2011 UK Championship

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.

Qualifying
These matches were held between 5 and 9 November 2011 at the South West Snooker Academy, Gloucester, England.

Best of 11 frames
 * Preliminary round


 * Round 1–4

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