The 1998 UK Championship (officially the 1998 Liverpool Victoria UK Championship) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place at the Bournemouth International Centre in Bournemouth, England. The event started on 16 November 1998 and the televised stages were shown on BBC between 21 and 29 November 1998.
This was the first UK championship to be held in Bournemouth since the inaugural championship in 1977, after 20 years at Preston. The Conference Centre has held snooker competitions before. It hosted the World Cup between 1985 and 1990, the Mercantile Credit Classic in 1991 and 1992, the International Open in 1994 and 1995, and the Grand Prix in 1996 and 1997.
Ronnie O'Sullivan was the defending champion, but he withdrew before the tournament. His doctor had told him to rest after suffering from physical and nervous exhaustion.
John Higgins won this year's title by defeating Matthew Stevens 10–6 in the final to go with the World Championship crown he won earlier in the year. This was Higgins' 10th ranking title.
Tournament summary
Defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan was the number 1 seed with World Champion John Higgins seeded 2. The remaining places were allocated to players based on the world rankings.
Prize fund
The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:
Winner: £75,000
Runner-up: £39,000
Semi-final: £19,750
Quarter-final: £10,080
Last 16: £5,525
Last 32: £3,450
Last 64: £2,950
Last 96: £1,460
Last 134: £235
Stage one highest break: £1,500
Stage two highest break: £5,000
Total: £460,000
Main draw
Final
Century breaks
Televised stage centuries
141, 116, 107, 106, 101 John Higgins
138, 128, 127, 109 Gary Ponting
138 Dominic Dale
136, 114 Gerard Greene
135, 117, 105 Matthew Stevens
130, 127 Fergal O'Brien
126 Jimmy White
118, 111, 104 Andy Hicks
118 Michael Holt
116 Mark Williams
115, 105, 100 Dave Harold
115 Chris Small
114 Patrick Wallace
113 Anthony Hamilton
111 Martin Clark
107, 105 Euan Henderson
102 Lee Richardson
102 Peter Ebdon
Qualifying stage centuries
138 Joe Grech
128 Barry Pinches
125 Gary Ponting
124 Peter McCullagh
120 Michael Holt
119 Gerard Greene
119 Keith E Boon
116 Mehmet Husnu
114 John Read
110 Kristjan Helgason
110 Leo Fernandez
109 Phil Williams
107 Alfie Burden
105 Ali Carter
105 John Giles
104, 101 Lee Richardson
100 Adrian Gunnell
100 Euan Henderson
100 David Roe
References
UK Championship (snooker) UK Championship UK Championship UK Championship