UK Snooker title top of Bingham’s list

FIVE frames down with six to play, Stuart Bingham's UK Championship race looked run.

That quarter-final win over Ronnie O'Sullivan, where he dumped out the Rocket on his birthday, seemed a long time ago as his last four opponent Neil Robertson looked a formality to progress to the final.

In a different age, that might have been all she wrote for the player nicknamed Ball-Run. But the changing snooker climate, and the proliferation of tournaments, has given the Basildon potter's career a kick start.

And in this match, 12 months ago, he nearly pulled off the impossible.

From 8-3 down, Bingham reeled off five frames in a row and with scintillating snooker to boot - compiling breaks of 85, 56, 86 and 107.

He fell just short as Robertson claimed the decider and went on to win the tournament, completing snooker's triple crown - UK, Masters and World Championship - in the process.

But while Bingham admits the defeat took time to recover from, it also showed he now had inner resolve when the pressure was at his highest.

"It took me a couple of weeks to get over that," said the 38-year-old. "I was disappointed in myself that I was 8-3 down. I showed my cards to put it back to 8-8 and I had half a chance in the final frame. Fair play to him, he made a good 59 break.

"To get that close, to nearly get to that major final, that's why it took a couple of weeks. I was so close. I did take positives from it. I had played him a couple of years previously in the Premier League and I beat him 6-0.

"I was 8-3 down and thought 'If I beat him 6-0 I will win 9-8'. The experience will come in good stead. I can't really put my finger on why (I was able to battle back). I get on with my own game and can reel off three to four frames."

If that game didn't convince Bingham he could land one of the big three, his start to this season means confidence is sky high. He won his second ranking tournament in September, dominating Mark Allen 10-3 to take the Shanghai Masters title, and then enjoyed more success in the Far East as he claimed an Asian Tour event thanks to a 4-0 victory over Leeds' Oliver Lines.

With the Australian Goldfields Open already in the bag from 2011, a first ranking trophy after 16 years of trying, Bingham is now desperate to enjoy success in familiar climes. The Premier League, won in 2012, was a good start.

For a player who is now a fixture of the top 16, though, only a major event is good enough.

He added: "I've had a very good start to the season. My ambition each year is to win at least one tournament and I have got two already this year. I have always wanted to do well in England - I have done well everywhere else - and it my overall ambition.

"I was close last year in the UK, got to the semi-final, and that is how you get the most publicity in England - by doing well in the BBC events."

Reflecting on his Shanghai triumph, Bingham said: "Everything just clicked during the week. I was making 100s when people were struggling to make 50s. But it just clicked. There are so many tournaments now. When we had just six events, I would play in a qualifier then give everything up for one tournament. There was a lot of pressure.

"I am playing really well and I think, with all the tournaments and 20 to 25 events through the year, you don't put that much pressure on yourself for each tournament. You can always get up for the next one so the attitude is a little bit different."

While accepting O'Sullivan continues to be the man to beat in this year's UK, Bingham insists he is full of self-confidence. Getting under way against Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon on the evening of the opening day (November 25), he can't wait for the battle to get started.

"York has always been a nice venue for me," he said. "The city itself is really, really nice. Obviously in the last two to three years I have been playing really well. I have got the belief that I can do it. I will be over the moon to win one of them. Obviously the next is the UK. That would make my year."