World champion Stuart Bingham: I always put this tournament on a pedestal...and now I have won it!

The 38-year-old triumphed 18-15 against long-term friend Shaun Murphy at the Crucible, in Sheffield last Monday to become world champion for the first time in his career.

In what has been dubbed one of the greatest finals in many years, Bingham came back from 3-0 and 8-4 down to take a 15-12 lead.

But with the game tied at 15 all, Bingham won a marathon 64-minute frame to take the lead before closing out the match in front of an audience of millions.

And, 10 days later, the Basildon-born snooker star has still not come to terms with his achievement, and says heading into the tournament with a different approach may have helped him come out on top this year.

“It has been mad,” he said, as he spoke to the Echo from his Vange home. “I haven’t stopped yet, but I have loved every minute of it.

“People hoot at me in cars and fellow parents at school have congratulated me. A lot of new friends have come out the woodwork!

“My boy (Shae) goes down the road to school and his mates said they saw him on TV. I think he loves it more than me and that is saying something. I can get home from a five-hour practice session and he is like ‘daddy, snooker yeah?’ and I am like ‘give me a break!’ He is a real mini-me.

“My step-daughter (Tegan) is loving it too and my wife is getting recognised down Tesco’s. It’s surreal.

“I have always put this tournament on a pedestal and maybe that was where I was going wrong. But I went out there this year and had more fun and the trophy is here in my lounge.”

Bingham came into the tournament off the back of a superb season, in which he won the Shanghai Masters, the Haining Open and the Championship League.

And he said that set him up nicely for his first round match against Robbie Williams.

“I was feeling good – I got to two semi-finals in three tournaments before this one so I knew I was in form and I had a bit of a cold after the Robbie Williams game.

“I had that for a few days and I felt all over the place on the first day and I was 5-4 down after the first session but got it together and came out to win (10-7). I had a few days off after that and I was drinking gallons of honey and lemon and lots of water before I went back to play Graeme Dott.

“It was great to win 13-5 against someone of his stature and, him being a former world champion, I thought if I could keep playing as well as I was I stood half a chance. But to come out against Ronnie (O’Sullivan) and produce the snooker I did at the end was when I believed I could get my hands on that trophy.”

Bingham had a wretched record against the Rocket before the encounter, having won only two of their previous 11 matches and lost 13-4 at the same stage in the World Championship two years ago.

But the Vange potter said beating the five-time World Champion 13-9 was when he started believing he could win the tournament “It was great to get to the one table set up and emotions were running. I had a little tear after beating Ronnie and my emotions were flying around.

“Next morning I played Judd (Trump) and it was brilliant – it took me a few frames to get into it but I got my nose in front and stayed there. At 16-16 I thought I had blown it (having led 16-14) but it was an unbelievable feeling to win 17-16.”

Bingham played one of his best friends in the final in Murphy, another former winner, and he said he was overwhelmed at the level of support he was getting.

“Throughout the tournament I had support. Against Ronnie I only had about five percent and rightly so with Ronnie who he is. Against Judd someone was booing me as they wanted a Ronnie v Judd semi-final but in the final I must have had more than 70 per cent support.

“I went 3-0 down and I still felt fine. I could have cleared up in the second frame but missed a pink and made a plant in the next and the reds went everywhere and I missed a yellow. I was three down and hadn’t done a lot wrong.

“My attitude throughout the tournament was really good and I tried to stay positive.

“I got it back to 4-4 but then it went wrong. I felt tired going into the evening and tried to have a sleep and I remember lying there with my wife and my heart was beating madly – I couldn’t sleep. I felt tired and he pushed on with back to back hundreds – from being 5-4 up I was 8-4 down.

“I went back to the dressing room and had some cans of Red Bull and I necked one of those straight away. I was chatting with the team and got a few things off my mind and went out all guns blazing and got back into it.”

Bingham won four of the next five frames and he said he was so pleased to have fought his way into the match at the end of Sunday.

“I was over the moon to be 9-8 down,” he said. “I slept really well – the average was about four hours for the previous five nights and I had about seven hours that night and I felt refreshed and it showed on Monday.

“I moved into a 12-9 lead and it was then 14-11 ahead of the final session.

