Selby, Robertson, Wenbo and Amazing Grace make up York final four

Mark Selby, Neil Robertson, Liang Wenbo and David Grace are through to the semi-finals of the UK Championship in York after a thrilling Friday of snooker in the quarter-finals at the Barbican. Mark Selby had by far the easiest day of the four winning his evening match with Matt Selt 6-1. Selby was clinical and capitalised on his opponents errors after winning a lengthy opening frame. The fourth frame looked key as Selt had a chance to square things up at 2-2 but when it went 3-1 to Mark at the interval you felt that was game over, and despite chances for Matt in the remaining frames he could not put the world number one under any pressure.

Selby will now play Neil Robertson who came through an exciting deciding frame finish against International champion John Higgins. John started with a century but Robertson made a century of his own and a break of 71 along with two other 50+ breaks to take a 4-1 lead. John hit back with a 69 and his second century to close in at 3-4. Neil edged one away at 5-3 but another 134 from Higgins and a 66 break forced the decider. Both guys missed key balls but it was Neil that made the early running in the decider and a missed green from the Scot cost him a chance at one of his "classic" clearances, as the Australian goes through to his third meeting in four years against Selby at the UK Championship.

Liang Wenbo also came through a final frame in his match against Marco Fu to put himself into the last four. Wenbo was on fire early on starting the match with three magnificent century breaks to lead 3-0 and it looked like it could be four centuries on the trot before he missed on 49 and Fu cleared with 64 to get his first frame on the board. Marco also took the first frame after the break but Liang was soon back on top and a run of 67 helped him to go one away and seemingly cruising to victory at 5-2. Liang had chances to get over the line in frames eight and nine, but Marco stayed strong to win three on the trot and make it 5-5. Liang had the best chances of the decider and a magnificent long pot gave him the opportunity needed to finally cross the line and make the semi-finals.

The final match to finish on the day was by far the best as David Grace came from 5-1 behind to beat Martin Gould 6-5. Gould was on fire in the match making two centuries on the way to securing such a commanding lead in the match and it very much looked like Dave's run would be over. Grace cleared to win on the black in the next, before an in-off in frame eight on the brown cost Gould his chance at the match. He had plenty of other chances thereafter but could not put anything substantial together. The decider was the most amazing phase of the match as David put a 61 point lead together and only needed one of the remaining five reds to win the match but he missed a pretty straightforward shot and let Martin back into it. He then made 30 but failed to get on the final red but did collect 28 points in fouls after a couple of difficult snookers Grace couldn't get out of. Eventually it was Martin who potted the final red but missed the black to the middle and David cleared the five colours he needed to clinch a superb comeback victory.

Quarter-Final Results:

David Grace 6-5 Martin Gould
Liang Wenbo 6-5 Marco Fu
Neil Robertson 6-5 John Higgins
Mark Selby 6-1 Matt Selt

Semi-Finals Preview

Liang Wenbo Vs David Grace - Quite simply the biggest game of both players lives. Wenbo is aiming for his second major final, and first in the UK while Grace had never made a ranking quarter final before this week. For Liang Wenbo it also comes as a chance to get himself in the top 16 for the Masters and knock Michael White out of 16th position with the £70,000 he would be guaranteed for making the final. As for David Grace he has already massively boosted his chances of saving his tour spot, which before the UK Championships looked pretty bleak. Another win here would guarantee his safety. Liang Wenbo has had arguably the toughest draw and has already come through some real nail biters. Against Judd Trump he came from 4-1 down with five frames in a row to win 6-4, before winning three in a row from 5-3 down against Tom Ford. Today against Marco Fu he was in sensational form starting with three consecutive centuries, but after he missed on 49 in the fourth things began to go backwards and even though he consolidated from 3-2 to lead 5-2 he lost the next three but somehow held his nerve once again. You cannot question the bottle of either of these players, but in terms of putting themselves into the winning position tomorrow you have to say that Liang has been scoring much the better of the two players and will certainly go out as the favourite tomorrow. With some of the displays we've seen from Liang i'm starting to think that this is his week.

Prediction: Wenbo to end Grace's dream 6-3.

Mark Selby Vs Neil Robertson - This is the one we have all been waiting for. Another potentially classic meeting between Mark Selby and Neil Robertson. These two players met in the quarter-finals of the 2012 UK Championship and what happened there with Robertson crumbling to a 6-4 defeat from 4-0 up, and then at the Masters just a month later as Selby recovered from a past midnight finish against Graeme Dott, got a few red bulls in him and went on to thrash Robertson really 10-6, shaped a new Neil. He came back a lot stronger and showed his metal by beating Selby to land the 2013 UK title, as well as also beating him in the World Open quarter-finals, the China Open final and the Australian Open semi-finals in the lead up to that. They've not met as much since then with Selby grabbing their last two major meetings in the 2014 World Championship semi-final, and more recently in the quarter-finals of this years International Championship. Neil Robertson Vs Mark Selby is probably my favourite fixture in modern snooker especially when they're both in the form of this week. Robertson has been flying and scoring for fun against the top players Maguire and Higgins particularly. Selby has been scoring pretty well at times, but has also taken advantage of his opponents mistakes when he's had to and been in grinding mode at times. The thing with these two is that you always fancy Neil Robertson as the favourite, but there is just something about Selby that is able to get these results. Many would have expected him to win the 2012 UK quarter final, 2013 Masters final and 2014 world semi-final but he managed to win neither of those and I simply think that is because Neil can get caught up with playing the player some times. It seems like he gets caught into Selby's game plan to grind him down and Mark knows deep down that he can beat him this way. The only worry for Mark is whether he can take his chances but he has been going pretty well on that front this week and if he can stop Robertson from having his trademark long pots then he has a chance.

Prediction: Selby to edge a late night thriller 6-5.


A cracking line-up is left for the semi-finals, with Selby and Robertson the particular highlight on Saturday evening (possibly what Saturday nights were made for) while Liang Wenbo and David Grace are battling for the right to make it through to have a crack at winning their first ever ranking event knowing that they will be playing a former UK champion if they are to do so. It remains best-of-11 for the semi-finals and I will be back for more to preview the best-of-19 frames final which is to come over two sessions on Sunday with my usual correct score prediction.

Selby and Robertson ease through, while Murphy is beaten by Fu

Mark Selby and Neil Robertson eased into the Quarter-Finals of the UK Championship with simple victories over Dechawat Poomjaeng and Stephen Maguire. The pair seemed to be very close to their best in 6-1 victories over their respective opponents. Robertson made three centuries after losing the first frame to a century against Stephen Maguire, while Selby looked like a changed man to the one who nearly went out to Jamie Jones, while Poomjaeng could not complete the same heroics that saw him come from 5-0 down in the Last 32 against Mark Joyce.

Shaun Murphy lost 4 of the last five frames from 3-2 ahead against Marco Fu to go out to an impressive performance from his opponent for the second year running, and at the same stage of the UK Championships for the third year in a row. Liang Wenbo is Fu's next opponent after he completed more comeback heroics against Tom Ford. He was 2-0 down early on before levelling at 2-2 at the mid-session break, but soon found himself 5-3 behind. Ford had chances in the remaining frames but Liang was dominant and came back to win 6-5, inducing load cries of "COME ON".

David Grace has gotten to the quarter-finals of a full ranking event for the first time after he beat a very under par Peter Ebdon 6-2. Ebdon could not get into the match early and despite levelling at 1-1 he lost all of the next four missing straightforward shots and failing to put anything together. In fact at 5-1 up David Grace's pot success was only 84% which is very low for the last 16 of a major but it didn't matter as he was able to hang on and get the win. Meanwhile, Matt Selt has also made it into the quarter-finals to deny young Luca Brecel his second appearance in the last 8 of the UK's. Brecel started brightly taking a 3-1 interval lead before losing all of the next four frames as his long potting in particular went astray. He did manage to pull a frame back to trail 4-5 but was not able to take his chances to force a final frame and Selt ran out a 6-4 victor.

Martin Gould was pretty comfortable in the end as he beat Joe Swail 6-3. Martin trailed after a scrappy opening 2-1, but started to find his range as he took the next four in a row to lead 5-2. Swail was able to get one frame back, but despite the chances he had in the match, could not make it any closer. John Higgins was not as comfortable when he took on Jamie Burnett. The signs were good early as John took 3-0 and 4-1 leads but he started to lose focus and Jamie took advantage of his failings to win the next three and level at 4-4. He had good chances in frame nine and frame ten but John capitalised on his opponents errors with a century and a cool clearance to take out the match, much to his relief.


Last 16 Results:

David Grace 6-2 Peter Ebdon
Martin Gould 6-3 Joe Swail
Liang Wenbo 6-5 Tom Ford
Marco Fu 6-4 Shaun Murphy
Neil Robertson 6-1 Stephen Maguire
John Higgins 6-4 Jamie Burnett
Matt Selt 6-4 Luca Brecel
Mark Selby 6-1 Dechawat Poomjaeng

Quarter-Final Preview: (Picks in Bold)

Martin Gould Vs David Grace - You would not have necessarily made these two the favourites to get to the quarter-finals at the start of the event but they have both played well and come through some tight matches to make it here. Gould has beaten Mark Allen most notably and looked in good form scoring well but also looking sharp in the safety department, which is one of his biggest recent improvements. David Grace has come out of nowhere in the sense that I have not really expected him to win a single one of his matches as yet, and his ranking event best was the Last 16 which he made in the Shanghai Masters in September as the beneficiary of a Last 32 walkover. He has played well this week at times, though he did not really have to in the last round against Peter Ebdon who was incredibly under par. Grace is going to have to step it up if he is to beat Martin here as he has been improving all year, as shown by his appearances in the World Grand Prix semi-finals and the Australian Open final and another couple of wins in this event are certainly not out of reach.

