STUART Bingham booked his place in the final of the Ladbrokes World Grand Prix after beating Joe Perry 6-5 in a thrilling semi-final this afternoon.

And he admitted he came good at a vital stage of the match after trailing 3-0 following the opening three frames.

"I'm just over the moon," said Basildon's world champion Bingham. "I was never in front in the match but I got my nose in front when it mattered.

"It just felt that the first three frames from 3-0 down that I just had to be patient.

"I thought he (Joe) was getting away with murder; some shots he was missing them by miles and he was just getting away with it.

"I just had to be patient I nicked that fourth frame to go 3-1 and then pulled it back."

The reigning world champ was on the back foot as Perry raced into a 3-0 lead.

But Vange potter Bingham hit back to take the next three frames to level the match.

The duo continued to trade frames in the best-off-11 encounter to set up a dramatic last-frame decider.

Bingham made a break of 29 and overcame a nasty kick before Perry took to the table in the winner-takes-all frame.

The Cambridgeshire player missed a red into the top right corner and could not take advantage of a later visit to the table.

And Bingham went on to produce a break of 69 to win the frame 98-0 and the match 6-5.

He will now face either Shaun Murphy or Ding Junhui in tomorrow's final. The duo meet this evening in the other semi-final at Llandudno.

Bingham, who has been struggling all week in Wales with a cold, added: "Pretty much in the first two frames I gave him shots under two foot to get in and I missed an easy black for the frame, it was just a bit of distraction in the crowd and where I've not had a lot of sleep, things were getting at me."

Perry was disappointed not to build on his early advantage but the player nicknamed The Gentleman said it was good to see Bingham back in form following a season of mixed fortunes.

"I had Stuart in the beginning but I didn't capitalise on that and he was the worthy winner in the end," Perry said.

"For me personally, that didn't feel that good today. I felt that was about as weak as I have played for a long time.

"I'm a little bit disappointed with my own performance. I tried hard even though my game wasn't quite on song today and I came close."