| Tournament Name: | 1996 UK Championship |
| Venue: | Preston Guild Hall |
| Location: | Preston |
| Country: | England |
| Organisation: | WPBSA |
| Format: | Ranking event |
| Winners Share: | £70,000 |
| Highest Break: | (141) |
| Score: | 10–9 |
| Previous: | 1995 |
| Next: | 1997 |
The 1996 UK Championship was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place at the Guild Hall in Preston, England. The event started on 15 November 1996 and the televised stages were shown on BBC between 23 November and 1 December 1996.
Stephen Hendry won his third UK Championship in a row and fifth overall by defeating John Higgins 10–9 in the final. Hendry led 8–4, fell behind 8–9 after Higgins won 5 frames in a row, and then breaks of 82 and 77 in the last two frames was enough for Hendry to get the victory.[1] Ken Doherty made the highest break of the tournament with 141.
Tony Drago made the fastest century break in a ranking event with a time of 3 minutes 31 seconds.[2]
The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:
| Final: Best of 19 frames. Referee: Len Ganley The Guild Hall, Preston, England, 1 December 1996. | |||
| Stephen Hendry | 10–9 | John Higgins | |
| First session: 32–72 (69), 78–32, 105–14 (74), 16–65 (64), 80–28, 108–8 (102), 115–14 (115), 36–70, 4–93 Second session: 73–4 (73), 61–33, 108–0 (108), 59–66, 39–68, 32–96, 29–62 (54), 12–62, 82–0 (82), 77–0 (77) | |||
| 115 | Highest break | 69 | |
| 3 | Century breaks | 0 | |
| 7 | 50+ breaks | 3 | |