Hugill has chance to make most of ‘home’ comforts

The 21-year-old will play current Masters champion Murphy in the first round at York’s Barbican on Wednesday.

Hugill has been busy chalking up the hours at his training base in Sheffield, the Star Snooker Academy, preparing for what he admits will be “the biggest game of my life”.

The rookie only qualified for the UK finals – second behind only the World Championship in terms of prestige – via Q School. He has ambitions to qualify for a Tour card and turn professional next year.

Already this year he has played top stars like world champion Stuart Bingham, Ryan Day and John Higgins.

Now, he will face Murphy -–Crucible winner in 2005 – in his hometown of York, and will have a crowd of family and friends cheering him on.

“This is definitely the biggest match of my career so far,” said Hugill. “It’s up there with my TV debut against Stuart Bingham in Latvia.

“This time I will have home support, all my family and friends are going to be there, and I really want to play well. I am treating it as my biggest match.

“I can’t wait to play at the Barbican.

“Shaun was always one of my favourite players when I first started playing. I used to look up to him and tried to model my game on his very attacking and attractive style.

“I have come away from his style a little bit, but you can still see how I modelled my game on his by the way I play.

“It’s great to be playing York, I should get good support there.

“It will be my first opportunity to play in the UK Championship, my home event. I should have quite a bit of support.”

Hugill trains four days a week in Sheffield, sharing a house in nearby Rotherham with fellow Star players, and hopes the sacrifices will be rewarded on the table.

“I have been at Star for three years,” said Hugill, who used to practice on a full-size table in his family home in York.

“At first I used to go twice a week, but now go four times a week and stay over.

“It’s helped massively. I don’t think I would be where I am today without the academy.

“I used to practice at home a lot, but to improve I think you have to play other good players.

“The academy tables are the same one they use on the professional circuit.”

The season has been a huge learning curve for Hugill, but he is content in gaining experience against some of snooker’s biggest names.

“This season I have played a lot of top players in the PTCs and the ranking events,” he said.

“I have not got to think too much about the results I have been getting, and just try to learn from it. I would like to get a result, but playing against the top players is not easy.

“I can only improve my game by playing against the calibre of Murphy, Higgins and Bingham.

“I am not putting pressure on myself to get the results against the professionals, just yet. Obviously, I want to beat Shaun, but I am not putting too much pressure on myself. I just want to enjoy it. I want to be a professional as soon as possible. I would like to be pro within the next two years.

“I am playing well this season, hopefully I will turn pro at the end of this season, but I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself.

“I just need to think about winning matches and that will get me to where I want to be.”

The Betway UK Championship runs from tomorrow to December 6. Tickets start at just £6, for more information call 0844 854 2757 or visit www.worldsnooker.com/tickets