John Higgins salutes Tartan Army heroes with special walk-on and considers travelling to the World Cup

The four-time world champion and current world number six got his 2025 UK Championship campaign underway with a 6-2 victory over qualifier Ben Woollaston on Saturday night at the Barbican Centre.

Runner-up at the International Championship in Nanjing earlier this month, Higgins made breaks of 66, 51, 84 and 58 as he established a 5-0 lead.

World number 37 Woollaston - who spurned opportunities earlier on - avoided the whitewash with a counter clearance of 70 to take frame six on the final black after his opponent nearly completed the job with a 58.

Woollaston reduced the gap again in the next but Higgins secured his passage through at the £1.2 million tournament in frame eight.

Whilst ‘The Wizard of Wishaw’ has added a plethora of titles to his bulging career CV over the past 14 years, he has not won a Triple Crown event since the 2011 World Championship.

At the start of the night in York, football fan Higgins paid tribute to the Scotland team that recently qualified for its first men's FIFA World Cup finals in what will be 28 years with a special walk-on.

Higgins made his entrance to the song 'We Have a Dream', a single released in 1982 for Scotland's World Cup campaign that year in Spain.

Following a 4-2 home victory over Denmark at Hampden Park earlier this month, Scotland booked its place at next year's World Cup held across the USA, Canada, and Mexico. The last time they reached the final stages was France 1998.

Speaking with the World Snooker Tour shortly after his first round win, a jubilant Higgins was asked about his home country's qualification and whether he is planning on travelling across the Atlantic next summer and watching the action.

“Scotland qualifying for the World Cup has just given the country such a lift" said Higgins.

"Hopefully I will be out in a city in Mexico, Canada or America in the summer. I’d dearly love to go. The amount of people you speak to and they are all trying to get flights booked up. It will be an incredible atmosphere.

“One of the guys I went to Paris with in 1998 is no longer with us and it makes you think what a long time ago it was. A lot of things have passed under the bridge since then. It is great we are there again and I’d love to go and savour it again.”

If Higgins decides to go and manages to get tickets, it'll be a return for him to that area of the world. Earlier this year for his 50th birthday, he and his family travelled to the United States on holiday. Part of the itinerary was to visit the setting of TV programme 'Dallas', a soap opera that Higgins is a huge fan of, and selected as his specialist subject on the quiz ‘Celebrity Mastermind’.

In the club game, Higgins supports Celtic, and earlier this season talked about his joy having met current manager Martin O'Neill - who is back at the helm on an interim basis - on a couple of occasions.

Higgins revealed that O'Neill - who has won three Scottish Premier League titles with the Glasgow-based club - is a fan of fellow countryman and professional player Anthony McGill having met him and his dad at the Crucible Theatre during a World Championship.

Next up for Higgins in the UK Championship is a meeting with Shaun Murphy. The reigning Masters and British Open champion defeated Lyu Haotian, 6-2, to progress.

To view the full draw, results, match schedule, and other information from the 2025 UK Championship, visit here.