UK Championship snooker LIVE: Score and updates as Judd Trump beats John Higgins in final frame

MC Rob Walker is just introducing the players now, so we’ll be underway shortly. Let’s get the boys on the baize!

Not long until the players head into the arena for this afternoon’s last-16 clash, so let’s take a look at the head to head record between Judd Trump and John Higgins.

In the all-time category, it’s pretty close with Trump leading Higgins 18-15 (excluding Championship League matches) but it’s a different story in recent times. Starting with their meeting in the 2019 World Championship final, which Trump won 18-9, the Englishman has won 10 of the last 11 matches between the pair.

Higgins’s 5-4 successs in the quarter-final of the 2022 Hong Kong Masters is the lone exception but the world No 1 has simply dominated this match-up and already has victories at the German Masters and Wuhan Open over the Scot this calendar year. Higgins will need to find a way to slow his foe down in York

Shaun Murphy held his nerve to win a second consecutive final-frame decider and book his place in the quarter-finals of the UK Championship in York.

Former world champion Murphy led 5-3 against three-time winner Ding Junhui but was hauled back to level before he seized his first chance to fashion a 6-5 win.

Murphy punched the air after the dramatic finale to an error-strewn affair and admitted afterwards that he felt fortunate to make it through.

“I feel a bit silly with that celebration at the end but it’s just emotional, it just comes out,” Murphy told the BBC. “I couldn’t have given any more but if you make those mistakes you really don’t deserve to win the game.”

Zhang Anda made a mockery of criticism of the table conditions at the UK Championship in York by rifling his third career 147 break in the fourth frame of his first round match against Lei Peifan.

The world number 11 had previously made maximums in the final of last year’s International Championship, and in qualifying for the European Masters in 2022.

And it guarantees the Chinese player at least a share of the tournament’s £15,000 highest break prize, eclipsing the 146 achieved by compatriot Zhao Xintong in the qualifying rounds.

Zhang’s display came a matter of hours after Judd Trump and Neil Robertson slammed playing conditions at the Barbican Centre following Trump’s 6-3 win in their high-profile first round clash.

Judd Trump criticised the table conditions despite reeling off five frames in a row to beat Neil Robertson 6-3 and seal his place in the last 16 of the UK Championship in York.

The world number one struggled desperately through the opening stages before belatedly finding his range with successive breaks of 73, 126 and 67 helping to keep alive his hopes of winning his first UK title since 2011.

Asked in his post-match interview if they were the worst conditions in which he had played, Trump said: “I’ve played in some bad conditions, but that was close.

“It’s disappointing as it seems to be the bigger events. It was very heavy all the time. I’ve always struggled here because the tables are so heavy.

“Hopefully they can change them. All the players have been struggling – hopefully they can do something about it.”

Ronnie O’Sullivan’s most recent World Championship title, won so emotionally at the iconic Crucible Theatre in 2022, more or less ended the debate surrounding snooker’s greatest player of all time. By claiming the world title for a seventh time, O’Sullivan equalled Stephen Hendry’s modern-era record, having already surpassed the Scot for most ranking titles (currently 41 and counting) and becoming the first man to make 1,000 century breaks in professional competition.

Throw in a captivating, swashbuckling, seemingly effortless style of play that means The Rocket’s reputation as a sporting genius has long since transcended snooker’s narrow confines, and GOAT status is undisputed.

Yet as those who have followed his rollercoaster career, or watched his candid, raw 2023 documentary The Edge of Everything will be painfully aware, the almost endless trophies and triumphs haven’t always brought him happiness or satisfaction. Many a whitewash victory against an overmatched opponent has been followed by O’Sullivan slating his own performance for not quite reaching the impossibly perfect standards he demands of himself.

So perhaps it should come as no surprise that, in an exclusive interview with The Independent, he reveals that he yearns to be more like those who came before him.

Standing in Trump’s way is Neil Robertson. The Scot has been similarly prolific throughout his career, racking up 31 ranking event titles to sit third on the all-time list behind only Ronnie O’Sullivan and Stephen Hendry (Trump is fourth).

The 49-year-old briefly dropped out of the world’s top 16 for the first time in 30 years earlier this season but has fought his way back in and will be hoping for a run in York.

Higgins is a four-time world champion and three-time UK champion, although it is now almost four years since he last won a ranking event by triumphing at the Players Championship in February 2021. He also has a surprisingly appalling recent record at the UK Championship, with three quarter-final losses in the past 14 years his best returns.

The Scot did impressively down talented youngster He Guoqiang 6-0 in the previous round and said he’s feeling more confident in his game than he has for a long time.

This should be an absolute cracker this afternoon. In one corner, we have Judd Trump who has been snooker’s most consistent force over the past couple of seasons.

He’s currently world No 1, and hundreds of thousands of pounds ahead of his rivals on that list due to racking up seven tournament victories in the last 15 months.

Of course, the knock on Trump will always be that he doesn’t win enough of ‘the big ones’. He ‘only’ has four victories at snooker’s triple crown events (the World Championship, UK Championship and Masters) and he is trying to win the UK Champs here in York this week for just the second time, after his 2011 success.

He downed Neil Robertson 6-3 in the first round and will fancy his chances of reaching the quarter-finals given his stellar recent record agianst John Higgins

Welcome to The Independent’s coverage of the UK Snooker Championship in York, where Judd Trump faces John Higgins in a tasty last-16 clash this afternoon.

Stick with us for all the action.