Welsh snooker’s top stars begin bid for UK Championship glory in York

By Blake Bint

ELEVEN Welsh players make up a field of 128 as snooker’s UK Championship begins today (Tuesday Nov 23) in York.

In a fixed-draw competition, the top eight seeds face off to amateurs in the first round, with defending champion Neil Robertson the number one seed.

The Australian will be searching for his second ranking event of the season following his English Open title win over John Higgins earlier this month. Robertson will start his campaign against 32-year-old John Astley on Thursday.

Of the Welsh contingent, only three are seeded within the top 40.

Welsh number one Mark Williams finds himself against 18-year-old Lei Peifan and shouldn’t face too much of a challenge early in the competition.

However, a potential tie with Ricky Walden ,who has started the season well, could prove a test for the two-time winner before  potential match-ups with Stephen Maguire and Neil Robertson in the last 16 and quarter final respectively.

Ryan Day comes in as Welsh number two and seeded number 23. In the bottom quarter of the draw, Day will play Peter Lines in round one. Tenth seed Ding Junhui looks the likeliest of players to cause a problem for Ryan Day, should the pair meet in round three of the competition.

Playing in his 24^th edition of the UK championship, former champion Matthew Stevens will come up against Hammad Miah in his opening game.

Qualifier Michael White has the most noticeable draw for any Welshman at this event as he will play against the intimidating Ronnie O’Sullivan in his opening game.

White has looked out of sorts in the last calendar year but has a history of causing shock results, including his two ranking titles in 2017. The former world number 15 has never beaten the Rocket in their five competitive meetings since 2011.

Other Welsh competitors include Jamie Jones seeded 46^th, and Dominic Dale seeded 59^th, who has a potential second round draw against former world champion Shaun Murphy.

Jak Jones comes in seeded 60^th. In the same section of the draw as Stephens, he looks set for a match with Kyren Wilson if the Welshman can see off Oliver Lines in their race to six frames.

Jamie Clarke, Jackson Page, Duane Jones and Andrew Pagett all play their first round games as the lower seed in the match-up.

Clarke will have to get through Chris Wakelin to set up a potential draw with the favourite to win the competition, Judd Trump.

The 20-year-old Page shouldn’t be ruled out of his tie with Mark King following his whitewash of Jack Lisowski at the Northern Ireland open. However, the youngster is yet to make it past round one in this competition with three attempts at the feat and King is no walk in the park opponent.

Jones faces up to the 2020 Welsh Open champion Jordan Brown and looks vulnerable to a seventh successive defeat in the UK championship first round in that fixture.

Pagett is seeded 104^th for his first appearance since the 2014 edition where he will play former ranking event finalist Tom Ford.

Trump, the world number two, has looked in good form at the start of this season and arrives here off the back of a win at the Champion of Champions event warranting his status as favourite to win his second UK championship title. At the Champion of Champions event he had back to back 6-0 wins over Ryan Day and Kyren Wilson, before making light work of John Higgins in the final.

Elsewhere, world number one Mark Selby is found in the same half of the draw as Trump but will have a tricky route to the semi final where the two could potentially meet.

Higgins is on the back of three final defeats in a row. Losing out narrowly 9-8 to Mark Allen and Neil Robertson before losing 10-4 to Judd Trump in the Champion of Champions final on Sunday. The veteran Scotsman looks good to have another good tournament despite some tricky draws in his way.

This year’s edition will be Jimmy White’s 32^nd appearance, although he has not madeg it past the second round since 2003.

Coverage of the event can be found on Eurosport throughout the competition and on BBC from round two onwards.