BASILDON professional Stuart Bingham has won through to the main stages of the World Championship for the fourth time in his career.

At Sheffield’s English Institute of Sport tonight the new towner clinched a 10-6 win over former Masters champion Alan McManus in their best of 19 frames final qualifying round match.

Now Bingham will be keen to hear which of the sport’s top 16 stars he will be up against at the start of his challenge in the main event, which gets underway at Sheffield’s legendary Crucible Theatre next month.

The draw will be broadcast live on BBC Radio Sheffield at 9.45am on Wednesday.

Winning through to the Crucible — Bingham beat six times world champion Steve Davis there last year before losing — is a massive boost to the Basildon man.

For it keeps alive his hopes of making the game’s top 16 at the end of the season.

He currently stands 19th in the provisional rankings, but will drop a couple more spots at least after failing to win through to the main stages of the China Open later this month.

He also missed out on qualifying for the Welsh Open earlier in 2009, meaning that his ranking prospects for the start of next season would have looked bleak but for earning Crucible qualification.