China’s Chang Bingyu produced the first 147 break of his career during UK Championship qualifying, pushing the season’s tally of maximums to a record 16 with more than six months still to play.
The 23-year-old, who returned to competition this year after a two-year ban for involvement in a match-fixing scandal, briefly led 4-3 against Stephen Maguire before ultimately losing 6-5 in their third-round match.
His achievement surpassed the previous season record of 15 maximums, matched earlier in qualifying by Liam Pullen.
This campaign has also seen two 147s each from Ronnie O’Sullivan, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Aaron Hill, contributing to the 233 maximums recorded in snooker history.