“I said to my wife in the hotel room ‘I don’t want to go out there’ and it really hit me where I was. All my goals and dreams were so close.

“I didn’t want to get dressed and go – I was so nervous. I have seen people enter the room for the last 25 years ahead of the final session and wondered how they felt but to do it myself and watching my shoes go down the steps was so surreal.

“It was actually me doing this and then Shaun came on and it was just us. It went so quiet.

“Once you’re there you are in the zone and the table is your comfort zone.

“The first few frames were so quiet but I was enjoying it but it was so serious and I knew I needed four frames to win the biggest in the snooker world.”

Murphy clawed his way back to 15-15 and with the match on a knifepoint there was a moment of comedy as Bingham asked for a toilet break as the 31st frame of the match ticked towards an hour mark.

And he said the time-out helped him re-focus.

“At 15-15 I thought I had blown it but the 63-minute frame was the one,” he said.

“I needed the toilet break and it helped me. He should have won it after 40 minutes and he missed the yellow and I was about 18 points down.

“By the time he hit it I was about 20 points up and the toilet break helped and got the crowd laughing. It was like two schoolboys who couldn’t hold on and I came out with a smile on my face.

“Winning a frame like that hurts the other person, especially in this context and the final two frames were a bit of a blur.

“It is a game of snooker at the end of it, but I just tried to have fun and when you know are playing well you can enjoy yourself. I knew I would come back stronger – if he made 50 I would have made 100 and that attitude helped me.”

Bingham stormed onto victory but said he couldn’t comprehend he had won until after he had pocketed an extra black and red ball, to take the total away from Murphy and says the roar from the crowd is something he would never forget.

“I have pocketed a winning ball before and I have pumped my fist and then you miss and they get a snooker and get the frame so I didn’t do it. I pocketed the red which meant he would need snookers and the crowd went mad and that was something I will never forget for the rest of my life. After the black and red I celebrated and I saw Shaun and I saw he was happy for me. He was a real gentleman.

“We are similar people and the support has been great from all players and that might give hope to others who haven’t won it, if a normal bloke like me can do it after 20 years.”

Bingham said winning his first ranking event in Australia in 2011 was a special events, as was taking English and World amateur titles in 1996 but he said celebrating with his family was a memory he would never forget.

The win elevated Bingham from 10 in the world to number two, securing his place at next month’s World Cup where he will compete alongside world number one Mark Selby, although he says he must remember to enter the tournament by tomorrow!

And he says winning the World Snooker player of the year and writers’ player of the year gong at a big bash at London’s Dorchester hotel last Thursday topped off what had been an unforgettable week – as he bid for a number of prized lots in a charity auction.

“I bought the snooker table from the final for about £6,400 and I bid for the balls as well! I am a real memorabilia geek.

“I got some One Direction tickets too! I was keeping quiet and my wife Michelle said get that for (step-daughter) and she put her hand up. I saw Joe Perry wanted them too and he beat me in Thailand and I wasn’t having him beat me again.”

The born-and-bred Basildon man said he has plenty more left in his legs yet, and says another decade may still be on the cards as he looks to add to his career earnings, which doubled following the £300,000 cheque he received in Sheffield.

From Pitsea to Basildon to Vange, Bingham is looking to upgrade on his current home in the next year although admits he will have a lot of work to do on the snooker table as he looks to cement his place among the sports elite.

“I was 10/15 years in the game and hadn’t done anything. I had won a few small tournaments but in the last five years I have kicked on.

“I will have gone from being the hunter to the hunted and will be a big scalp for someone so I have to improve. It will be hard coming out as the reigning world champion but I have earned it.

“I have had a lot of help from the likes of Dave Meads (first coach) and then Joe Lazarus. He looked after me for 10 years and he always said I would be world champion and it was nice having those vibes. He always said it.”

Now playing at Rayleigh Lanes Snooker & Social Club, Bingham is under the tutorship of Steve Feeney and he says the new skills and techniques he has learned have taken him a long way.

“Steve and I have really clicked and I had a personal trainer at Basildon Sporting Village (Scott) who trained me up. We became friends and he helped me a lot so I owe a bit to him as well.

“My old coach Joe was a bare knuckle fighter and he always used to say fit body fit mind and he drilled that into me. It is an incredible feeling.”