Stuart Bingham beats Shaun Murphy to win snooker World championship

Stuart Bingham holds the trophy aloft after his victory on Monday

Sheffield, May 5 (IANS): Stuart Bingham beat Shaun Murphy 18-15 to win the title of the 2015 snooker World Championship here.

Bingham, 38, playing his first final at the Crucible Theatre, trailed the 2005 champion Murphy 8-9 after a thrilling first day's competition, Xinhua reported.

But he made a brilliant comeback to build a 14-11 lead after Monday's afternoon session by winning six out of eight frames.

Murphy, also the beaten finalist in 2009, managed to pull it even at 15-15 before Bingham retook the lead in the next frame 80-56, which last 63 minutes and 31 seconds.

Bingham, the 10th seed, then gave Murphy no chance by taking the next two frames for a 18-15 victory.

"At one stage at 15-15, I thought I was going to do Shaun's speech," Bingham said. "It was a 64-minute frame to go 16-15 and that really calmed me down.

"To beat Shaun in the final tops everything off. Twenty years as professional - blood, sweat and tears on the road. So many family and friends have backed me. It is unbelievable."

He also won a top prize money of 300,000 pounds (about 450,000 U.S. dollars).

Murphy said: "It's been a great fortnight for me. It's not finished the way I wanted it to.

"I came here well prepared and gave it my best as I always do and to come up against an inspired Stuart Bingham. He always played like a champion through this tournament."

"As a snooker geek like Stuart, there is not a player alive who deserves it more than him," Murphy added.