Marco Fu Vs Liang Wenbo - Marco Fu and Liang Wenbo have both been very impressive in this tournament so far but particularly in the last couple of rounds. Fu played very well in defeating Shaun Murphy, though was aided by his opponent missing a few of his usual attacking shots. Liang Wenbo has been the comeback king so far this week in his wins over Judd Trump, 6-4 from 4-1 behind, and Tom Ford, 6-5 from 5-3 down. In fact in every single one of his matches he has won at least three frames in a row so can reel frames off with big breaks as well as any player. Both players will have their eyes on not just the semi-finals but making it to a major final and you would not begrudge either one of them of that. Marco deserves another crack at a major final, particularly after his heart breaking loss in the 2008 UK final, while it would be great to see a character like Liang go on and get to major final and go on to win it also. Wenbo is a quality player and it is not as often as others that he actually shows this. He is playing well this week and proving very tough to beat this week, while Marco did miss a few balls against Murphy looking to close the match out which is very unusual for Fu. This is certainly one match that could go either way.

Neil Robertson Vs John Higgins - This is by far the match of the round, and amazingly the first time that these two guys have met each other in a ranking event since the 2013 Wuxi Classic final. That almost shows the timeline of John in the year in a half after that final, as it took him so long to get back to his best. Now he seems to be there though he is proving a tough match for everyone and will certainly be so again here for Neil. Robertson has been flying in the last two rounds against Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Stephen Maguire making centuries for fun, just as did on the way to winning the title back in 2013, and blowing his opponents out of the water. For me Robertson is a massive favourite to win the title if he can carry his form on for the next three rounds and John knows his safety and scoring will have to be on top form which they were not in the middle of his match against Jamie Burnett when he lost four out of five frames from 3-0 and 4-1 to 4-4. Only the consistent levels of performance shown in the International Championship will do here otherwise it will be Neil making the semi-finals.

Mark Selby Vs Matt Selt - Right at the bottom of the draw world number 1 Mark Selby seemed to be back at the top of his form against Dechawat Poomjaeng as he was in the first two rounds, before what can only now be seen as a blip against Jamie Jones. His scoring and safety have looked good in the matches he has won convincingly while his battling qualities have been outstanding once more when they have had to be, making him very hard to beat. In fact he is probably playing better now than when he won the UK title in 2012, where he had to hang on in a number of matches throughout the competition. Matt Selt has reached another ranking event quarter-final, but is yet to go one better than that in a full ranking event so it will be interesting to see what he does on this occasion. Selt has not really played his best this week and has had to grind and scrap his way through the draw, waiting for dips in his opponents performances which he got against Robbie Williams and Luca Brecel as it appeared that they both had chances throughout the match. One thing he will have to do here is play much better as there is no way to really grind Selby down and his experience in the latter stages of tournaments is far too great to lose to anything over than Matt's very best game.


Again, with four non-top 16 players into the quarter-finals there are still some huge opportunities for certain players to really make a move in the rankings with £30,000 guaranteed for those making the last four, a jump of £10,000 on what quarter-final losers will take home. With all of these matches taking place on Friday we will soon have a fantastic idea of who the favourites are for this tournament, with 2012 and 2013 champions Mark Selby and Neil Robertson standing out so far, but plenty of others (particularly in the top half of the draw) have a great chance to stake their claims and put a new name on the trophy as the 2015 champion.

Bingham and Trump beaten, while Selby survives

Stuart Bingham was knocked out in the Last 32 of the UK Championships by former champion Peter Ebdon in what was an excellent performance from Peter after finishing his Last 64 match at 1.30am on the same day. Ebdon started well and went into an early 3-1 lead. From there though Bingham came within a single frame on two occasions but Peter managed to keep his nose in front winning a key frame eight to go 5-3 up before finishing the match with a century.

Judd Trump was a victim to a performance that you could describe as a machine like one. For the opening few frames he played wonderful stuff and Wenbo was unable to pot a ball in the opening three frames as he went 3-0 down. A 78 from Liang kept him in it at the interval but another 50+ break put Judd 4-1 ahead and seemingly cruising. That was when the machine turned off. From there Judd missed plenty of easy balls and bad positional shots and gave Liang plenty of chances (particularly in the last two frames) in order to come back and fall over the line a 6-4 winner.

Mark Selby meanwhile pulled off a Houdini like performance to beat Jamie Jones, despite two centuries from Jones and a very poor performance of his own. Selby was 2-0 down early and could have lost the opening four frames but somehow found himself level at 2-2. He then trailed 3-2, and 4-3 and could've trailed 5-3 but he managed to win the eighth frame after needing a snooker on the pink. In the tenth he managed to escape from a poor position again as Jamie Jones needed only the last red and after laying a nasty snooker he must have thought he was in with a great chance but it wasn't to be as Selby cleared and then made a nice break to win the decider.

On Tuesday, Mark Allen fell to Martin Gould after a good performance from Martin who is trying to better his runners up position in the seasons opener in Bendigo. His next opponent is Joe Swail who was a surprisingly comfortable winner against Michael Holt 6-1, showing that Joe's recent laser eye surgery has worked wonders on his game while Holty was very disappointed with his display in that one on Monday night.

Monday afternoon also saw a comfortable win for John Higgins 6-2 against Ali Carter, who said afterwards that he was suffering from abdominal pain caused by the Chrone's disease he suffers with and said that that makes a big difference against players like John. Roughly 24 hours afterwards Shaun Murphy was a comfortable 6-2 winner himself against Ben Woollaston in another good performance from the Magician as he has now only dropped 4 frames on the way to the Last 16.

As well as the drama with Judd tonight, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh missed the final black for a 147 in his match against Neil Robertson which would have been worth £44,000 to the Thai player. Overall, it was a good display that included a new tournament high break of 145 to come through a 6-2 winner. Marco Fu also came through avenging his International Championship quarter-final loss to David Gilbert winning 6-3.

The big result though was the final one to come in after Dechawat Poomjaeng with his brilliant character and all the rest of it beat Mark Joyce from 5-0 behind. This was a result that Nigel Bond achieved against Barry Hawkins last year and it really affected Barry's game and without Mark Joyce having the same liberties of being ranked so high and having that to fall back on, I hope the same does not happen to Joyce now.

Last 32 Results:

Peter Ebdon 6-3 Stuart Bingham
David Grace 6-4 Jack Lisowski
Martin Gould 6-4 Mark Allen
Joe Swail 6-1 Michael Holt
Liang Wenbo 6-4 Judd Trump
Tom Ford 6-1 Kyren Wilson
Marco Fu 6-3 David Gilbert
Shaun Murphy 6-2 Ben Woollaston
Neil Robertson 6-2 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Stephen Maguire 6-4 Mark Davis
Jamie Burnett 6-3 Li Hang
John Higgins 6-2 Ali Carter
Luca Brecel 6-2 Robin Hull
Matt Selt 6-3 Robbie Williams
Dechawat Poomjaeng 6-5 Mark Joyce
Mark Selby 6-5 Jamie Jones

Last 16 Preview: (Picks in Bold)

Peter Ebdon Vs David Grace - To lead the Last 16 draw we have a big match for both players. One of Peter Ebdon, David Grace, Martin Gould or Joe Swail will be in the semi-finals of this years tournament and given where each player is ranked they could get a huge boost with a minimum of £30,000 for getting to the last 4. David has been flying so far in the tournament with crushing wins against Higginson and Milkins before beating Jack Lisowski and so far he seems to be riding a wave, playing without a care in the world. On TV in a the biggest match of his entire career by a long stretch this is going to be hugely different though. Peter has the experience needed to get over the line in these situations and by beating Stuart in the last round he has shown that he still has what it takes to cut it on TV at the top level and you have to make him the favourite to win here because once again he appears to have found some form.

Martin Gould Vs Joe Swail - This is the second of many massive matches in the draw, for reasons I mentioned above and these two are pretty evenly matched. In the last round Martin was able to get on top of Mark Allen with good safety play and then take his chances as they came along, scoring well as always. Joe Swail was on form as well against Michael Holt as he was in round one against Joel Walker and it can be put down to the laser eye surgery that has not only improved the key to snooker of eyesight, but also must have really raised his self-confidence. He knocked in some great long pots against Holty but still needed plenty of chances to kill it off. If Martins safety is as good as it was against Allen he will not necessarily get those chances and have to score much better otherwise Gould's good form will carry him through.

Liang Wenbo Vs Tom Ford - Yet another significant game here for two guys outside of the top 16 to get into a major quarter-final and both will be feeling the pressure. Liang certainly felt it needing six good chances in the final frame against Trump to take care of the match, and Judd's poor snooker and easy misses really let him right back in from a position where the situation looked pretty helpless. Tom Ford has been flying this week so far. He has scored heavily in every single round, coming from 5-3 down to beat Mark Williams and then thrashing in form Kyren Wilson 6-1. He says he is feeling as good as he has in a long time and the results and breaks he is knocking in really are showing that. Even though Liang has been good in the tournament to this point, and Ford will be under a different kind of pressure and expectation in a big TV match, you feel Wenbo will have to bring it up a notch to get victory here.

Shaun Murphy Vs Marco Fu - This is a big match for a totally different reason. If either play has looked at the draw (Shaun always says he doesn't look too far ahead and sometimes I have to tell him who he is playing in the European Tour events) they will know that if they can come through here they would certainly be a favourite in every match between now and the final, not that things are ever that easy. This is also a repeat of an epic match from the Last 16 of last years event where Shaun was 5-3 up and lost, after snookering himself on the yellow when he looked certain to win the decider too. That was a big moment for Shaun in my opinion and he has channelled the frustration created by that loss into winning the Masters and making the World Championship final since then. Now he has a chance to complete the cycle almost as he was playing great coming into that match with Fu last year, but he is striking it even better this year and just as well as he did during the Masters and World's this year. Fu has been going along nicely this week away from the TV tables and has gotten to this stage dropping 5 frames to the 4 that Murphy has. I think Shaun is as focussed and pumped up for this as he was on those Masters and World runs, and when he gets like that he can be unstoppable and will not be underestimating Fu so will have to be at the top of his game to come through, but that almost makes the job even clearer.

