WORLD Snooker champion Stuart Bingham says repeating last season’s successes will be a hard-act to follow as he gears up for his first ranking tournament of the new campaign.

The 39-year-old from Vange heads down under for the Australian Goldfields Open next week after a hugely profitable 2014/15 season, in which he won the World Championships, Shanghai Masters and the Championship League.

Bingham has just played in his first ever Snooker World Cup alongside Mark Selby, having ended the year as world number two, and he said he hopes the experience stands him in good stead ahead of the new season.

“It was a great experience,” said Bingham. “It was a real pleasure to play alongside Mark and there were different pressures compared to a normal match.

“As Mark was often taking the next shot I was taking even more care with each of my own as you don’t want to make a mistake only for your mate to be left with a hard shot. But it was all good fun and I enjoyed the challenge.

“It was frustrating to lose in the manner we did, but we gave it our best shot and were made to pay for a slow start in the end.

“It was a hard group without doubt with the Republic of Ireland not qualifying either, so I am a bit gutted but I have to move past it.

“I haven’t had much of a chance to practice recently so I will have to make sure I fit it in this week.”

Bingham is heading to Hong Kong for an exhibition match with World Ladies’ Snooker Champion Zoe Ng On Yee on Friday before flying to Australia the next day.

Bingham says he wasn’t introduced as World Champion at the World Cup, with the first time expected to be on Monday, when he faces Fergal O’Brien at the Australian Open.

And he says he is looking forward to returning to the scene of his very first ranking event win, back in 2011.

“I always like playing there,” said Bingham. “It is a chance for me to start the season well although I have a really hard start against Fergal. He is a good player and I need to be on top of my game to come through that.

“I normally only aim for one tournament win a year, so to do what I did last year was special. Now I need to go again.”

Snooker made headlines this week after it missed out on becoming an Olympic sport for the 2020 Tokyo Games.

The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association has since targeted the 2024 Games, and Bingham has thrown his full support behind the bid.

“Snooker is a British sport but it has a global appeal,” he said. “You only need to look at the success of the China B team at the World Cup to see there are some really strong youngsters on the circuit.

“It is disappointing it wasn’t accepted this time around but they will bid again and hopefully it will become an Olympic sport in the future, although I may be too old by 2024!”

Bingham begins at 7am on Monday in his Australian Open campaign.