Stuart Bingham

Infobox Snooker player
Name = Stuart Bingham


Caption =
Born = Birth date and age|1976|5|21|mf=y
Birthplace = Basildon, Essex
Died =
Deathplace =
Nationality = Flagicon|ENG English
Nickname =
Professional = 1995–
High ranking = #21
Current rank = #21
Prize money = £276,925
High break = 147 (2 times)
Best finish = Quarter-finals:
Welsh Open 1999,
Grand Prix 2005,
UK Championship 2005, Northern Ireland Trophy 2007
Ranking wins =
Other wins = 2
World champ =

Stuart Bingham (born May 21, 1976, in Basildon, Essex) is an English professional snooker player. He was 1996 World Amateur champion, but for many years was something of a journeyman professional. He had a run of strong results in late 2005, to earn him a top 32 world rankings place he has yet to lose. He was the 26th player to compile 100 competitive centuries and the 8th to achieve a maximum 147 break twice in professional matches.

Career

In 1999, Bingham reached the quarter-final stage of the Welsh Open, beating the world champion John Higgins along the way, and later in the season caused a major shock by defeating Stephen Hendry 10-7 in the first round of the 2000 World Championship, ranked a lowly 97 in the world. He also qualified for the tournament in 2002 by beating Nigel Bond. In the 2004/2005 season his best runs were two last-sixteen runs in ranking events, including losing in a final Cuegloss|Frame|frame decider to Ding Junhui in the China Open.

In 2005/2006, he took his best run of results. He reached the quarter-finals of the Grand Prix tournament, beating then world champion Shaun Murphy along the way. He got to the same stage of the UK Championship. He also won the qualifying tournament for the Masters, scoring a 147 Cuegloss|Break|break along the way. He then beat Steve Davis in the preliminary round. At the start of 2005 a top 16 rankings position looked a possibility, however defeat to Ryan Day in qualifying for the World Championship ended his chances of doing so, although he did move up into the top 32. 2006/2007 was not so strong, and he again failed to qualify for the World Championship, though he did achieve the unique feat of winning the Masters qualifying tournament for a second successive season, defeating Mark Selby 6-2 in the final.

He made a good start to the 2007/08 season, reaching the quarter finals of the Shanghai Masters, losing 5-0 to Mark Selby. After finishing 4th in his group in the Grand Prix he then lost his first match in the Northern Ireland Trophy. In the Maplin UK Championship he managed to reach the last 16, losing to Shaun Murphy 9-3, after victories over Fergal O'Brien and Steve Davis again. He also reached the same stage of the Welsh Open, beating Stephen Maguire 5-4, after being 3-0 down, in the last 32, but subsequently lost 5-2 to Joe Perry in the last 16. He qualified for the World Championship with a comfortable 10-3 win over Adrian Gunnell, and then he beat Steve Davis once again in the first around 10-8 (this after having led 8-3 and been pegged back at 8-8), only to lose to Joe Perry again in the second round 13-9.

As well as his two 147 breaks, Stuart also came agonisingly close to scoring one in the 2002 World Championship, making it all the way to a difficult final pink before missing in a vain attempt to get position on the final black. To make matters worse, he lost the match 10-8 to Ken Doherty.

Personal

His girlfriend is a police officer. [http://www.worldsnooker.com/tournament_news(id19229)-96.htm]

Tournament wins

Non ranking

* Benson & Hedges Championship 2005, 2006

External links

*World Snooker|id=8175