Neil Robertson Vs Stephen Maguire - Another blockbuster awaits here between Stephen Maguire and Neil Robertson with both guys playing very well. Both were pushed in their Last 32 encounters, with Robertson having to sit and watch as Thepchaiya nearly made a maximum and came out the next frame with a 145 break, and there has been no problem with his scoring at all. The same is true for Maguire who had to fight hard both in the first round against Jimmy White scoring well to come back into the match, but he made two centuries on the way to victory against Mark Davis. After failing to score a point from 1-4 to 4-4 to finish strong with two more breaks of 50 and above showed that Maguire is certainly not here to make up the numbers in York this week. Since losing to Neil at the last 8 stage in the 2013 UK Championship, he has beaten Neil in the quarter's of the 2014 Masters, 2014 Ruhr Open and the 2015 German Masters so his recent record is good and after a semi-final at last years event I think he could go a lot further this year.

John Higgins Vs Jamie Burnett - John Higgins is still flying with his new found form that saw him win the International Championship a month ago, and he has only dropped 5 frames in reaching this stage of the UK Championships. You would think this match with Jamie should be a breeze but it will not be as simple as that. Jamie has been playing nicely and won his first three matches pretty comfortable with some heavy scoring and he has plenty of experience in these big matches just as John has. Burnett has not had a big match like this for some time though and John will not be in the mood to be giving hand outs as he appears to be on a serious mission in York.

Matt Selt Vs Luca Brecel - This is another incredibly important match for two ever improving players with a place in the quarter-finals at stake. Luca Brecel was on fire in 2012 to make the quarters, while Matts best was a run to the Last 16 last year before running into Ronnie O'Sullivan who whitewashed him with a maximum. Matt has been steadily on the up since then and this would be another big step but to get to this stage he has had to really grind out some results, particularly when nearly losing from 5-2 ahead to Zhang Yong and against Robbie Williams in a tough match. Luca Brecel however is flying. Conditions were tough in his match with Anthony McGill which may have played into Anthony's hands as Luca would prefer a freer flowing game. That was what he got against Robin Hull where he may have benefitted from a couple of Hull's errors but he scored very well to take advantage with a century and two breaks of 80+ to finish the match off after losing the sixth on the black, showing his ability to block these events out. We all know how talented Brecel is and this could the tournament where he really breaks through from the pack. Getting to the latter stages was not something that happened regularly after he nearly made the semi's here in 2012 but a semi-final at this years Welsh Open and some good results on the European Tour has pushed him well and truly back in the right direction and I was impressed with his safety in that run. He is developing nicely and Selt is going to have a real handful here to win.

Mark Selby Vs Dechawat Poomjaeng - This is going to be a fascinating match after two great escapes from both players to get here. Neither should have won in the Last 32 quite frankly as Mark was much the worse player against Jamie Jones, while Dechawat was five down with six to play against Mark Joyce. Mark played very well in his first two games, so I am not entirely sure what happened against Jones. If it is only a minor blip and after coming so close to losing, if he can kick on from here he could easily win the tournament, as his display of grit and determination last night showed two things. The first is how very tough Mark is to beat and the second is how reminiscent it was to some of his displays of character in 2012 when he went on to lift the title. Dechawat Poomjaeng is a tough player to take seriously at times. His results are inconsistent and the 2013 World Championships introduced many of us to his amazing antics and all the rest of his character but he is a good player on his day. Not only was there the comeback against Joyce but he thrashed in form Ryan Day 6-2 in the Last 64 so is clearly going along strongly but Selby may be a step too far.


Now that we are down to a two table set-up for the Last 16, every match will be on TV. This is a massive opportunity for guys like David Grace, Tom Ford, Luca Brecel and Matt Selt amongst others whose appearances on the BBC are few and far between and it will be good for the public to see some new faces on their screens across the next couple of days. With it being two tables, this also means it really feels like we are coming towards the business end of the tournament as the crowd closes in and that should create a great feel for these last five days of the event. With some real quality left in the draw it is still very tough to pick out who will come out on top on Sunday night, and you will all have your favourites wherever you are watching from and I hope you are all enjoying the event.

Next up from me will be a preview ahead of Friday's quarter-finals.

Frustrated stars lose in York

Mark Williams, Joe Perry and Ricky Walden were all left frustrated and somewhat angry by their defeats to lower ranked players in the last 64 of the UK Championships. Mark Williams was left annoyed by his defeat from 5-3 in front to Tom Ford as he felt that poor table conditions and big bounces in particular cost him the win, but he also felt that he'd thrown the match away. Williams lost two frames in the match from 69-0 ahead, the most damaging of which was the tenth frame for Ford to force the decider.

Joe Perry was probably the man with the most controversial comments after his loss to Robbie Williams. He described his match as the most bored he has been whilst playing snooker, saying he was bored after the first two frames that left him at 2-0 behind. He went on to criticise his opponents style and speed of play, saying that more players need to go out and try to win, rather than trying not to lose. Robbie then responded by saying he was aware that Joe did not like slow and negative play and used this as a deliberate tactic (I'll leave the debate on whether that's gamesmanship or not up to you). Joe levelled at 2-2 from 2-0 behind and again at 3-3 before losing the last three frames and the match at 6-3.

Meanwhile, Ricky Walden was left "embarrassed" by his loss as he felt that he is playing some of the worst snooker of his career in terms of how he is striking the cue ball. He also said that "I'm losing to average players because I'm an average player myself" which is quite a damning verdict on his 6-5 loss from 4-1 in front against Li Hang in which Ricky did not make a break of above 50.

Elsewhere, Shaun Murphy and Stuart Bingham were very pleased with their individual performances in their wins on Saturday. Shaun was the most impressive player of the round with two centuries and plenty of other top breaks in seeing off the big threat of Zhou Yuelong easily with a 6-1 win. Anthony Hamilton may have had plenty of chances to get a lot closer to the world champion, but Bingham was pleased to finish off a 6-3 win with the current tournament highest break of 143.

On Sunday it was the turn of World Number 1 Mark Selby who turned on the style against Oliver Lines with a total clearance in the opening frame, and a missed maximum attempt in the last frame of a whitewash win. Judd Trump was a little bit hit and miss in his encounter with Stuart Carrington but Stuart missed the boat on a couple of occasions and Trump eventually went through comfortably. Ali Carter and Michael Holt also had comfortable wins, while the same could not be said for in form Ryan Day who was soundly beaten by Dechawat Poomjaeng (helping out Michael White's Masters position). Mark Allen is another man who is a big contender for this title, and he kept up his cause with a nice win against Michael Georgiou.

Neil Robertson came through comfortably 6-2 against a poor Aditya Mehta on Sunday evening, and Jamie Cope was also poor as Stephen Maguire quickly romped to a 6-0 win. The big result came on one of the non-TV tables as Robin Hull beat Barry Hawkins 6-3 without Hull making a break of above 50, whilst the highest break from Hawkins was a 54 to win the opening frame, whilst a key moment could be frame two where Hull avoided going 0-2 down by winning the frame on pink and black by a point. David Grace also got a massive result as he thrashed Robert Milkins 6-2 to go with his 6-1 win in round one against Andrew Higginson.

Last 64 Results:

Stuart Bingham 6-3 Anthony Hamilton
Peter Ebdon 6-5 Dominic Dale
Jack Lisowski 6-5 Graeme Dott
David Grace 6-2 Robert Milkins
Martin Gould 6-4 Gary Wilson
Mark Allen 6-2 Michael Georgiou
Michael Holt 6-2 Chris Wakelin
Joe Swail 6-5 Adam Duffy
Judd Trump 6-3 Stuart Carrington
Liang Wenbo 6-2 Jimmy Robertson
Kyren Wilson 6-2 Mike Dunn
Tom Ford 6-5 Mark Williams
Marco Fu 6-0 Yu De Lu
David Gilbert 6-5 Gerard Greene
Ben Woollaston 6-5 Ross Muir
Shaun Murphy 6-1 Zhou Yuelong
Neil Robertson 6-2 Aditya Mehta
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 6-5 Fergal O'Brien
Mark Davis 6-3 Ken Doherty
Stephen Maguire 6-0 Jamie Cope
Li Hang 6-5 Ricky Walden
Jamie Burnett 6-3 Alan McManus
Ali Carter 6-3 Daniel Wells
John Higgins 6-2 Tian Pengfei
Robin Hull 6-3 Barry Hawkins
Luca Brecel 6-4 Anthony McGill
Matt Selt 6-4 Sean O'Sullivan
Robbie Williams 6-3 Joe Perry
Mark Joyce 6-2 Sydney Wilson

Dechawat Poomjaeng 6-2 Ryan Day
Jamie Jones 6-1 Xiao Guodong
Mark Selby 6-0 Oliver Lines

Last 32 Preview (Picks in Bold)

Stuart Bingham Vs Peter Ebdon - Stuart Bingham the world champion has started off his campaign in this years UK Championship relatively well. His win against Anthony Hamilton was impressive even if Hamilton did have chances to possibly get on top of Stuart there, a 143 in the last and the clearance in the first frame saw him show his class and that is what he will need to continue doing if he is to win this match and make himself a real title contender. It is a short turnaround however for Peter Ebdon whose match with Dominic Dale finished less than 12 hours before this one is due to begin in the 1pm session on Monday and it really was a battle in that one with neither player able to play with the same ease that they did in round one winning 6-0. However, the short turnaround will not phase Peter who has plenty of experience on the big stage and is always a tough man to beat whatever the tournament or occasion, despite his struggles to get over the line as he displayed in losing to Shaun Murphy at the Shanghai Masters from 4-1 up. Stuart certainly is not going to have it all his own way, but he knows he is playing well enough to deal with a good battle and being pushed after the match on Saturday with Anthony. He will certainly be the fresher of the two players and having played twice on the TV table in the main arena already, he will feel more at home and has a better chance of settling into the match the quicker of the two.

