Snooker / Ralph Ellis / 13 January 2012 /

Snooker's Masters moves to Ally Pally on Sunday as the sport goes on evolving into a new era, and Betfair wondered what that meant for the players. So we set off to Essex for a cup of coffee with Stuart Bingham to find out...

Hi Stuart. First of all, good luck for the tournament. You couldn't have had a more difficult draw.
That's right. I start off against Judd Trump and then the winner meets either Ronnie O'Sullivan and last year's champion Ding Junhui. I look on it as a great challenge - if I'm going to win my first major tournament I've got to beat them at some stage so why not at the start?

Judd's very much the man on form though. He and Ronnie are joint favourites.
Yeah, he's had an amazing first couple of years to his career. He's the man on form at the moment, a real sensation. He's striding away and it looks like he's winning tournaments for fun, he's just won a tournament for a hundred grand, he's got a nice car, bought a posh watch, he's living life as a playboy or whatever, and good luck to him. It's up to me to try to give him a jolt though!

You've had a good year yourself.
Yes, and it feels good to be at the Masters by right. I've won the qualifying a couple of times to get there, but it's nice to be in the elite top 16 finally. It's been a great year for me on and off the table. I had my first win in Australia, but also became a dad for the first time in August when we welcomed my little boy Shae Terry Bingham into the world. He's just coming up to five months now and he's a bit of a character.

Dad power, then?
I think it has definitely helped that I've been so happy with my missus Michelle for the last couple of years. And I started with a new coach Stephen Feeney in the middle of last year too, and working with him has been when things are clicking together. His firm is called Sight Right, look it up. He helped Darren Clarke with his putting before he won the Open, too.

So what does he do?
It's all about getting the alignment of your shot right, and training your eyes to see through the middle of the white ball, to where you need it to hit the colour. For the golfers he sort of gets them over the putt properly and gets them seeing the correct line.

You're a single finger handicap golfer so has it helped that too?
No, it's actually been the opposite for my golf, because I've been winning so much at snooker my clubs are spending most of their time in the cupboard. It's a small price to play, but between my snooker and the baby I've probably been on a golf course barely ten times in the last year. If it was going to help my putting I've never had a chance to find out.

Isn't lining up your shot the most basic thing in snooker anyway?
Yes, but somehow as your career goes on you move away from that. It is silly, because if you get the most basic principle right then everything follows. With me it was then confidence, knowing you are on line and can deliver a good shot. When you start playing as a kid the alignment is all you look at, but as you get better you concentrate on developing all the other assets, spin, ball positioning and so on, and maybe the most important bit of the lot gets put to one side. He's helped me make sure the basics are right.

So have you got into contact with the golfers?
Not yet. I follow a few of them on Twitter, although there's talk of him trying to organise a Pro-Am tournament which would be fantastic.

Meanwhile focus on the Masters. What's your verdict on the move to Alexandra Palace?
It will be something new for everybody, so we will have to see. I went to the darts there last year and the atmosphere was superb. I hope we can get a bit of that into the snooker, but without undermining the quality and concentration of the sport. I like the ideas of Power Snooker and the shoot-out, but we have to make sure there is a balance.

Do you support all the changes, then?
Definitely. I have been playing in tournaments in Europe for the last ten years trying to pick up 1,000 Euros first prize just to keep playing. Now with all the PTC and all the other ranking events you don't need to do that anymore. I feel like I'm getting what I've spent all these years working for.

And your ambitions for the year?
First to stay in the 16, but then to compete for more titles. Winning in Australia I loved the whole week. I need to do that more, and this one a good place to try to start. People were saying Australia was a one-off and luck. It wasn't. One of the nice things about that first win was the genuine messages that some of the other players sent me. You keep that forever.

Thanks for your time and we've a free £50 bet for a favourite charity
That's great. I do my best to support the children's hospice organisation Little Havens, and I'm a Liverpool fan so although it is short odds now at [1.7] after the first leg win I'll back them to win the Carling Cup.

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