Barbican battle as Mark Allen crowned UK Championship winner after beating Ding Junhui in York

It looked set to be an early finish at the Barbican when Ding – the 35-year-old who has lived in Sheffield since moving from his family home in China – raced into a 6-1 lead in their best-of-19 final.

Ding, who beat Tom Ford 6-3 in Saturday’s semi-final, was aiming to become only the fourth player in snooker history – joining Ronnie O’Sullivan (seven titles), Steve Davis (six) and Stephen Hendry (five) – to win the UK title on four occasions.

The Chinese potter – a UK champion in 2005, 2009 and 2019 – had never previously lost in a UK final.

But Allen won the final frame of the afternoon session, before reeling off the next six frames when play resumed to lead 8-6.

Ding showed brief resistance with a century break, but Allen was not to be denied on a dramatic night at the Barbican.

“I don’t really know how I’ve done it – I didn’t play very well most of the week and I struggled from the start and Ding punished me heavily, and I just scraped the last frame (of the session),” said Allen.

“I don’t know what happened tonight. The first frame was as good a break as I’d made all day and all of a sudden I felt so good.

“I was struggling but I was trying to stay as positive as possible in my seat, which is something I’ve been working really hard on. I just kept saying myself can I win the next frame, and my answer was always yes.”

Ding has not won a title since his 2019 UK trophy – he has dropped to 38th in the world rankings and had to go through the qualifiers in Sheffield simply to make the televised stages in York – but this last week, the 35-year-old has shown he is returning to his best form. A 6-0 thrashing of world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan in the quarter-finals was particularly memorable.

But it was Antrim’s Allen, 36, who banked the record £250,000 top prize, and it proved to be third time lucky after he had lost his first two UK finals against Judd Trump in 2011 and Ronnie O’Sullivan in 2018. It was also Allen’s second Triple Crown success, having lifted the Masters in 2018.

Ding fired in three centuries in the afternoon session, but it was Allen who had the opening chance only to falter on a red to a top corner on 24.

Ding responded with breaks of 52 and 70 to go 2-0 up before Allen halved the deficit following a safety battle.

But it was the Chinese cueman who then took control, firing in breaks of 126, 135 and 102 to seemingly take control of the match.

Allen grabbed a lifeline with a 79 break in the last frame of the session, one which he took full advantage when play resumed in the evening.

Ding looked likely to further extend his lead when he compiled an opening break of 33.

But Allen seized on a loose safety to post a superb break of 60 to reduce the deficit, and proceeded to post consecutive breaks of 93 and 132 to haul himself back within one frame at 6-5.

Allen took control of the next with a break of 56 and despite a battling comeback from Ding, a missed green eventually let the Northern Irishman pull level at 6-6 at the mid-session interval.

Allen went ahead for the first time in the match after a break of 59 set him up to clinch a gruelling 13th frame, and was merciless again in the next when he fired his second century, a 109, to move two frames from completing a remarkable turnaround.

Ding punched the table in frustration after running out of position in the next, but proceeded to spectacularly stop the rot with a break of 105, his fourth century of the match, to reduce the deficit to 8-7.

A nerveless red to the middle set up a break of 42 from which Allen was able to build to within one frame of victory, and he kept his nerve in a marathon 17th that last just over an hour, clenching his fists after sinking the match-winning pink.