Jack Lisowski Vs David Grace - This is another major opportunity for these two players to get into the Last 16, as both are on the rise. Jack appears to have found a little bit more form at the start of this season with the help of Terry Griffiths and can already boast a win against Ali Carter in the International Championships, but more impressively given his comeback from 5-2 behind, his win this week against Graeme Dott in round two. Jack is scoring well as always but also seems to have grown a little bit more patient and improved a little on his safety and shot selection from what I have seen and heard and that makes him dangerous. David Grace meanwhile has had two great wins this week only dropping three frames in beating Andrew Higginson and Robert Milkins, although it seems like Robert has plenty of chances in the second of those matches and it may have been one of those nights where he didn't fancy it. Overall, this is a huge match and I could see it running very close. Both have proved this week that they have the bottle and it is an incredibly close call, but with signs of his work with Terry coming off I think that Jack Lisowski has the tools to get into the last 16.

Mark Allen Vs Martin Gould - This is all set up to be a brilliant contest between two high scoring and aggressive players. Both guys have had relatively easy starts to the tournament, while Gary Wilson did push Martin Gould in a game that could have gone either way in the end. Mark Allen has just continued his brilliant form of late, and he certainly does not seem like he is ready to let up yet. I constantly say that it is only a matter of time before Mark Allen wins a big tournament in the UK and the way things are shaping up this week and with his present form I can see no reason why that moment could not come in the next week. Gould is always a threat to the top 16 players, but not often enough for his own liking, else he would already be back in the top 16 (or would never have fallen down the rankings in the first place). If he is to beat Mark here I think he will have to be in better scoring form than he showed on Saturday against Wilson.

Michael Holt Vs Joe Swail - Michael Holt is continuing his nice and consistent start to the season, with this being the fourth full ranking event of the season, and if he can beat Swail it will be his third appearance in the Last 16 to go with a Last 32 exit in Daqing to John Higgins. He has played nicely this week too with a century in both of his wins so far, and he was particularly impressive in beating Wakelin so comfortably by winning each of the final five frames. Joe Swail was very convincing when he beat Joel Walker 6-0 in round one, but he did not quite live up to the same expectations against Adam Duffy where based on his scoring that saw him fail to make another 50+ break after an opening frame 88, he appeared to get bogged down. This is a big chance here if Michael can carry on playing well to get another nice run together and Swail will have to be more consistent to win this match.

Judd Trump Vs Liang Wenbo - Here we have one of the contenders for one of the matches of the round and hopefully one of the first exciting televised matches of the week. Liang is a little inconsistent at times but the way he has started off this week, it could be a sign of one of the Chinaman's hot weeks like he had in Berlin in February. Judd meanwhile looked shaky and certainly had issues with his concentration against Stuart Carrington and if he does not sort that out before this contest he is certainly vulnerable to the way that Liang goes about things. Trump could just as easily tune in on the day and blow Wenbo out of the water, and to be a tournament contender you have to come through matches like this with flying colours. If the Chinese takes his chances when they come along, which they certainly will when you play a Judd who seems ready to take plenty of risks this week, then he has a great chance of causing the upset.

Kyren Wilson Vs Tom Ford - Kyren Wilson's impressive form continued in his second round victory against Mike Dunn. Kyren scored well throughout the match once again and was gutted to miss on 88 going for the maximum in the final frame making light of what could have been a tough match indeed there. Tom Ford meanwhile has been in excellent break lol  form and was very stylish in the way he not only came back into the match with Mark Williams from 5-3 down but also to make two 70+ clearances from 69-0 down and to have the bottle to clear in the decider from 50 points down also. He certainly won't give Kyren an easy ride here and I expect this match to go quite close if both are in good form once again. With Kyren riding the crest of a wave right now and progressing with his game and very high on confidence I have to make him my pick here.

Marco Fu Vs David Gilbert - Marco Fu and David Gilbert here looks like an interesting match here but one I have a very clear opinion about. David may have found some form with his Ruhr Open semi-final and International final, but his performance against Gerard Greene in round two will need some improving upon if he is to beat Marco. The man from Hong Kong won the General Cup in his home country and will be after some revenge for his deciding frame defeat to Gilbert in the quarter-final of the International Championship where Fu looked to be in great form and I think he is slowly getting back to his best after quite a slow year in 2015. Against Yu De Lu he was a 6-0 winner scoring heavily and barely giving his opponent (who beat Stuart Bingham 6-2 in Daqing) an inch, winning one of those frames from snookers required on the brown. Marco is another man experienced enough to know how to centre his season around the UK and Masters period and therefore will know to peak at the right time and it would still be a surprise to me if Gilbert came out on top here.

Shaun Murphy Vs Ben Woollaston - Shaun Murphy is looking in amazing form so far this week in York. He has already had three centuries over the course of his two 6-1 wins and looks to me to be playing as well as he has done since nearly capturing a second world title. He'll be spurred on by the disappointments of his last few UK campaigns where he could have gone on so much further into the event. Ben Woollaston meanwhile is lucky to still be here after coming back from 3-0 down in the previous round after his opponent Ross Muir started with three breaks in the 70's before Ben eventually came through the decider. Woollaston will have to hope for an off day from Shaun if he is to have any aspirations of progressing here or to improve upon his own performance which has not quite been as good as he would like so far I would say. This is still a tough match for Shaun but he is playing so well that if he keeps this up then he will get over the line and is a serious contender for the title.

Neil Robertson Vs Thepchaiya Un-Nooh - Again we have another great contender for the match of the round and a tough decision to make on Tuesday night when this match and Trump/Wenbo are on at the same time and I would happily watch both. John Virgo on commentary at the end of Robertson's match with Aditya Mehta rated Neil's performance at 7/10 saying it was average. That sort of sums up the high standards we (or just JV) set for Neil that a performance containing two centuries and a 93 is still considered him not being at his best. His performance to win the Champion of Champions showed he was back close to his very best, but he must be weary of giving his opponent too many chances in this one. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh is a player I rate very highly and I always look for his name in the draw and rate his chances before many other players because I recognise the threat he poses to the top players. His run to the International semi-finals highlighted this to everyone and he certainly has a chance of winning against the odds here. One thing the Thai used to do a lot of is making silly errors but with less of this in his game now the results are starting to come and he scores as heavily as Neil on his day. A man of Robertson's experience should know how to work his opponent down and we could see a more deliberate game plan from Neil prove the real winner on Tuesday.

Stephen Maguire Vs Mark Davis - These two are very closely matched and closely ranked overall and both have played some decent snooker so far. Mark has had a couple of easy wins so far but will not find things as easy against Stephen. Stephen had a scare in round one where he had to play well against Jimmy White who himself found some old form. Then against Jamie Cope, Jamie was poor but Stephen still took his chances well and if he keeps that up he is a contender to go far this week. Mark meanwhile has a good record in York and still has a slim chance of getting back into the Masters so that will be spurring him on, and in any case he is usually a tough opponent to beat. Maguire showed signs in Coventry that he was returning to form and has carried that on here so far.

Jamie Burnett Vs Li Hang - This is one of a few matches in the Last 32 draw where it is a massive opportunity for two players down the rankings to put themselves into the latter stages of an event for the first time in a while or even their careers in the case of Li Hang. Jamie Burnett has also been a while since producing some of his best form but has started this week brightly with some good scoring to get him through two tough games against Sanderson Lam and Alan McManus. Jamie obviously has loads of experience which is where he differs from his Chinese opponent here and that could show if this one goes close in the latter stages. However, Li Hang has already come back to win from both 4-1 down against Walden on Saturday and 4-2 down against Lee Walker in the opening round, so he certainly does not know when he is beat. This really is quite a close match to call, and if it were an event in China then I would probably sway towards Li, but as this is the UK Championship an event where Jamie has far more experience, that makes him my choice here.

John Higgins Vs Ali Carter - Here we have yet another blockbuster of a tie in the Last 32 of the UK Championships. That is certainly not a stage where you would expect two players of John and Ali's class to be meeting, but I do not think that will make a difference to the contest. John has started off his quest for the crown with two convincing wins and good performances on the whole, against opponents that could have given him a tougher time on another day. Ali has had two tough matches against tough opponents in Alfie Burden and Daniel Wells and it does not feel like Carter is necessarily at his best this week. When these two met in the Champion of Champions, Higgins came out on top 4-2 despite two centuries from his opponent but again Carter was not quite at his best and John took advantage. I still feel that there is a way to go before we can say that Ali is back at the top of his game despite his win in Furth in August and that is only natural after everything he has been through. John however, truly is back at the top of his game and when he's like this it takes something truly remarkable to send him packing.

Luca Brecel Vs Robin Hull - This section has been blown wide open with one of Brecel, Hull, Selt or Robbie Williams to feature in a UK Championship quarter-final. Robin and Luca meeting here both came through scrappy affairs but importantly came out on the right side against higher ranked opposition. With the match being played the next day after a late night 12.30am finish for Luca Brecel this may not be ideal for the young lad after what was a hard fought win and this could have a small effect. Robin Hull captured a very nice win against Barry Hawkins without even making a break of above 50, while Hawkins only had one, which was a 54 in the opener. Hull mentioned on Twitter (once translated from Finnish) that the conditions were challenging and I think we can expect a better match against another fluent and usually high scoring player in Luca Brecel. Luca's only break of above 50 in his match with Anthony McGill was a 55 in frame four, which as I say is unusual for him, especially given the fact that it was a best-of-11 match that he came out the right side of. Robin usually goes through phases a couple of times a season since returning to the tour of playing nice snooker and getting some classy wins. This seems like one of those periods now, and he has had to battle hard to get through his two matches against very tough opponents so that stands him in good stead here. Brecel meanwhile has a decent record in the UK Championship making this a very tough call as I believe it could go either way on the day, but with Hull having the experience and the pressure probably being on Luca more to continue his progress in the game, while Hull is on more of a second wind. Robin is also heavily underrated and probably as good as many players in the 20-32 bracket as he really is a class act.

