1998 UK Championship
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.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
All Rounds
- 141, 116, 107, 106, 101 John Higgins
- 138, 128, 127, 125, 109 Gary Ponting
- 138 Dominic Dale
- 138 Joe Grech
- 136, 134, 119 Gerard Greene
- 135, 117, 105 Matthew Stevens
- 130, 127 Fergal O'Brien
- 128 Barry Pinches
- 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
- 110 Leo Fernandez
- 107, 105 Euan Henderson
- 107 Alfie Burden
- 104, 102, 101 Lee Richardson
- 102 Peter Ebdon
- 100 Adrian Gunnell