‘No bottle’ jibe fired Bingham to victory
Stuart Bingham has revealed how a casual jibe from rival mark allen spurred him to become world champion.
northern ireland’s allen claimed Bingham had ‘no bottle’ before losing to the Englishman at the australian goldfields Open in 2011. Bingham went on to win that title — his first major victory after more than 10 years as a professional — and the 38-year-old from Basildon, Essex, has also added the Shanghai masters this season.
‘i’ve got to give thanks to mark allen,’ Bingham said. ‘he got my back up that week in australia by saying i had no bottle, but since then that’s all changed.
‘i’m world champion but i’m going to be the same person. i’ll be playing in all the tournaments and hopefully i’ll be a good role model. any kids wanting to play should stick at it. that’s what i’ve done.’
the first-time finalist marked his 18-15 victory over Shaun murphy by celebrating long into the night and posing f or hundreds of pictures with supporters.
Bingham knows the title will change his life — he and wife michelle are planning to move house, staying in or near Basildon, and buy a new car, helped by his £300,000 winnings.
having seen off ronnie O’Sullivan in the quarter-finals, Bingham had an inkling this could be his year.
‘i woke up at 6am and the winner’s speech was going through my head but i thought: “Don’t get carried away”,’ he said.
‘i had a great following in the final. in most of my matches i was the underdog. against ronnie and Judd trump i might have had five per cent of the crowd but for the final i had about 80 per cent. then when the crowd went quiet my son Shae shouted: “good luck, Dad”, and i got very emotional.’ he and murphy believe they contested one of the greatest Crucible finals. From 8-4 behind, Bingham surged 15-12 ahead before murphy took the next three frames.
the finalists — good friends away from the table — met in a hotel lift on the second day of the final. ‘We were saying that in the first 17 frames there were 17 breaks over 50 and in Sunday’s afternoon session we did every frame over 50 too,’ Bingham said. ‘the table played a little bit generously but it played as a scorers’ dream.’
murphy added: ‘i thought we put on a really good show.’