Matt Selt Vs Robbie Williams - This is again an opportunity for guys outside of the top 16 to get into the latter stages and after events in this tournament this will be an incredibly interesting game. Obviously it will be interesting to see if Joes comments affect how Robbie plays or his overall performance. Matt Selt meanwhile will be hoping he can get over a slight blip in form that he had prior to this event and make into the UK Last 16 for consecutive seasons. Matt for me is the stronger player of the two here and I would make him the favourite based on his performances over the last year or two in which he has been much improved and shown he belongs inside the top 32. The key for him now is to continue this progress and make it into more last 16s, quarter finals and beyond starting with a win here.

Dechawat Poomjaeng Vs Mark Joyce - Just like the match before it in the draw, this again is a good opportunity for either Mark or Poomjaeng here to go on. Joyce made the Last 16 in 2012 and has been doing well so far in this tournament. He made light work of Sydney Wilson and has scored well in his matches so far, and seems to have found a little form after making the Last 16 of the Bulgarian Open. Poomjaeng is always a little inconsistent and probably a bit underrated because of his overall antics. He's had a couple of nice results also and been scoring reasonably well, with the best of those coming in round one with two centuries. It's a really tough call here but simply because of some of the Thais inconsistency my pick is Joyce.

Mark Selby Vs Jamie Jones - Mark Selby is another player that is going to take some stopping this week at the Barbican, but Jamie Jones is one man that will certainly not make life a bed of roses for him in this match. Jones gives the top players a fairly decent game more often than not and he has beaten Mark Selby this season, 5-1 in the Australian Open last 16 on the way to losing in the semi-finals in Bendigo. Jones made quite an easy match out of Xiao Guodong winning 6-1 in a game I though would go quite close and making a century on the way. Mark Selby as I said though will take some stopping, and so far he has not lost a frame. He gave Oliver Lines a real lesson today in all departments starting off with a total clearance, and then missing a the 13th black on 97 looking for a 147 break. When he's scoring well it is a great sign for Mark because usually his safety is pretty much there a good amount of the time but he does not always make the big scores when in amongst the balls but so far he has looked impeccable on all fronts and if he keeps that up he is one of the biggest contenders for the trophy this year. His record in York winning on 2012 and being a losing finalist in 2013 certainly vouches for that too.


Despite the amount of top 16 players that have gone out early in this event, we still have a very interesting line-up for the Last 32 which in turn, will produce a Last 16 line-up with many players that we do not always see in these stages, and with the Last 16 going down to two tables from the four table set-up that the Last 32 will be played over, it is a big opportunity for some players to get their faces back out there on the TV after big absences for some in particular.

The Last 32 matches are played over the next couple of days, with the Last 16 games then being played over Wednesday and Thursday and of course I will have another round-up of the action and a preview ready for the Last 16 on Wednesday.

Ding Junhui out in first round of UK Championships as Hawkins and Maguire survive scares

Former UK Champion Ding Junhui is out of this years UK Championships after losing in the Last 128 round to non-tour player Adam Duffy 6-2. This was by far the biggest shock of the first round, with Michael White being the only other top 16 seed to lose in the opening round 6-5 to Sydney Wilson on the same evening as Ding around 15 minutes before Ding's exit on the next table. Apart from a crazy evening for the top seeds on Tuesday it has been pretty plain sailing in the most part, although Barry Hawkins had to come back from the very brink of defeat against Andy Hicks. Not only was Hawkins 3-1 and 5-4 down in the match, but in the decider Hicks potted what would have been match ball on the yellow before unfortunately going in-off and Hawkins ended up winning the match on the last black. Stephen Maguire survived a similar scare against Jimmy White after being 3-1 down early on, but taking a pretty nice lead with four frames on the trot to lead 5-3. However, Jimmy won the next two to force a deciding frame and he did have a chance in the decider too before a Maguire fluke gave him the chance from which he sealed the match. Mark Williams could have made his life a lot easier against Hamza Akbar, losing four out of five frames after taking a 4-0 mid-session interval lead and eventually winning 6-4.

Wednesday saw some of the best comebacks of the week as Aditya Mehta turned around a 4-0 interval deficit to end up beating Sam Baird 6-5, while Jamie Cope came from 4-1 down to beat Rory McLeod in a deciding frame, which was effectively the deciding leg in winning my 30/1 15 fold accumulator on Wednesdays games ending quite a bad losing streak. Arguably the best came on Thursday when Fergal O'Brien was 5-2 down to Thor Chuan Leong, but won the next three to force a decider. They were then taken off with the evening session set to start imminently and had to wait a further 3 hours or more to play the decider but a break of 66 from Fergal did most of the damage earning a 6-5 victory.

I said it had been easy business for most seeds and Shaun Murphy was evidence of this as he cued superbly in beating local lad Ashley Hugill 6-1. John Higgins won 6-1, as too did Stuart Bingham, Judd Trump, Ricky Walden, Joe Perry and Ryan Day while Marco Fu was a 6-2 winner. Neil Robertson got through comfortably in the end 6-3, although he did lead 4-0 at the interval before losing three of the next four and a good clearance in the ninth prevented further nerves for the Australian.

Chris Wakelin and Matthew Stevens went down to the very final black in their match, with Chris eventually depositing it for a nice 6-5 victory. Some of the other seeded players to lose in round one included Mark King, Andrew Higginson and David Morris.

Here are all of the first round results in full from the York Barbican:

Stuart Bingham 6-1 Jordan Brown
Anthony Hamilton 6-4 Peter Lines
Dominic Dale 6-0 Michael Wild
Peter Ebdon 6-0 Lu Chenwei
Robert Milkins 6-0 Vinnie Calabrese
David Grace 6-1 Andrew Higginson
Jack Lisowski 6-4 Zak Surety
Graeme Dott 6-2 Nigel Bond
Martin Gould 6-2 Allan Taylor
Gary Wilson 6-3 Martin O'Donnell
Michael Georgiou 6-5 David Morris
Mark Allen 6-2 Zhao Xintong
Michael Holt 6-4 Fraser Patrick
Chris Wakelin 6-5 Matthew Stevens
Joe Swail 6-0 Joel Walker
Adam Duffy 6-2 Ding Junhui
Judd Trump 6-1 Hammad Miah
Stuart Carrington 6-4 Liam Highfield
Jimmy Robertson 6-4 Lu Ning
Liang Wenbo 6-1 Gareth Allen
Mark Williams 6-4 Hamza Akbar
Tom Ford 6-1 Scott Donaldson
Mike Dunn 6-3 Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon
Kyren Wilson 6-3 Paul Davison
David Gilbert 6-1 Jason Weston
Gerard Greene 6-0 Michael Leslie
Marco Fu 6-2 Hatem Yassen
Yu De Lu 6-2 Michael Wasley
Ross Muir 6-5 Mark King
Ben Woollaston 6-1 Steven Hallworth
Zhou Yuelong 6-3 Craig Steadman
Shaun Murphy 6-1 Ashley Hugill
Neil Robertson 6-3 Alex Taubman
Aditya Mehta 6-5 Sam Baird
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 6-3 Darryl Hill
Fergal O'Brien 6-5 Thor Chuan Leong
Stephen Maguire 6-5 Jimmy White
Jamie Cope 6-5 Rory McLeod
Ken Doherty 6-0 Tony Drago
Mark Davis 6-1 Rhys Clark
Alan McManus 6-5 Eden Sharav
Jamie Burnett 6-1 Sanderson Lam
Li Hang 6-5 Lee Walker
Ricky Walden 6-1 Itaro Santos
Ali Carter 6-4 Alfie Burden
Daniel Wells 6-4 Rod Lawler
Tian Pengfei 6-1 Ian Burns
John Higgins 6-1 Leo Fernandez
Barry Hawkins 6-5 Andy Hicks
Robin Hull 6-4 Zhang Anda
Luca Brecel 6-1 Hossein Vafei Ayouri
Anthony McGill 6-3 James Cahill
Joe Perry 6-1 James Wattana
Robbie Williams 6-3 Mitchell Mann
Sean O'Sullivan 6-3 Kurt Maflin
Matt Selt 6-5 Zhang Yong
Ryan Day 6-1 Duane Jones
Dechawat Poomjaeng 6-4 Chris Melling
Mark Joyce 6-4 Barry Pinches
Sydney Wilson 6-5 Michael White
Xiao Guodong 6-5 Noppon Saengkham
Jamie Jones 6-4 Ian Glover
Oliver Lines 6-2 Cao Yupeng
Mark Selby 6-0 Joe O'Connor

As you can see it has been some effort over the last three days to get through the first round, and for the winners, they'll feel like they are part of the main event, because when they come back tomorrow and Sunday for the second round the BBC and Eurosport will be there as full TV coverage of the event begins. The tournament is continuing to prove popular, even with a shortened format and no Ronnie O'Sullivan playing, as my original UK Championship preview was the second most read piece in my blogs history, the only disappointment in that way is that my tournament winner prediction was Ding Junhui (oops). With that said some people may have waited until before the TV coverage starts to have an outright bet on the event so I will have another go with an "updated" one time only prediction at the bottom on the tournament winner. Before that, I am now going to preview each and every single one of the Last 64 games in detail.

