Yesterday was the last day of the qualifiers for the 2023 UK Championship. The “main event” starts tomorrow.
Here are the reports by WST on yesterday matches:
O’Connor Beats Maguire To Earn Higgins Clash
Stephen Maguire, who lifted the trophy in 2004, missed out on the final stages of this year’s MrQ UK Championship as he lost 6-3 to Joe O’Connor in the final qualifying round.
Victory would have set Maguire up for a Glaswegian derby against John Higgins in York, but instead 2022 Scottish Open finalist O’Connor goes through to meet Higgins in the last 32 next Tuesday.
Breaks of 76, 68 and 54 helped O’Connor build a 4-0 lead. Maguire fought back to 4-3 with 72, 119 and 58, but O’Connor took the eighth frame with a run of 67, then survived Maguire’s attempts to land snookers at the end of the ninth by potting the final blue.
“He got me in all sorts of trouble at the end so I was relieved to get through,” said O’Connor, who will be one of four Leicester-based players in York alongside Ben Woollaston, Mark Selby and Tom Ford.
“I feel I’ve been playing well the last few weeks and it’s great to get through because York is such a good venue. It’s nice for Leicester to have four players there and I’m pleased for Tom climbing into the top 16, he deserves to be there.”
Woollaston was down in 69th on the one-year ranking list before this week, but has boosted his tally by £10,000 with a fine run this week. He saw off Lukas Kleckers 6-1 with a top break of 60 and will now face Barry Hawkins.
“Before this I I’d lost five or six matches in a row which I had never done before,” said Woollaston. “So the first win this week was big for me, then I felt really good after that. I watched this event on TV last year and the venue, with the two-table set-up, looked fantastic so I can’t wait to play there.”
Woollaston has suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome in recent years but hopes his health is improving. He added: “I’m still not there yet, but in the last three or four months at least I have been able to practise with other players, which I couldn’t do before. I still have bad days – after my previous match I was wiped out so I’m glad I had a day off before the game today.”
Mark Joyce battled past Joe Perry 6-4 to earn a meeting with Mark Selby. Veteran Ken Doherty saw his dream of reaching the final stages disappear as he lost 6-3 to China’s Yuan Sijun. Breaks of 135, 102 and 121 helped Yuan set up a tie with World Champion Luca Brecel.
Vafaei: Let’s Make It Loud!
Hossein Vafaei came from 3-1 down to beat Scott Donaldson 6-4 in the final qualifying round of the MrQ UK Championship, and expects a sizzling atmosphere when he meets Shaun Murphy in York.
Iran’s top player, who has reached the last 16 of this event in each of the last two years, will take on former World Champion Murphy at 7pm on Sunday. He said: “I love playing in the big events with a good atmosphere, as loud as possible. My advice to all the fans is to make it loud! Otherwise it’s tough for us to perform. Hopefully it will be a good match with Shaun, it will be an honour for me to share the table with him.”
From 3-1 down, Vafaei won five of the next six frames with top breaks of 120, 85, 65 and 108. Currently ranked 18th, Vafaei could climb into the top 16 in time for the Masters with a deep run in York. He added: “Scott played very well to go 3-1 up. The game was a bit slow so I changed something and got my game back and started scoring. I got the momentum and made it tough for him. At 3-3 he looked like making a very good clearance but then he missed the black and I potted it to go 4-3 ahead. It was great to finish the match with a century.”
Pang Junxu top scored with 78 in a 6-2 win over Craig Steadman to earn a meeting with Judd Trump. Pang will be one of six Chinese players in the line up in York, alongside Zhang Anda, Ding Junhui, Yuan Sijun, Fan Zhengyi and Zhou Yuelong.
Zhou edged out Ian Burns 6-5 in a match which came down to the last few balls, resolved when Zhou converted an excellent pot on the penultimate red and cleared the table.
Elliot Slessor top scored with 118 as he battled to a 6-3 success against fellow North East cueman David Lilley.
And here is how the first round in York will go
Allen To Face Ding In Last 32
Mark Allen will begin the defence of his MrQ UK Championship title against Ding Junhui on Saturday in York – a repeat of last year’s final.
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The draw for the last 32 has been made, and top seed Allen was pulled out of the hat against Ding, who has dropped out of the world’s top 16 so had to go through the qualifying rounds.
A year ago, Allen came from 6-1 down to beat Ding 10-7 in the final, and the Northern Irishman will face another tough test against Asia’s greatest ever player when they go head to head in the opening session of the tournament on Saturday at 1pm at the Barbican.
World number one Ronnie O’Sullivan will face Anthony McGill, who beat him 13-12 when they played at the Crucible in 2021. That match is on Tuesday at 1pm. In-form Judd Trump is up against Pang Junxu, while World Champion Luca Brecel will take on Yuan Sijun.
Mark Allen v Ding Junhui. Saturday at 1pm
Tom Ford v Noppon Saengkham. Saturday at 7pm
Mark Williams v Fan Zhengyi. Saturday at 1pm
Kyren Wilson v Jamie Clarke. Saturday at 7pm
Mark Selby v Mark Joyce. Monday at 7pm
Barry Hawkins v Ben Woollaston. Monday at 1pm
Jack Lisowski v Jamie Jones. Monday at 7pm
Judd Trump v Pang Junxu. Monday at 1pm
Ronnie O’Sullivan v Anthony McGill. Tuesday at 1pm
Robert Milkins v Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. Tuesday at 7pm
John Higgins v Joe O’Connor. Tuesday at 1pm
Neil Robertson v Zhou Yuelong. Tuesday at 7pm
Shaun Murphy v Hossein Vafaei. Sunday at 7pm
Ali Carter v Matthew Selt. Sunday at 7pm
Zhang Anda v Elliot Slessor. Sunday at 1pm
Luca Brecel v Yuan Sijun. Sunday at 1pm
Don’t ask because I have no explanation but somehow I knew that Ronnie would get McGill. WST mentions that Ants beat him in the World Championship, but, in fact it’s the only time it happened in eight attempts. That said it’s a hard first match – it would be for any of the seeds – as Anthony has already secured 10000 points and played two matches. The pressure in the first round at the Barbican is firmly on the seeds. Also, I’m not sure how well prepared Ronnie will be as the premiere of his film must have been a huge distraction. We shall see.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
I “knew” that Ronnie would draw either Ding or McGill.
Ronnie has been talking about prioritizing the big events, so I’ll be interested to see whether he considers the UK to be one of those.
It’s impossible to predict how well McGill will play – he’s very unreliable. But he is indeed a player who is capable of an upset if he does play well.
I would say the coverage of the last two days of this event has been superb. I have been critical of media before, but I have to give them full credit. The commentary by Dave Hendon and Steven Hallworth highlighted the drama, and this time they were well supported by fast changeovers to capture the important moments of the matches. They basically worked four 5-hour shifts, which is an outstanding effort.
With streaming on Facebook and Youtube, this was presumably accessible to everyone, and provides an exciting event which should showcase players who aren’t members of the elite, but may be future stars. The lazy BBC commentators can have no excuses to be underprepared for their matches next week. The only blemish was the lack of interviews with the 4 youngest qualifiers Fan Zhengyi, Yuan Sijun, Pang Junxu and Zhou Yuelong, but this is of course to be expected.
And commentary during the afternoon matches said how interesting it would be if Mark Allen drew Ding. And lo and behold!