The 1997 UK Championship (officially the 1997 Liverpool Victoria UK Championship) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place at the Guild Hall in Preston, England. The event started on 12 November 1997 and the televised stages were shown on BBC between 22 and 30 November 1997. This was the last UK championship to be held in Preston, where the event was held since 1978. The following year's competition was held in Bournemouth. Ronnie O'Sullivan defeated Stephen Hendry 10–6 in the final, ending Hendry's run of three successive UK championship wins. O'Sullivan had been the last player other than Hendry to win the event, as a 17-year-old in 1993. The highest TV break of the competition was 137 made by Stephen Lee and it was worth £5,000.

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:

Main draw

Top half

Bottom half

Final

Qualifying

1st Round Best of 11 frames 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 John Read 6–3 Michael Judge 🇮🇪 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Sean Storey 6–1 Euan Henderson Jamie Burnett 6–1 Craig MacGillivray 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Troy Shaw 6–4 Dave Finbow 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Tony Jones 6–3 John Lardner 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Paul Davies 6–4 Steve Judd 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Jason Prince 6–4 Matthew Couch 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 David Gray 6–5 Graeme Dott 🇦🇺 Quinten Hann 6–3 Joe Johnson 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Martin Dziewialtowski 6–3 Anthony Davies 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Dean Reynolds 6–3 Stephen O'Connor 🇮🇪 🇵🇰 Shokat Ali 6–4 Karl Payne 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Ian McCulloch 6–5 Jason Ferguson 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Matthew Stevens 6–3 Jamie Woodman 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Dennis Taylor 6–2 Wayne Brown 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Jonathan Birch 6–0 Mark Gray 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Gary Ponting 6–4 Nick Pearce 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🇳🇿 Dene O'Kane 6–2 Stuart Pettman 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Lee Richardson 6–5 Stefan Mazrocis 🇳🇱 Gerard Greene 6–5 Ian Brumby 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Wayne Jones 6–4 Leigh Griffin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Willie Thorne 6–2 Peter McCullagh 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Chris Scanlon 6–4 Joe Perry 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Marcus Campbell 6–5 Tony Chappel 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Paul Wykes 6–5 Mark Davis 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Peter Lines 6–5 Jimmy Michie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Bradley Jones 6–5 Drew Henry 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Dominic Dale 6–5 Alfie Burden 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Paul Hunter 6–3 Nick Walker 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Mark Bennett 6–4 Darren Clarke 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Karl Burrows 6–4 David Roe 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Karl Broughton 6–2 Lee Walker 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Century breaks