STUART Bingham’s coach and mentor says Basildon’s “brilliant new champion” is targeting the world number one spot after the Vange potter lifted the Snooker World Championship trophy.

Steve Feeney has been Bingham’s coach for the past five years and, on Monday night, watched him claim his most telling prize to date – beating Shaun Murphy 18-15 in the final and bagging £300,000 prize money in the process.

Bingham was quick to praise Feeney in an emotional speech and Feeney, a former regional snooker champion himself has revolutionized the way Bingham plays the game through his SightRight technology.

And he says his next goal is taking the 38-year-old to world number one.

“Stuart is world-class, world champion and we now need to get him to world number one. “He must have had more than 1,000 pictures last night and it is a new experience for all of us. It has been mad with all the press and media and you have to pinch yourself.

“We had an inner belief Stuart was going to do something special and he keeps improving and he was never going to give in at all, no matter what.

“His talent, temperament and desire shone through.”

Feeney is the world’s foremost expert on sighting and alignment techniques in snooker, golf and darts, and the SightRight technique is now used by professional sportsmen across the globe, including the likes of golfers Darren Clarke and Colin Montgomery.

Bingham is the latest beneficiary of the technique, with alignment technology built into his cue to help his action and sight the ball correctly.

And now Feeney wants him to push on and stamp his claim as the best in the business.

“Before Stuart started using this technology he was looking slightly across the line of the ball, when he believed he had the perfect line.

“But he is now hitting the ball better than ever and can go on to achieve even more.”