Stuart Bingham
Stuart Bingham opened his Northern Ireland Open campaign with a maximum (Picture: Getty Images)

Stuart Bingham rolled in the sixth 147 break of his career at the Northern Ireland Open on Tuesday, as he climbs towards the top of the all-time maximum break list.

The 43-year-old made the stunning break in the first round and in the very first frame of his 4-3 win over Lu Ning in Belfast – it’s hard to imagine a better way to settle into a tournament.

Bingham actually came close to losing the match, despite racing into a 3-0 lead, as he was pegged back to 3-3 before scraping over the line in a decider.

Remarkably it was Bingham’s first ever win in Belfast and admits that he did not think his game was there to make a maximum.

‘All the years we’ve been coming here, even as the Northern Ireland Trophy it’s my first win so over the moon,’ said Bingham.

‘It was really weird, because I was practicing before and struggling to pot a pink in the middle so I thought it was just going to be one of those days.

‘I’m trying to get my confidence back and every shot there I thought somethings going to go wrong here, even on the pink and black.’

The man known as Ballrun is now fourth on the all-time list of maximum-makers, level with Ding Junhui on six 147s as a professional.

He is only lagging behind Ronnie O’Sullivan (15), Stephen Hendry (11) and John Higgins (9), so he still has a long way to go to catch the Rocket, but is in seriously good company.

Bingham made his first maxi way back in 1999, but has produced the feat remarkably regularly in recent times, making a 147 last year and two in 2019 already.

The former world champion is likely to have secured himself the £5,000 top break prize in Belfast this week, but it remains extremely unlikely he will get a bonus for making the maximum.

World Snooker introduced a new system at the start of the season which provides a £1m bonus to be shared out by any players who make maximums over the season.

However, this only comes into play if 20 are made, if not, then no one gets anything.

Bingham’s is the third of the season, with Tom Ford remarkably making the other two so far, so there is a long way to go before we even get close to that magical 20 mark.

The new system has been criticised by players as ‘impossible’ and some players are not even attempting maximums as they would rather take easier options to secure a frame, or a more likely high break prize for the tournament.

To put the target into context, there has never previously been more than 13 maximums hit in a season.

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