The 2011 UK Championship (officially the 2011 williamhill.com UK Championship) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 3–11 December 2011 at the Barbican Centre in York, England. This was the first time that William Hill sponsored the event.
John Higgins was the defending champion, but he lost in the second round 4–6 against Stephen Maguire.
Judd Trump won his second ranking title by defeating Mark Allen 10–8 in the final.
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: £5,000 Stage two highest break: £500 Total: £625,000
Controversy The format of the 2011 UK Championship was changed from previous editions. All rounds up to the quarter-finals were played as best of 11 frames instead of best of 17 frames. The semi-finals and the final were played as best of 17 and best of 19 frames respectively. The changes allowed for every match in the early rounds to be played in front of television cameras and avoided the need to use two extra tables. However, the changes angered some players including John Higgins, and Mark Williams, while Mark Allen called for Barry Hearn to resign as head of World Snooker, after Hearn had promised not to alter the championship when he had become the chairman in 2010. During the same interview Allen aimed a four lettered expletive at Hearn. Allen was later charged by World Snooker for bringing the game into disrepute. Hearn, following the original comments by Allen, called him a "silly little boy", to which Allen responded by gagging himself at a press conference. Allen and Hearn later sat down and had a discussion, which resolved their differences, while Allen was fined £250 for swearing in a press conference.
Main draw
Final Final: Best of 19 frames. Referee: Eirian Williams.Barbican Centre, York, England, 11 December 2011. Judd Trump (8) 10–8 Mark Allen (12) Afternoon: 92–4 (70), , , , , , , Evening: 109–7 (109), , , , , , , , , 109 Highest break 141 1 Century breaks 4 9 50+ breaks 6
Qualifying These matches were held between 5 and 9 November 2011 at the South West Snooker Academy, Gloucester, England.
Preliminary round Best of 11 frames 6–0 4–6
Round 1–4
Century breaks
Televised stage centuries
144, 134, 122 Stephen Maguire 141, 139, 129, 125, 101 Mark Allen 140, 136 Matthew Stevens 133, 123, 101 Martin Gould 133, 103 Ding Junhui 131 Marco Fu 128 Stuart Bingham 127, 124 Ricky Walden 123, 114 Ronnie O'Sullivan 120, 109, 106, 106 Judd Trump
118 Dominic Dale 117 Graeme Dott 111, 102 Mark Selby 105, 101 Neil Robertson 103 Stephen Lee 102 Matthew Selt 102 Shaun Murphy 101 Marcus Campbell 101 John Higgins
Qualifying stage centuries
139 David Hogan 134, 100 Sam Baird 130 Jamie Jones 127 Ian McCulloch 127 Ryan Day 126 Robin Hull 124 Mark Joyce 123 Fergal O'Brien 122 Mark Davis 121 Li Yan 118 Ben Woollaston 117 Adam Wicheard 117 David Grace 111 Lucky Vatnani 110 Rory McLeod
110 Robert Milkins 109 Daniel Wells 109 Jamie Cope 109 Peter Lines 108 Anthony McGill 108 Ricky Walden 106 Luca Brecel 106 Jimmy Robertson 104 Gerard Greene 103 Aditya Mehta 103 Jimmy White 102 Sam Craigie 102 David Gilbert 100 Tian Pengfei
References
External links