championship and Champion of Champions as well as a quarter-final despite not playing his best under the pressure of being the home player at the Northern Irish Open. Allen could certainly be a contender if he keeps that going here. John Higgins is going to be a tough man to stop having won back to back titles at the China Championship and Champion of Champions as well as making a maximum 147 break on the way to the Irish Open Last 16 when his winning run was ended. His recent UK Championship has not been as good since he won the 2010 but that should not stop him having a good run this time around. Then there is the World champion and World number one Mark Selby who comes into this week in good form. After a win earlier in the season in Furth, he followed that up by winning the International Championship played over a similar format to this year. He took the week of the Irish Open off to prepare for this event, and why would he not after making a least the semi-finals in three of the last four years, winning the title in 2012 and coming close to defending it in 2013. Selby is another who cannot be ruled out in York.
My final quarter selection though is young star Kyren Wilson. Wilson has impressed me with how he has played in a number of tournaments since coming through with his Shanghai Masters win over a year ago. The 2016 World Championships was a clear indicator that he could compete at the top level over a long format. With a run to the semi-finals at the Northern Irish Open last week, including impressive wins against Ronnie O'Sullivan (who made three centuries against Wilson in that match) and then another gritty deciding frame win over Mark Williams, Wilson has certainly sharpened himself up for York. Having had three weeks off, not entering the International and failing to qualify for the two invitationals, Wilson will be fresh and hungry for success and having gotten rid of any rust there was in Belfast, he should be ready for another good run like one's we saw at the World Championship, and at Indian Open in the early stages of the season.
Quarter Choice: Kyren Wilson
Overall Winner Selection: Stuart Bingham
That is all of my build-up for the UK Championships starting on Tuesday afternoon in York.
If you are a fan of my statistical work you can view my Stat Attack here:
http://cueactionsnookerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/uk-championships-stat-attack.html
Or my earlier Tournament Top Ten blog on this page:
http://cueactionsnookerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/uk-championships-tournament-top-ten.html
Otherwise I will back to preview the Last 64 and the start of the TV stages before on Friday's rest day at the Barbican.
That is all of my build-up for the UK Championships starting on Tuesday afternoon in York.
If you are a fan of my statistical work you can view my Stat Attack here:
http://cueactionsnookerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/uk-championships-stat-attack.html
Or my earlier Tournament Top Ten blog on this page:
http://cueactionsnookerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/uk-championships-tournament-top-ten.html
Otherwise I will back to preview the Last 64 and the start of the TV stages before on Friday's rest day at the Barbican.
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