RIGHT on cue, snooker at its best comes to York next week as a glittering array of top international names from the sport arive in the city.

Scotland's John Higgins will be defending his title at the UK Championship, starting on December 3 at the Barbican Centre, after last year beating current world champion and world number one Mark Williams 10-4 at the Bournemouth International Centre.

All the world's top players will be competing in York, including seven-times world champion Stephen Hendry and two-times UK champion and current world champ Ronnie O'Sullivan.

It was quite a coup for the city of York to win the contract to host this year's UK Championship at the Barbican. The first round starts on December 3, with the television cameras taking up position and filming the action every day from December 8 to December 16.

In the first round is Quinten Hann, from Wagga Wagga. This ebullient 24-year old has high hopes of becoming the first Aussie since Eddie Charlton to get into snooker's elite 16. He is up against top names from Ireland, Hong Kong, Pakistan, Canada, Thailand, Finland and Malta, not to mention Britain's own great names.

Probably the least-known of the overseas players is a man who is world number 86 and who has the English-sounding name of Robin Hull. In actual fact, Hull comes from Espoo, in southern Finland, and he is more than capable of surprising the bigger names. To prove his point, he showed his talent earlier this season with an amazing run of 14 consecutive wins in qualifying matches. Hull plays Anthony Davies in the first round.

The UK Championship reaches its climax when the best-of-19 frame final is played on Sunday, December 16. After the World Championship, the UK Championship carries the most prize money of any ranking event. A total of £746,900 is on offer this year, with £100,000 going to the winner. There is a prize of £25,000 for a maximum 147 break made during the televised stages.

Managing the event for York is Leon Shouksmith. He said: "We have had a huge amount of local interest. There are seats available on the door from only £3.50 for most sessions up to the semi and finals stage."

Jim McKenzie, chief executive of World Snooker, which is staging the championships, said: "The UK Championship is one of the major events on the snooker calendar with prime slots on BBC television.

"York is a beautiful city and the players are already looking forward to their visit in December. We need to attract sizeable audiences to our tournaments to create the right atmosphere, so I'm hoping the residents give us their full support."

Updated: 11:32 Thursday, November 29, 2001