BBC SPORT | Special Events | 2000 | UK Championship Snooker

Clive Everton listens to Mark Williams oozing with confidence after seeing off Ronnie O'Sullivan to reach the final of the UK Championship and analyses how the ranking system works

High quality safety was the key as Mark Williams, the world champion, pulled away from 4-4 to beat Ronnie O'Sullivan 9-4 and carry his defence of the Liverpool Victoria UK title into Sunday's final.

He will play the winner of the semi-final between Stephen Hendry, going for his sixth UK title, and John Higgins, who completed the world and UK double two years ago, gunning for the �78,000 first prize on Sunday.

"If you let him flow, he'll steamroller you," said Williams of O'Sullivan.

"But I know that if I play good hard snooker, eight or nine times out of 10 I'll beat him.

"I'm just there to win. I don't care how I do it."

Diet of success

Eight out of 10 is putting it abit high. True, Williams has prevailed in two of their three contests this season but from 14 matches overall he trails 9-5.

Such is the diet of success on which he has dined for the last two years, though, that the 25-year-old Welshman's supreme confidence is understandable.

World number one at the end of last season, it is the safest bet in snooker - assuming a bookmaker would accept it - that he will again be number one in the end of season rankings.

The official list is officially revised only at the end of each season with performances over two seasons taken into account.

Williams came to Bournemouth leading the unofficial list - based on last season and the first two of the current campaign's eight ranking events - with 38,230 points, a massive 12,665 clear of O'Sullivan who lies second.

Higgins was third with 25,090 but will overtake O'Sullivan if he beats Hendry on Sunday.

Mark Williams
Williams is the best and has risen to the top

Hendry, who started the week on 20,974, well adrift of third place, can leapfrog Matthew Stevens, a last 16 loser here, into fourth spot.

By beating O'Sullivan, Williams earned atleast 4,265 points for his efforts in Bournemouth, while limiting O'Sullivan to 2,945 as a losing semi-finalist. The winner of Sunday's final receives 6,400.

Tariffs vary for world ranking events, with the Embassy World Championship, by far the most prestigious, offering 8,500 for the winner, 5,650 for the runner up and 3,900 for the losing semi-finalists.

The UK Championship has always had the second most valuable tariff, although the British Open, won by Peter Ebdon in early October, and the Thailand Masters in March, renamed the Asian Masters, have been upgraded to the same value this season.

By taking performances over two years into account, current form is not always reflected.

The system was briefly changed to compile the list on 50% ranking points in year one and full ranking points in year two in every two year cycle, but this proved unpopular and was scrapped.

Whichever system is adopted, though, the cream rises to the top and on that basis of consistent excellence Williams is the cr�me de la cr�me.


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