In Snooker the winner of the China Championship and Champions of Champions, John Higgins, was in action in the third round of the UK Championship against Mark Allen. The Scot is a three-time winner of this event and would survive a scare here, against the lowly ranked Northern Irishman, to keep in the hunt for a forth title at the York Barbican.
 
Higgins gets the best of the opening frames, going on runs of 86 and 85 in the first two to take a lead.

But in the third Allen comes back into the contest with a break of 78 which includes this shot on a red where he mounts the table.

Higgins defeats Mark Allen 6-3

In the fourth the 30-year-old puts away an impressive score of 105, to level the contest at 2-2.

And then it gets even better for the world number 106, when he goes in front 3-2 thanks to a run of 65.

But the 41-year-old Higgins is able to show his experience in the next frame to level with a brilliant 101.

After that its plane sailing for the former world number one as he clinches the 7th and 8th frames with breaks of 67 and 82.

And the comeback is complete in the 9th with a score of 119. A brave performance from the young Allen but Higgens is the one through to the last 8 where he will face Mark Selby.

Welshman sets up last 8 clash with Marco Fu
 
Elsewhere Jamie Jones, who dumped Ding Junhui in the last round, is taking on David Gilbert. The Welshman continues where he left off against the Chinese, taking the first frame with a break of 103.

He continues the good form to take a dominated 3-nothing lead.

His English opponent comes back in the fourth frame with a narrow 66-44 victory.

But Jones re-asserts his dominance with a break of 96 in the fifth to re-establish his three frame lead. He eventually wins 6-2 and will play Marco Fu in the quarter-finals.