The 2008 UK Championship (officially the 2008 Maplin UK Championship) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 13 and 21 December 2008 at the Telford International Centre in Telford, England. It was the 32nd edition of the event.
World Snooker, the sports governing body, opened an investigation into allegations of match fixing, after Stephen Maguire beat Jamie Burnett 9–3 in the first round. Several bookmakers had stopped taking bets on the match before it even started, when reports of a number of large sums having been placed on the same correct score began to circulate within the industry. Just prior to the 2009 World Championship, where Maguire and Burnett were drawn together the first round, it was announced that Strathclyde Police had opened an official enquiry into the match. The enquiry was closed in 2011 with no criminal charges against either of them, and a World Snooker disciplinary enquiry was announced, which ended without any regulatory action. In September 2013 it was announced, that Stephen Lee was found guilty of agreeing to lose the first frame of his first and second round matches.
Shaun Murphy won the title with a 10–9 victory over Marco Fu.
Prize fund The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:
Winner: £100,000 Runner-up: £46,000 Semi-final: £23,250 Quarter-final: £16,450 Last 16: £12,050 Last 32: £8,750 Last 48: £5,500 Last 64: £2,300
Stage one highest break: £500 Stage two highest break: £5,000 Stage one maximum break: £1,000 Stage two maximum break: £25,000 Total: £625,000
Main draw
Final Final: Best of 19 frames. Referee: Jan Verhaas.Telford International Centre, Telford, England, 21 December 2008. Marco Fu (14) 9–10 Shaun Murphy (3) Afternoon: 34–74, 56–48, , , , , , Evening: 1–77 (77), , , , , , , , , , 102 Highest break 99 1 Century breaks 0 4 50+ breaks 6
Qualifying
The qualifying took place from December 1 to 8 at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, England.
Century breaks
Televised stage centuries
147, 130, 100 Ding Junhui 143, 127, 117, 114, 110 Ronnie O'Sullivan 139, 105, 103, 100 Mark Selby 138, 136, 118, 116, 106, 104, 102, 101 Marco Fu 136, 120, 109 Stephen Lee 136, 115 Shaun Murphy 136 Mark Williams 132 Ali Carter 131, 108, 102 Rory McLeod 127, 103 Peter Ebdon
127 Ken Doherty 122, 115, 112, 104 Stephen Maguire 120 Graeme Dott 119, 100, 100 Mark Allen 118 Neil Robertson 113 Jamie Burnett 109, 100 John Higgins 105 Joe Perry 102 Joe Swail 100 Matthew Stevens
Qualifying stage centuries
143 Matthew Selt 141 Ricky Walden 137 Chris McBreen 134, 105 Joe Swail 134 Jimmy White 129, 114 Alan McManus 126 Mike Dunn 123, 106 Paul Davison 122, 101 Liu Chuang 119, 116, 109 Ian McCulloch 118, 107 Ian Preece 116, 111, 106, 104 Judd Trump 116, 108, 105 Stuart Pettman 115 Rodney Goggins 115 Joe Delaney 114, 104, 104 Lee Spick 113 Atthasit Mahitthi 112, 102 Jamie Jones
111, 109 Rory McLeod 111, 101 Mark Davis 108, 102 Tom Ford 106, 105 Matthew Couch 106, 102 Michael Holt 104, 101 Robert Milkins 104 Barry Pinches 104 Jin Long 101 Patrick Wallace 101 Kuldesh Johal 101 Jamie Burnett 101 Matthew Stevens 100 Steve Davis
Notes
References