It is common enough to measure your progress against a peer. So when snooker player Martin O’Donnell beats his training partner, he thinks nothing of it. The difference is he is potting against world champion Stuart Bingham.

O’Donnell, 28 and from Northwood, practices at The Glen Social and Sports Club on Victoria Road in north Watford.

It is a world away from the Crucible where training partner Bingham recently became world champion for the first time by beating Shaun Murphy. The pair have that much in common after O’Donnell defeated the former world champion in the Star Xing Pai Players Tour Championship in 2010.

And O’Donnell, who also practices with Watford-based Martin Gould, said: “I am lucky to have some of the guys I have got around me.

“I compete quite well against him (Bingham) in practice; I play him and think I am not miles off of his level. Then he goes on to win the World Championship.

“But even so, he can inspire someone like me to go on and replicate what he has done.”

For now though, O’Donnell has a rather simpler target. After securing his tour card for the next two years by beating amateur Jamie Clark through the EBSA play-off event, his focus immediately turns to retaining his place on the circuit after 2017.

His next event will be the Australian Goldfields Open qualifiers which get underway on June 1.

And O’Donnell is all too aware of the commitment required to make headway in a game which requires vast amounts of travel and dedication.

“I have got a long-term girlfriend and we are in the process of trying to move in together at the moment, so that is up in the air,” he admitted.

“It is not all as rosy as it sounds. You have to find £10,000 to £15,000 per season and if you can get someone to help you then you are relying on success which means juggling your life to go to events.

“It is not that easy to get a sponsor but I think we are more attractive now there are so many events on the calendar and everything is on British Eurosport,” he reasoned. “Hopefully I will play on there a bit more this year and get some sponsors on my waistcoat.”

Ronnie O’Sullivan remains the sport’s poster-boy and after exiting the World Championships the ‘Rocket’ stated he was not prepared to “live out of a suitcase” in the pursuit of success.

For O’Donnell, 11 years his junior and with a considerably less healthy bank balance, that simply is not a choice he can afford to take.

He explained: “You have to [live out of a suitcase]. Ronnie O’Sullivan is in a position where money does not matter to him. But if you want progress and to win money then it is what you have got to do.

“I enjoy going to tournaments though, it is a sacrifice but more so if you have loved ones – and more so for them, because you don’t see it from their point of view.

“To travel the world and do it in a job you love is amazing. I have been to China a couple of times and all across the world so I am very lucky in that respect. You do not normally get that chance to see much of the world. I have always wanted to travel and you do not get that in a nine-to-five job.”

O’Donnell’s best tournament performance saw him reach the last eight of the Scottish Open in 2012. It is a marker he hopes to beat one day, explaining: “I am not different to anyone out there, I would like to be world number one.

“But I will set myself targets for the season first. You need to get into the top 64 to stay on the tour and that is my immediate focus, though I would like to reach another quarter-final again.”