Last 64 Preview: (Picks in Bold)

Stuart Bingham Vs Anthony Hamilton - Stuart Bingham the world champion will be a big favourite once again when he takes on Anthony Hamilton. Hamilton did get a very nice win over Peter Lines, and this game is sure to be on one of the TV tables, something that Hamilton has not been able to say for quite some time and with no regularity. The Sheriff of Pottingham has hardly been on top form over the last couple of years and he is really struggling to keep hold of his tour card so could do with a result here. That will not be easy against Stuart Bingham and with Hamilton not in good form, Stuarts own lack of form should not be an issue if he can carry on with the scoring that saw him get two centuries against Brown in the first round as the scoring is the main part of his opponents game that has gone missing over recent times.

Peter Ebdon Vs Dominic Dale - This match between Ebdon and Dale is very closely matched, especially if you take into account that both players recorded 6-0 victories in the opening round of the competition. You pretty much know what to expect from Peter, his very tight game gives you very little and when he is on scoring form he is really able to take advantage. However, Dominic Dale himself has really found some form this season and that was evident when he thrashed Matt Selt in Daqing, as well as the improved results he has shown in the European Tour events this season. This match is always going to be a close one and it is tough to work out the player that has the edge, as it really is all about how they turn up and play on the day, but in terms of consistency Dominic's has been improved this season and I feel that he will edge this one.

Robert Milkins Vs David Grace - Robert Milkins will be a big favourite again in round two after tearing Vinnie Calabrese apart 6-0 in round one as you would very much expect him to do. David Grace was more of a surprise winner when he beat Andrew Higginson 6-1. Milkins will be looking to improve on a pretty poor season so far and I think he has the opportunity to do that here. Grace is a good player but his results show little consistency as he struggles to ever put more than the odd win together and that is the main reason that is the main difference between these two players and the reason that Milkins has to be my pick to win this one.

Graeme Dott Vs Jack Lisowski - An interesting encounter lies ahead with these two guys and it will be another great test of how Jack Lisowski is progressing under Terry Griffiths coaching. Graeme is always a very tight player and offers his opponents very little to go at, which is why this will be such a big test of Jack as one of the main areas of his game that needed improvement was his shot selection and overall patience instead of trying to force chances in matches like these. Jack has had some good results this season and won a good percentage of matches that you would be expecting him to win, but he is far from beating guys like Dott consistently and he has played a couple of top players this season like Fu and Allen and been beaten on both occasions which is no great surprise. Dott played well in round one to make easy work in the end of what could have been a tough test against Nigel Bond, particularly at 2-1 down, but five frames on the trot gave him the win. Even though this shapes up to be a close match, you would still fancy Graeme to come out on the right side of it.

Mark Allen Vs Michael Georgiou - Mark Allen will be a massive favourite in this match and he should be able to score a pretty comfortable win. Michael Georgiou's 6-5 win in round one against David Morris was hardly convincing and he has failed to win many matches at all since qualifying for the Australian Open right at the very start of the season. Mark Allen meanwhile is in good form and dealt with the threat posed by Zhao Xintong very comfortably in round one and I think things will be just as comfortable against Georgiou if he continues his recent form.

Martin Gould Vs Gary Wilson - Martin Gould and Gary Wilson both managed to pull away at the back end of their first round ties. Gould won all four frames after the interval in a 6-2 win and continued some of the good form that he has displayed at different points in this season. Gary Wilson would have been slightly worried at 3-3 against Martin O'Donnell, especially given the very poor form that Gary has showed so far this season after promising much after his displays at last season's Welsh and China Open's. However, he scored well to get three frames in a row to finish it and that will help his confidence. As I say though, Gould has been far more consistent in this season so far and will be looking to build on that with a win here, which I make him a good favourite to achieve.

Michael Holt Vs Chris Wakelin - The match up between Michael Holt and Chris Wakelin is not necessarily the easiest one to call at first glance. Wakelin is a talented player and scored a very good win against Matthew Stevens in round one, even if I expected him to do that many others would not have. However, that match was far from easy and may have taken a bit out of Chris emotionally coming into this game as he was very fortunate to get through, winning the decider on the black after leading at several points of the game. Michael Holt got off to a slightly slower start in his match against Fraser Patrick, and even though Fraser came back at him well at the back end of the match also, Holty played very well in the middle scoring well and continuing his improved play of this season. He has been far more consistent with results and the general pattern of his season so far is that in each tournament it has taken a very good player and the form horse of the week to beat him. Wakelin does not quite fit the same description, that is not to say he will not break the mould even if I expect him not to this time around.

Joe Swail Vs Adam Duffy (a) - I think that this match-up in the draw is one of the most intriguing ones. Starting with Duffy, he of course was the man who overcame Ding Junhui in the first round, but after a win like that players will always find it difficult to follow that up. That is a very common trend especially if the chances are that they just caught said top player on a day when they looked far from that which was very much the case for Ding on Tuesday. Joe Swail meanwhile beat Joel Walker 6-0 in a match that I and many people would have expected to be closely fought. Joe though played very well and he puts this down to his recent laser eye surgery which he seems to have come to terms with and something like that can seriously rejuvenate your snooker as eyesight is one of the obvious keys to the game. He said afterwards that he was finally starting to give Mark Allen his regular practice partner a 'good game' which Allen responded to on Twitter by saying that he'd been 'bashing him up' on the table, and we know how good Mark's form has been. This match has been priced up very fairly from what I have seen for a bet on Joe to win, and my thoughts are that that is very much something I would do.

Judd Trump Vs Stuart Carrington - This is of course a repeat of a Last 32 encounter from this years World Championship, and sections of that game are very important when thinking about how this game will go. Judd Trump complained of a cold in his 6-1 first round win, which I would respond to by telling him to man up a little as it clearly did not affect his game against a good player like Miah. Trump is the joint favourite to win the competition but his results this season have hardly been extraordinary or showed the kind of consistency that he will need to in York. Stuart Carrington gave Judd a good match at the Crucible and regularly gets good results on the European Tour something that he needs to translate into his performance in main ranking events. If he would have proven himself more in main ranking events against top players I would actually be tempted into tipping him to win this match, but on the other hand he also has to start somewhere and winning this match would not be a bad place to begin on that front.

Liang Wenbo Vs Jimmy Robertson - Again I believe this is another of the most close second round match-ups. Liang Wenbo played very well at the back end of his match against Gareth Allen in terms of his scoring, but the overall match did not really offer the type of challenge that the Chinaman will get here. Jimmy Robertson meanwhile has been quietly going under the radar and getting some great results and putting decent tournament runs together, something that has not gone unnoticed by myself. He came through a tough test against Lu Ning in the first round and could easily have been distracted by the long waits between certain frames as Lu went out for the toilet after 6 frames, which in itself is some achievement. This match could go right down to the wire and I expect it to be high scoring so as always in those types of games, any scrappy matches could be the key to the outcome. With how impressed I've been with Robertson this season I am far more tempted to sway towards him for this contest.

Kyren Wilson Vs Mike Dunn - The good games certainly keep on coming in this draw as Kyren Wilson faces Mike Dunn. Kyren of course has been playing brilliantly this season and he did well to come through against Paul Davison in a contest which seemed to go quite slow and scrappy towards the end which would not necessarily suit him. Mike has also been playing well this season, beating Fu in the Shanghai Masters and playing well in the last couple of European Tour events so he has been displaying that he is no pushover for the top players. However, Mike was not entirely convincing in his first round match especially after leading 3-0 early on, before getting pegged back to 4-3 at one stage. The way Wilson has been going lately I feel that he will be a little bit too strong for Mike at the key points.

Mark Williams Vs Tom Ford - Mark Williams could certainly have had things easier in the first round where after leading 4-0 he was pegged back to 5-4 before getting over the line and he will need to tighten up if he is to get over the line against Tom Ford. Ford scored very heavily in his 6-1 win against Scott Donaldson making two centuries, but that is something that Ford never seems to be able to repeat with the same regularity against top players in the main arenas. On most occasions that these two meet Williams comes out on top with a fair amount of comfort and now that he has played himself into the tournament I think he will get stronger and start showing the form that he has done throughout 2015 making him very tough to beat.

Marco Fu Vs Yu De Lu - Marco Fu will have a tough game on his hands here against Yu De Lu, especially after the win that De Lu scored in the International Championships against Stuart Bingham. Fu though, does seem to be returning to a little bit of form making the quarter-finals of the International Championship and despite not being too impressive in the first round here, that may be a reaction to playing in the General Cup last weekend which he was the overall winner of and played very well during. Marco is still a good favourite to win this match and despite a nice win for Yu in the Last 128 his opponent there offered very little challenge which will surely be in deep contrast to this game.

David Gilbert Vs Gerard Greene - David Gilbert will be a big favourite for this one on paper the way he has played in the last month or so, reaching his maiden ranking final in Daqing, and he displayed the heavy scoring that got him there in his first round win in York which will continue to keep his confidence levels high. Gerard Greene also scored very well in beating Michael Leslie, but on the whole his season has been poor and has lacked any form of consistency whenever he has showed a glimpse of a good result and with his tour place on the line he will be under far more pressure than Gilbert to win here and that could be a deciding factor additionally.

Ben Woollaston Vs Ross Muir - Ben Woollaston is clearly the favourite to win this match against Ross Muir but after Muir's win in the first round, victory for Ben is no formality. Muir came from behind to beat Mark King in the Last 128 6-5, which is a good win despite how inconsistent King can often be. While Muir played reasonably well in that match he did not show the type of form that he would need to trouble someone more consistent like Ben Woollaston who won easily in round one and if he scores well when his chances come and keeps it generally pretty tight which he does a good job of usually, then he should not fall foul to another surprise Muir win.

