The 1986 Tennents UK Championship took place at the Guildhall, Preston in November and TV stages shown on BBC TV took place between 22 and 30 November 1986.
Scottish brewers Tennents took over as the sponsors of the UK Championship after Coral withdrew their sponsorship after 8 years. The event was also best known in 1986 for Alex Higgins along with John Cochrane head-butting an official. Higgins later got fined £12,000 and banned for the next 5 snooker competitions.
In the final, Steve Davis won beating Neal Foulds who had already won the BCE International 2 months earlier 16–7, winning £60,000 and his triumph was a personal landmark because it took his career winnings past the £1 million barrier. The highest break of the tournament was 144 made by Jimmy White.
Round of 32 Best of 17 frames
Steve Davis 9–6 Eddie Charlton Dean Reynolds 9–8 Silvino Francisco Tony Drago 9–6 John Virgo Willie Thorne 9–1 Robbie Grace Alex Higgins 9–6 Dave Martin Mike Hallett 9–4 Tony Meo |
Cliff Thorburn 9–4 David Taylor Neal Foulds 9–3 Jim Wych Jimmy White 9–5 Peter Francisco Terry Griffiths 9–0 Dene O'Kane Steve Longworth 9–1 Doug Mountjoy |
Round of 16 | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Final | |||||||||||
Steve Davis | 9 | |||||||||||||
Dean Reynolds | 5 | |||||||||||||
Steve Davis | 9 | |||||||||||||
Tony Drago | 8 | |||||||||||||
Tony Drago | 9 | |||||||||||||
Willie Thorne | 5 | |||||||||||||
Steve Davis | 9 | |||||||||||||
Alex Higgins | 3 | |||||||||||||
Alex Higgins | 9 | |||||||||||||
Mike Hallett | 7 | |||||||||||||
Alex Higgins | 9 | |||||||||||||
Wayne Jones | 5 | |||||||||||||
Wayne Jones | 9 | |||||||||||||
Eugene Hughes | 5 | |||||||||||||
Steve Davis | 16 | |||||||||||||
Neal Foulds | 7 | |||||||||||||
Cliff Thorburn | 9 | |||||||||||||
John Spencer | 2 | |||||||||||||
Cliff Thorburn | 2 | |||||||||||||
Neal Foulds | 9 | |||||||||||||
Neal Foulds | 9 | |||||||||||||
Jimmy White | 7 | |||||||||||||
Neal Foulds | 9 | |||||||||||||
John Parrott | 3 | |||||||||||||
Tony Knowles | 9 | |||||||||||||
Terry Griffiths | 6 | |||||||||||||
Tony Knowles | 4 | |||||||||||||
John Parrott | 9 | |||||||||||||
John Parrott | 9 | |||||||||||||
Steve Longworth | 6 | |||||||||||||
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