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UK Championships: 3-11 December 2011, York

12 December 2011 No Comment

Sunday:

The Grove’s Judd Trump is the new UK Champion. Judd took the title for the first time after beating Mark Allen 10-8.

Judd had cruised past Dominic Dale, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Stephen Maguire and Neil Robertson without ever hitting top gear at York’s Barbican Centre. But he found his best form to win a first UK title, his second ranking event of the year, and pocket the £100,000 first prize.

And after the first all left-hander ranking final for 22 years, when Tony Meo beat Dean Reynolds, Judd now moves up to number 5 in the world rankings.

“It sounds brilliant to be called UK champion,” said Judd. “Mark pushed me the whole way, and it was a good job I had a big lead. It is the best anyone has ever played against me, so luckily I took my chance at the end.”

Judd had a 5-3 lead going into the evening and then moved into overdrive, rattling in runs of 109, 78 and 74 to surge 8-4 ahead. Allen blasted three centuries in four frames as he hit back to 9-8 behind.

But Judd held his nerve with a break of 91 to close out the match.

Friday:

Judd Trump reached the UK Championship final for the first time with a 9-7 victory over Neil Robertson in York.

Trump, 22, fired in breaks of 51, 84 and 67 as he led his fellow left-hander 2-0, 3-2 and 4-3 in the early stages. But Robertson’s 77 break ensured the players went into the evening’s session all-square at 4-4. Trump pulled ahead to 7-5, then his opponent fought back to level, before Judd struck 51 then edged a tight final frame to win.

“I think Neil tried to slow it down and make things awkward for me,” said Trump, who will face the winner of Saturday’s semi-final between Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen and England’s Ricky Walden on Sunday.

“The game went really slow and nothing happened for about 20 minutes and I was just sitting there falling asleep. He came back to 7-7 and I thought he could win from there. In the end I think we were over-trying and that’s why we started to miss a few. It’d be nice to end the year on a high and win this tournament.”

Thursday:

Judd Trump became the first man to reach the semi-finals of the UK Championship in York after a 6-3 victory over Stephen Maguire.

The 22-year-old lost the opening frame but reeled off five in succession.

World number nine Maguire pulled back two consecutive frames, compiling an 80 in the eighth frame and had a 92% potting success rate during the match.

But Trump was in imperious potting form and finished the match in style with a break of 120.

Tuesday:

Judd Trump won a thrilling match against Ronnie O’Sullivan 6-5 on Tuesday to progress to a quarter-final match against Stephen Maguire.

Monday:

Judd Trump had a good start to his campaign on Monday with a 6-4 first round win against Dominic Dale.

Ronnie O’Sullivan has made it through to the last 16 after a 6-1 win against six-times world champion Steve Davis.

However Stuart Bingham is out, falling at the last 32 stage 4-6 to Marco Fu.

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