Shaun Murphy Vs Zhou Yuelong - This for me is the match of the second round between Shaun Murphy and the young Chinese Zhou Yuelong. Of course the first thing to point out here (which Shaun will love me for doing) is that Murphy lost to Zhou's World Cup winning partner Yan Bingtao in the first round of the Champion of Champions, and he'll be looking to play better than he did on that occasion to avoid the same fate that he suffered there. Yuelong will not make that easy though as he has been in very good form, potting balls off of lampshades as the famous saying goes, and generally scoring for fun. Shaun will certainly feel like he has a point to prove and he will want to stamp his authority on the match as he did against Ashley Hugill with some big scores early on and generally it seemed like Shaun was striking the ball as well as he has since the World Championships which goes with my thoughts that he generally tries to play his season like the top Golf professionals and peak for the three majors, putting by far the most work in at this time, but also focussing all aspects of his mind to winning these Triple Crown events. I fancy this to be a nervy match, but if Murphy's on his game then he should be able to take advantage of some of Zhou's youthful inexperience.

Neil Robertson Vs Aditya Mehta - Aditya Mehta played well in the first round to come back from a 4-0 deficit to win, but from the comments of Baird afterwards and some of the breaks in the match it seemed that Sam seemed to crumble, something that we certainly won't expect from Neil Robertson. Neil will be weary of the fact that he did lose three out of four frames after the interval in the first round before wrapping the match up. Knowing what Aditya did Neil will be determined to get ahead early and then keep his focus to ensure no way back into things for the Indian, and to be honest I do not think that that will be too far away from what happens in the match as Neil will be a massive favourite considering the form of both players.

Fergal O'Brien Vs Thepchaiya Un-Nooh - Two more very closely matched players come head to head here as O'Brien plays Un-Nooh. Fergal will be buoyed by his fight back in the first round from 5-2 down to win, and with some nice breaks made in those frames too and he knows he will have to score like that again to keep up with a force like Thepchaiya. The Thai has been in fantastic form this season as he showed en route to the semi-finals of the International Championship. He is an extreme talent and when he is on top scoring form it usually takes great snooker from his opponent to stop him and Fergal will have to be on his usual form to not give his opponent an inch in this one. I expect the match to run close but Un-Nooh has showed over the last few months he has plenty of bottle to get over the line in these close tussles.

Mark Davis Vs Ken Doherty - Mark Davis knows he will have quite the match on his hands here against Ken if the former World Champion plays anything like his first round match. Doherty blitzed past Drago 6-0 with two century breaks included in that, and by Kens own admission it was the best he had played for quite some time. Mark meanwhile won 6-1 in the opening round and is a player who has a good record at the York Barbican where he seems to play some of his better snooker. The one thing Ken lacks now that he is far from his peak is the consistency to come out and perform how he did in round one against Davis also and for that reason if his opponent is in reasonable form you would fancy him to move on to the Last 32.

Stephen Maguire Vs Jamie Cope - Both of these two guys will consider themselves very lucky to even be here in the second round, making for an interesting match as they may well play with a lot more freedom. Stephen Maguire had to play very well against Jimmy White who showed glimpses of his old self and was very unlucky in the decider as Maguire fluked the initial red that he made the match clinching break of 72 from. Jamie meanwhile seemed like he was getting bogged down against Rory, but despite this he was still able to win four frames in a row from 4-1 down and eventually win 6-5. As good as Cope is, Maguire has showed better scoring form since having around a month off before the Champion of Champions and I believe he can go on a very nice win here.

Ricky Walden Vs Li Hang - Ricky Walden got his tournament off to a good start when he beat Itaro Santos 6-1, scoring well in the middle of the match and he'll be happy just to play himself into the tournament and hope his best snooker comes when it is required. Li Hang scored well in coming from behind to overcome a tricky opponent in Lee Walker and he will fancy his chances of upsetting Walden here. Li is a very tough opponent to play when in good form because he can score very heavily, as Ricky also does so well. Walden's record in the UK Championship is good and if he can make his mark on the match early he should be able to keep Hang at bay, but he will need to remain focussed throughout the match with no mid-match concentration dips.

Alan McManus Vs Jamie Burnett - Alan McManus will hardly be pleased to be playing in yet another tough all-Scottish tie. He has expressed on a couple of occasions this season how tough it has been for him to play so many other Scottish players as many of the younger ones look up to him. From 5-2 ahead against Eden Sharav in round one Sharav appeared to find some form pulling him into a decider before Alan got over the line. Jamie Burnett had it much easier in the 128 round as he strolled past Sanderson Lam 6-1 with plenty of heavy scoring to match. When Burnett plays like that it is difficult to see why he loses so many matches that on paper you would give him a great chance in. The key is consistency but also Burnett's mental attitude after admitting a year or so ago he had little motivation for the game, but hopefully with a performance like the other day he will be pumped up to go on much deeper into this tournament.

Ali Carter Vs Daniel Wells - Both of these two guys had tough games in round one and played very well to get through. Firstly, Carter had a very tough draw against Alfie Burden who never let Ali get too far ahead and Carter had to be close to his best not to be taken to a deciding frame. Daniel Wells had the draw nobody wants against Rod Lawler because it means that you're going to have to be on your game and give it absolutely everything to get a victory and after a wait of around seven or eight hours after being taken off in a 5-4 lead, he did equally well to zone in again and get the frame he needed for victory without going into a decider. You have to make Carter a favourite because he is certainly on the way back to his very best and where he should currently be in the rankings as he showed in Furth earlier this season. As for Wells he still has a lot of work to do in my opinion to beat the very top players like Ali because he like many lower ranked players lacks the key element of consistency which some of the top players have naturally.

John Higgins Vs Tian Pengfei - This is all set up to be another very tough early test for John Higgins. His game against Leo Fernandez could have been much tougher than the 6-1 result Higgins came away with, but yet again he continued his fine run of form that he has been on since winning the International. Tian Pengfei has also been playing well in this period however, and Higgins will certainly have no walkover here. If Pengfei is playing well his scoring will leave John sweating to not allow the Chinese player too many chances and to continue on his way of winning most frames in a single visit. As Pengfei showed at the International when he overcame Ricky Walden he has no fear and is able to eliminate how his opponent is playing from the picture if he takes his own chances. If John keeps it as tight tactically as he usually does then he can seriously limit his opponents opportunities and that for me will be the key factor here.

Barry Hawkins Vs Robin Hull - Barry Hawkins stressful affair with York continues after he somehow managed to overcome Andy Hicks in the decider on Thursday morning. After going 3-1 down early he fought back into a 4-3 lead before going behind 5-4, but somehow winning the decider on the colours. This comes after his Last 64 loss last year from 5-0 up and his quarter-final loss in 2013 from 5-3 ahead, and generally this does not appear to be an event Barry does well in. Robin Hull however, may have just managed to win his first match of the season against Zhang Anda but that is a flawed statistic considering how few events he has actually entered. I rave constantly about how good a player Hull is and it showed yesterday against Anda when he managed to recover from losing four frames in a row from 3-0 to 3-4 to end up winning 6-4 in a tense battle. Robin has given many a good player a good battle, and is unlucky in the sense that on qualifying for the World Championship in 2014 and this year that he lost to the eventual runner-up. As I always say it's a great achievement that he is even still in the top 64 and on tour given how few and fair between his tournament appearances are. If Hawkins is still not at his best in this one then I believe Hull is fully capable of causing an upset.

Anthony McGill Vs Luca Brecel - This is arguably one of the toughest matches of the second round to call, and was certainly the last one that I made my mind up on. McGill was simply sublime in the first round making three centuries in the first four frames including the current high break of 142. When someone like McGill, with a very clever tactical game like most of the other Scottish players, comes out and scores as heavy as that too he will be very tough to beat. Luca Brecel meanwhile made very easy work out of what could have been a tough match with Hossein Vafei Ayouri but once again Luca's scoring was the main thing that shined on through. If Luca gets enough chances he certainly is scoring well enough to put McGill away quite comfortably, but on the other hand with Anthony scoring well also then the same could be true for him. The worry for Luca fans may be that the Scot could end up giving him a little bit of a tactical lesson, especially if the match goes scrappy. This could be a very tight match but my head is telling me that Anthony probably has a slight edge on paper, but Luca could easily prove me wrong.

Matt Selt Vs Sean O'Sullivan - Matt Selt had a big struggle in getting over the line against a relative unknown in Zhang Yong. Having led 5-2 he was pulled back to 5-5 before eventually winning a tight decider after laying a snooker on the final red that enough foul points were accumulated from to win the match. Selt has struggled for form in the last month or so, and I believe that Sean O'Sullivan could take advantage of that here. Sean is improving all the time and his victory against Kurt Maflin this week where he scored very well, and held himself together after watching his 3-0 defeat disappear and still winning 6-3. He also held himself together nicely in International qualifying to beat Robin Hull and that will leave him very confident of beating another higher seed here, as I've been very impressed with young Sean over the last year to earn his tour card back and now make it count.

Joe Perry Vs Robbie Williams - Joe Perry had a nice easy starter to this event with a 6-1 win over James Wattana, but things obviously will not be quite that easy against Robbie Williams. Robbie did not seem entirely comfortable in his win against Mitchell Mann and will certainly have to play a lot better if he is to have any chance against the Gentleman. Joe has been in decent form in the main ranking events this season, proving tough to beat and a man that if you do beat, you are safe in the knowledge that you are playing good snooker yourself. Robbie Williams does not exactly come close to the calibre of players it has taken to see off Perry in events this season and that makes Joe a serious contender to this event and he will be focussed in on his goal of winning one of the three triple crown events now he has won a major ranking event at last.

Mark Joyce Vs Sydney Wilson - The place to start in this match is with Sydney Wilson, who was the man to see off Michael White 6-5 in round one. White was very poor and gave Wilson plenty of chances which is one reason why such a victory will be tough to follow up. Mark Joyce on the other hand will be battle hardened after a hard fought victory against Barry Pinches as they often are against him. Joyce seems to have found a little bit of his form back after a tough start to the season and if he can keep that up he will certainly sense an opportunity here to progress through the draw. For me you certainly have to make the more experienced tour pro Joyce the favourite to make the Last 32 here.

