1996 UK Championship
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The 1996 UK Championship was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place at the Guild Hall in Preston, England. The event started on 15 November 1996 and the televised stages were shown on BBC between 23 November and 1 December 1996.
Stephen Hendry won his third UK Championship in a row and fifth overall by defeating John Higgins 10–9 in the final. Hendry led 8–4, fell behind 8–9 after Higgins won 5 frames in a row, and then breaks of 82 and 77 in the last two frames was enough for Hendry to get the victory. Ken Doherty made the highest break of the tournament with 141.
Tony Drago made the fastest century break in a ranking event with a time of 3 minutes 31 seconds.
Prize fund
The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:
- Winner £70,000
- Runner-up £37,000
- Semi-final: £18,500
- Highest break £5,000
Main draw
Top half
Bottom half
Final
| Final: Best of 19 frames. Referee: Len Ganley The Guild Hall, Preston, England, 1 December 1996. | ||
| Stephen Hendry Scotland | 10–9 | John Higgins Scotland |
| First session: 32–72 (69), 78–32, 105–14 (74), 16–65 (64), 80–28, 108–8 (102), 115–14 (115), 36–70, 4–93 Second session: 73–4 (73), 61–33, 108–0 (108), 59–66, 39–68, 32–96, 29–62 (54), 12–62, 82–0 (82), 77–0 (77) | ||
| 115 | Highest break | 69 |
| 3 | Century breaks | 0 |
| 7 | 50+ breaks | 3 |
Century breaks
- 141, 140 – Ken Doherty
- 141, 133, 122, 106, 106, 104 – Andy Hicks
- 140, 115, 108, 108, 104, 103, 102 – Stephen Hendry
- 138 – Darren Clarke
- 136, 118, 105, 100, 100 – Paul Hunter
- 135, 132, 109 – James Wattana
- 135, 109 – John Higgins
- 135, 106 – Jason Weston
- 132, 113 – Nigel Bond
- 131 – Shokat Ali
- 130 – Tony Chappel
- 130 – Steve Newbury
- 124, 119, 106, 104 – Mark Williams
- 122, 103 – Tony Drago
- 122, 102 – Marcus Campbell
- 116 – Karl Broughton
- 115 – Tai Pichit
- 111, 100 – Anthony Hamilton
- 110 – Peter Ebdon
- 110 – Ronnie O'Sullivan
- 109, 107 – David Gray
- 109, 101 – John Parrott
- 109 – Stephen Lee
- 108 – Jonathan Birch
- 105 – Joe Johnson
- 104 – Gary Wilkinson
- 102, 102, 100 – Terry Murphy
- 102 – Tony Jones
- 102 – Billy Snaddon
- 101 – Quinten Hann