Pink power for Bingham

Stuart Bingham set down his marker for the season with an excellent capture of the Pink Ribbon pro-am event today.

Picture by Monique Limbos

Ballrun cruised to the title of this charity event at the South West Snooker Academy in Gloucester in impressive fashion. He recorded back-to-back 4-0 wins over Mark Allen and Peter Lines making two centuries in each match.

This win comes at a perfect time as the new season is soon to start for him with the defence of his Australian Open in Bendigo close on the horizon.

Bingham is one of the tour's real nice guys who everyone likes to see do well but it's also fitting to see a player, who has devoted so much of his career to playing in pro-am events, come out on top.

This is the third year running the Pink Ribbon has been hosted and thanks goes largely to SWSA boss Paul Mount. He puts more into the game than most, offering top class practice facilities for players and  has worked tirelessly to ensure this wonderful fundraiser and awareness booster for breast cancer charities goes ahead.

It's also an event players enjoy, and a lot of that comes down to appreciation for the hard work and dedication Paul puts in. He's one of the game's real gems. He put money into the sport with the creation of the academy at a time when the trend was to take it out.

It's disappointing World Snooker couldn't help spoiling the party. They insisted Paul took down live streaming of matches featuring professional players, as it breached their contracts. Although I haven't read the contract, I found this to be a distasteful and ill-timed decision.