Ryan Day Vs Dechawat Poomjaeng - That defeat of Michael White's that I mentioned has a big impact on Day's hopes of making it into the top 16 for the Masters now, if he can go on to the Last 16 or quarter-finals. Day has been in superb form of late and is going to be very difficult to conquer the way that he has been scoring in particular. His opponent in Dechawat Poomjaeng could cause a few problems potentially, after making a couple of centuries but i'm told that his performance was also littered with careless mistakes and Melling was unlucky not to win all told. If the Thai is to have any chance against someone in form like Day then he will have to cut out the silly errors that crop up in his game all too often.

Jamie Jones Vs Xiao Guodong - Once again we have a match where both players had big tests in round one. Jones firstly played on Tuesday afternoon in the first session against Ian Glover, who he could not shake off until very late in the match to secure a 6-4 win. Jones has been improving a lot again this year as his run to the Australian Open semi-finals demonstrated, and in my view his game seems to have matured to maintain more of the performance levels that got him to the 2012 World Championship quarter-finals. Xiao Guodong on the other hand had to play well in a deciding frame to overcome Noppon Saengkham 6-5 despite two centuries earlier in the match. After going behind early it was soon blow for blow in that match and Xiao seemed to be playing pretty well, in contrast to some of the poorer form he's shown over the course of 2015. This has all the makings of being a match that goes all the way but my thought is that on this occasion the Welshman will come out on top.

Mark Selby Vs Oliver Lines - This one is an interesting repeat of a 2014 International Championship qualifier over the same distance where Mark Selby was played at his own game so to speak after Lines won 6-4 from 4-0 behind. After that Mark will always be that extra bit focussed for matches with Oli and be a little bit more cautious perhaps as a result of that. His match in the opening round against Joe O'Connor was really too easy, so I do not think we have learned a whole lot about Selby's form and how he really shapes up for this tournament yet and how he will play against Oliver here. Meanwhile, with his Dad being taken off at 5-3 down on another table, he had to try and switch his mind on to his game against Cao Yupeng which was always going to be tricky. That probably explains the early 2-1 deficit but once he came back from the interval level at 2-2, I do not think it would be too far from the truth to say that his father might have had some inspiring words (though I could be wrong). After that Oliver played very well and scored heavily on the way to an easy 6-2 win before his Dad came back out and lost 6-4. Selby's experience and particularly his TV experience could prove a factor in this match, and he has been playing pretty well over the last couple of months so I still expect the World Number 1 to come out on the right side of this one.


As I mentioned at the top of the blog my original tournament tip Ding Junhui was knocked out in the opening round this week, but some people may still be waiting until the start of TV stages to have an outright bet and I think it's worth having another go. As you'll remember my other three quarter winners were Shaun Murphy, Joe Perry and Ricky Walden and in that top quarter now I think Mark Allen has a massive chance. However, I was particularly impressed with the way Shaun Murphy started off his campaign against Ashley Hugill, he was striking the ball very well and I think he looks like he is really up for the challenge this week.


The start of the TV coverage should be very exciting especially with Eurosport having Jimmy White and Ronnie O'Sullivan doing punditry in competition with the usual BBC coverage which I am looking forward to, seeing the likes of Willie Thorne and Steve Davis amongst others with their commentary and punditry and of course the lovely Hazel Irvine which is an appropriate note on which to end any blog.

Just to remind you all, sessions are now at 1pm and 7pm every day, with the Last 64 being played over two days with eight tables in operation in each of the sessions, before that goes down to four prior to Monday and Tuesday's Last 32 which I will of course be back to preview before it gets going on Monday afternoon.

STAT ATTACK: Preview for York

Another tournament and another statistical preview is upon us. However, the UK Championships is not just another snooker tournament instead forming part of snookers prestigious Triple Crown. That means there are plenty of statistics that range back through the all-time archives but i'm going to try and select statistics that have most relevance, with a mixture of all-time statistics for players in the tournament and key statistics based from the 2011 tournament to now with 2011 being when the tournament returned to York and when the format was reduced to the best-of-11 frames.

Ding Junhui tops the all-time statistics of the players competing in York this week in terms of their UK Championship win percentages. Ding's percentage is 75.61% which leads Mark Williams who has a win percentage of 73.75% narrowly edging out John Higgins 73.68%. Stephen Maguire is next in with a percentage of 72.73% while in fifth place is Shaun Murphy with a percentage of 69.77%.

When it comes to deciding frame statistics, Mark King has surprisingly played the most out of anyone in the field with 14, winning 10 of those so don't be shocked to see any of his matches run the distance this week. The same applies to Shaun Murphy, Mark Williams and Stuart Bingham who have all been a part of 13 UK Championship deciders. Murphy winning the most of those with 8, despite losing in the Last 16 of both the 2013 and 2014 editions 6-5 to Barry Hawkins and Marco Fu respectively. Stuart Bingham has won only 6 of his 13 deciders in the UK Championship, which is less than 50%. Interestingly, in terms of Bingham's season so far he has played in 7 deciders, and only won 2 of those.

Despite only playing in three events in the 2015-2016 season so far (excluding the World 6 Reds Championship) Ding Junhui has already played in 6 deciding frames winning in 4 of those.

Tom Ford is someone you would not want to take on in a decider based on his statistics this season, winning in all of the 5 deciding frames that he has competed in. Scott Donaldson is Ford's opponent in round one.

One thing Ian Burns has in his favour prior to playing Tian Pengfei in round one is his record in deciding frames this season, with 5 wins in 6 played.

John Higgins has been the most impressive player so far this season winning two major ranking event titles and the statistics back that up as he currently tops the prize money list for this season.

However, Higgins will be wanting to break his run of form in recent UK Championships. Since winning the 2010 edition he has lost in the Last 16 every year, twice to Maguire (2011 and 2013), to Mark Davis in 2012 after making a 147 and to Anthony McGill in 2014. In the 2013 and 2014 editions, John was even knocked on the same date, so it's very much a case of remember remember the 3rd of December for John.

In the last 4 finals at the UK Championships, at least one of Judd Trump or Mark Selby has been present but on neither of those 4 occasions did they play each other, and of the two finals each has been in they have both won one and lost one.

Stuart Bingham also has a good record in recent UK Championships making semi-finals in both of the last two years, whilst also making the quarter-finals in 2012.

Shaun Murphy however, will want to go one better than last year after losing 6-5 in the Last 16, just as he did in 2013. In both of those 6-5 Last 16 defeats, he also led at one stage by a 2-0 scoreline.

Watch out for the players that both Michael Holt and Joe Perry lose to this week (if they don't win the tournament). Joe Perry has lost to the winner of all three ranking events so far this season, twice to Higgins in the quarter-final stages and in the first round of the Shanghai Masters to Kyren Wilson. Michael Holt though takes it a step further. As well as losing to Wilson in Shanghai and Higgins at the International, he lost to Gould in Australia who was eventual runner-up, Ford in Riga who was also eventual runner-up. At the Paul Hunter Classic Michael lost in the semi-finals to Ali Carter who went on to beat Shaun Murphy in the final, and most recently in Bulgaria Holt lost in the Last 16 to Mark Allen who again went on to win the tournament. Meanwhile, Perry also lost in the semi-finals of the invitational Champion of Champions event to Neil Robertson who again was the eventual winner.

Stuart Bingham's results this season prove why no lead is ever safe. At the Champion of Champions he lost 4-3 from 3-1 ahead for the third time this season, also doing it at the Ruhr Open to Fergal O'Brien and in the Paul Hunter Classic to John Higgins. Fergal O'Brien also caused him pain in Australia by beating Bingham 5-4 by winning all of the last three frames once more.

Not only has Shaun Murphy had a problem getting past the Last 16 in the last two UK Championships he has also had the problem over the course of this season so far. In all of the International Championship, Champion of Champions, Shanghai Masters, Riga Open and Ruhr Open he has lost in the Last 16. It was a similar problem for Murphy in the 2013-2014 as he lost at the Last 16 stage in six full ranking event tournaments, the Champion of Champions and one European Tour event.

Neil Robertson may not be the best man for a deciding frame this week. The last 10 times he has lost since losing the Masters final, 7 of those 10 losses have been in deciding frames. The exceptions have been at the International Championship, Welsh Open and Players Championship Finals.

Of the 5 different losing semi-finalists in the last three years at the UK Championship, only one of those has ever gotten past that stage previously. Former UK champion Stephen Maguire is the exception while Mark Davis, Stuart Bingham (twice), Ricky Walden (twice if you include 2011) and Ali Carter are the followers of the trend.

The rolling 147 prize has hit £40,000 for the UK Championships and the reason why this is big news is because there has been a 147 in all of the last three UK Championships. Ronnie O'Sullivan made one against Matt Selt in the Last 16 in 2014, while when the rolling prize got to similar heights in 2013 Mark Selby made a magical maximum in the semi-finals. John Higgins made one in a losing effort against Mark Davis in 2012, while another two came in qualifying that year also from Jack Lisowski and Andy Hicks. 

If Mark Selby and Ryan Day get as far as the Last 16 and play each other it will be their third meeting in the last 5 UK Championships, with Selby winning the previous two in 2011 and 2012.

Shaun Murphy and Marco Fu are also due to meet in the Last 16 if both make it that far, and that will be a repeat of their Last 16 match from last year where Marco won 6-5. It would also be a repeat of their 2008 UK final which Shaun managed to win in a decider. It would also be their eighth meeting in one of snookers three triple crown events, with Fu only winning one of those.

Mark Williams and Judd Trump are another two payers who could meet in the last 16 this year, and if they do it would be their seventh meeting in the last 12 months starting in last December's Lisbon Open and with the latest coming in September's Shanghai Masters. The previous six meetings in this period have been shared, while three of the six have gone to deciding frames Trump winning two of those.

That's all from this edition of the stat attack, plenty to keep you interested there I hope and give you that extra bit of insight in addition to my full tournament preview, with some good statistics to help you gather your own ideas as to who could win this years UK Championships.