STUART Bingham says his season has well and truly got underway after three qualifying victories booked his place at upcoming ranking events.

The Bowers Gifford snooker player, 42, defeated Chris Totten (4-1), Jamie Jones (4-3) and Craig Steadman (5-4) to qualify for the Indian Open, European Masters and China Championship respectively.

It came after two unexpected defeats in qualifying which meant he missed out on the Riga Masters and World Open.

Bingham is now enjoying a week off ahead of the 6 Red World Championship at the start of September.

And he says he is pleased with the manner of his victories, as he came from 4-2 behind to defeat Steadman in Preston on Monday.

“I started well against Chris Totten even though I lost the first frame,” said the world number 12. “I thought ‘here we go again’ but after that I got in and scored heavily and it gave me the confidence I needed for the next two matches.

“I had a good old battle with Jamie Jones. It fell for me at the right times and I held my nerve to get over the line. There was never more than a frame between us and it was a really tough qualifier to get through.

“The last match wasn’t great from my perspective.

“At 2-2 it was OK but my game went after that and I felt like I didn’t have much in me. Maybe it was because I had been there all week.

“Even potting the black felt exhausting and I was even a bit shocked to pocket the black bearing in mind how I had played.

“I spoke to (coach) Terry Griffiths afterwards and he said hanging in there was key and those qualities I had built up over the years paid off.

“I am only taking positives from it.”

Bingham was set to head to Kochi for the Indian Open between September 18-22 to face Peter Lines.

However, flooding in the region means the event has been moved back and will now take place in November.

And Bingham, who flies out to Thailand at the end of this month, says his thoughts were with those affected.

“I saw what was happening on the news and I didn’t realise the flooding was where we were going,” he said.

“It can’t be helped. It’s devastating to see but as we were heading there in just a few weeks it is even more shocking.

“At the end of the day it is just snooker. It puts everything into perspective and I hope everyone gets through it.”