BASILDON snooker professional Stuart Bingham is hoping to get a TV tonic when the Maplin UK Championships gets underway in Telford this weekend.

For the tournament is, as usual, being fully covered by BBC Television.

It is regarded by the pros as second only to the World Championship and Bingham will hope for a good run to help his bid to win through to the sport’s elite top 16 at the end of the season.

Having won his qualifying match against Jimmy Michie 9-3, Bingham has already guaranteed stepping up from his current provisional ranking of 20th at the end of the Telford competition on Sunday week.

But he knows that he faces a far from easy task in the UK. For his first round opponent is Mark Allen, who goes into action having reached the semi-finals of a recent ranking event, the Bahrain Championship.

“My qualifier against Jimmy wasn’t good snooker — in fact it’s probably the worst I’ve played for some time,” said Bingham.

“I may have won 9-3 thanks to a run of six frames on the trot from 2-2, but the top break of the match was only around the 68 mark.

“I think my last meeting with Mark Allen was when we finished 2-2 in the Premier League qualifying.

“I don’t think he’s done much this season apart from his Bahrain performandce, but he’ll be a tough opponent.”

Like most professionals, Bingham prefers the format at Telford as UK matches are played over a longer stretch, with his qualifier and first round clashes being best-of-17 frames rather than the customary nine.

“I had a good UK run a couple of years ago when I made the quarter-finals before losing 9-8 to Joe Perry,” Bingham added.

“To match that or even better it would be a big bonus for me.”

Bingham starts his challenge on Sunday evening at 7pm with the match continuing on Monday afternnon.

The winner will then take on the victor from the first round match in which ex-world champion Shaun Murphy takes on Martin Gould.

Allen started the season in 16th spot on the official rankings but has risen to 11th provisionally.