STUART Bingham made a superb 147 as he booked his place in the third round of the China Open and secured his place at the Snooker World Championships.

The Bowers Gifford potter hit the maximum break in the seventh frame of the match to move 4-3 ahead against Ricky Walden, who he defeated 6-4 in Beijing.

Bingham potted 15 red balls, each followed by 15 black balls before the yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and black balls completed a memorable afternoon.

The break means Bingham will currently walk home with half the jackpot prize of £42,000, because Ronnie O’Sullivan also scored a 147 just 24 hours earlier.

The break was the 138th maximum break in snooker history and seventh of the season.

It is Bingham’s most high-profile maximum of his career and his first in six years.

Bingham’s previous 147s came at a 1999 UK Tour event, 2005 Masters qualifying and the 2012 Wuxi Classic.

And while pocketing a neat £21,000, Bingham’s progress into the third round means he has also secured his place at the Crucible in three weeks time.

The 2015 World Champion is up to 13th in the rankings and cannot be caught by any players bidding to break into the top 16.

Bingham’s perfect break came in the seventh frame of his last-32 match against Walden in Beijing, putting the 2015 World Champion 4-3 up.

Having lost a 3-1 lead, the best of 11 match finely posed ahead of the final five frames.

Following the maximum break, Bingham hit a break of 69 to move into a 5-3 lead and to within one frame of victory.

And while Walden won frame 10, Bingham emerged victorious to set up a clash today against Graeme Dott, another former World Champion.