Shamoon Hafez
BBC Sport at the York Barbican

10-7, 10-8 to Ding is the general consensus in the press room.

If the Chinese player starts firing like he did in the opening few frames, we may even be in for an early night.

Dennis Taylor exhibition, anyone?

As it turns out, not great.

Looks like Ding Junhui has been left with a tough plant or a rest shot. He was good with the equipment this afternoon....

And he's carried on in the same vein, knocking in a wonderful red. This is a decent chance now.

How's your luck?

Ding Junhui's on the blue, looking to cannon into the pink and spread the pack. This would be some shot.

Stephen Maguire had a few issues with his cueing this afternoon and it looks like they may have spilled over into this session.

He takes on a mid to long red but he's come across that and it smashes into the knuckle of the bottom left corner pocket.

Ding Junhui has got an easy opener to the middle but this is far from elementary stuff. He'll still have to develop the cluster to turn this into a frame-winning chance.

And we're under way. Sounds like their are a few Stephen Maguire fans in the building.

A huge shout of 'get in' goes up as he knocks in a superb long red.

Daniel: A curious first session - Ding had the upper hand in the first four frames. Suspect Mags would have bitten your hand off if at the interval you offered a first session scoreline of 5-3 to Ding and he was unlucky it wasn’t 4-4. Means it is all to play for tonight!

Big fan of Ding Junhui's cue case. It looks more expensive than my cue.

The players are about to enter the auditorium at the York Barbican.

Hope you've all got your drinks, snacks or any other treats ready.

Here we go.

BBC Two

We are live on BBC Two right now, so you can watch all the action by pressing the play button at the top of this page.

Image source, BBC Sport

Not that he's looking at this...but if Ding Junhui wins the UK Championship this evening, he would move level with John Higgins as a three-time winner.

At the minute he is level with Doug Mountjoy, Mark Selby, Neil Robertson and Mark Williams on two victories.

Williams makes my graphic because he has made four finals in total, more than anyone else with two wins.

Now I know it's the final of the UK Championship but the next Triple Crown event, the Masters, isn't that far away is it?

And the draw for the tournament in January, which traditionally sees the best 16 players in the world come together, took place this afternoon.

And what a draw it is...

Defending champion Judd Trump plays 2015 winner Shaun Murphy.

Ali Carter - who takes Ronnie O'Sullivan's spot - faces Mark Selby, John Higgins plays Barry Hawkins and Mark Williams meets Stuart Bingham.

But you can read all about that here.

This is match 127 of the UK Championship, the first was Ronnie O'Sullivan's 6-0 win over Ross Bulman, which had an average shot time of 17 seconds.

Hopefully the spirit of that encounter can be rekindled this evening.

Image source, Getty Images

If the first eight frames were anything to go by we could be in for an intriguing and possibly lengthy evening of snooker.

Quite a few frames this afternoon tipped up to the half hour mark, and as nerves kick in later, it's difficult to imagine a hurtling pace.

While both players are former winners, neither has been in sparkling form recently.

Stephen Maguire last won a ranking event at the 2013 Welsh Open, while China's Ding Junhui triumphed over two years ago at the World Open.

Someone will break their barren run this evening but how fluent it will all be is another question.

Image source, Getty Images

China's Ding Junhui opened up a 5-3 lead over Scotland's Stephen Maguire in the first session of the UK Championship final in York earlier.

Ding, 32, is aiming for his third triumph in the tournament having last won it a decade ago.

And he made back-to-back centuries to race into a 4-0 lead.

But 2004 winner Maguire responded by claiming three in a row and he should have levelled the match. Instead Ding claimed the eighth frame to edge ahead.

Thanks for joining me this afternoon.

We will be back here for the evening session around 18:50 GMT.

But if you have missed any of the action so far, just have a read of our report here.

See you all later.

Image source, Getty Images

Ding Junhui may well have beaten Ronnie O'Sullivan on his way to this final, but the Rocket has reportedly, external questioned his mental fortitude when the going gets tough.

Looked like he gave a pretty good response in that final frame this afternoon.

One down, one to go. If Ding Junhui were to lose this frame it would be a pretty hard blow.

But Stephen Maguire's charge is over, as his opponent knocks in a mid-range red.

Stephen Maguire was in first in this frame but Ding Junhui is looking increasingly likely to have the final word in this afternoon's session.

The Scot needs two snookers as Ding breaks down on 66, 42 points ahead with 35 remaining.

Hit it, hit it, hit it!

What is Stephen Maguire doing there? He has left a sitter after under hitting the blue. His pot stops an inch or two short of the middle bag and a chance to put himself level is gone.

Will Ding Junhui punish him fully? This is some chance.

Ken Doherty
1997 world champion on BBC Two

Stephen Maguire senses Ding is a little bit rattled and getting frustrated so is keeping him at bay by keeping the ball glued to the baulk cushion.

It's good matchplay, hard snooker. Stephen knows he's not firing on all cylinders so he's battening down the hatches, keeping the pressure on and forcing the mistakes.