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Jimmy White
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James Warren White, MBE (born 2 May 1962) is an English professional snooker player, best known as Jimmy White. Nicknamed the "Whirlwind" (and occasionally the "People's Champion"), White is a multiple World Championship finalist. He has been a professional since 1980, the year in which he won the World Amateur title.
e was born in Tooting, London, United Kingdom, and studied at Ernest Bevin College. He never achieved academic success, as he was often truant from school from the age of eight or nine, spending more and more time at Ted Zanicelli's snooker hall.
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Encyclopedia
James Warren White, MBE (born 2 May 1962) is an English professional snooker player, best known as Jimmy White. Nicknamed the "Whirlwind" (and occasionally the "People's Champion"), White is a multiple World Championship finalist. He has been a professional since 1980, the year in which he won the World Amateur title.
Early life
White was born in Tooting, London, United Kingdom, and studied at Ernest Bevin College. He never achieved academic success, as he was often truant from school from the age of eight or nine, spending more and more time at Ted Zanicelli's snooker hall. It was around this time that he met Tony Meo with whom he would compete in money matches in many venues. His natural aptitude for snooker led to a successful amateur career. After winning the English Amateur Championship in 1979, a year later he became the youngest ever winner of the World Amateur Snooker Championship, aged 18.
Career
With a host of major titles and achievements, including ten ranking tournaments, White's overall record ranks puts him well up the list of snooker's most successful players. The BBC describes him as a "legend". A left-hander, he reached the World Professional Championship Final on six occasions (1984, 1990-1994) but failed to win the sport's most prestigious title since his first attempt in 1981. Nonetheless, his consistency waned in the 2000s and a first-round defeat in the 2006 World Championship saw White drop out of the world's top 32 player rankings. On 20 July 2006, White said that he would go off and play golf in Spain if he thought he had no chance of regaining his former competitiveness: "I guarantee you I will be in the top 16 for next year. I am far too good. White's continued slide down the rankings saw him drop to 65th (as of May 2008). However, he remains in the 2008-09 professional tour.
The World Championship has provided the theatre for White's greatest disappointments. In 1982, he led Alex Higgins 15-14 in their nip-and-tuck semi-final, was up 59-0 in the penultimate and a and away from the final. However, he eventually succumbed to Higgins' fightback. In the 1984 final he trailed Steve Davis 12-4 at the end of the first day's play, made a determined comeback, yet eventually lost by a margin of only 18-16.
In 1992, he led Stephen Hendry 12-6 and then 14-8. After Hendry pulled back to 14-9, White needed to only one red to win both the 24th and 25th frames, obstacles he could not overcome. After the deficit was reduced further to 12-14, White went when compiling a potentially frame-winning break. Hendry drew level at 14-14 without conceding a further and won the closely contested 29th and 30th frames to lead 16-14. Two completed Hendry's ten-frame winning streak and a remarkable 18-14 victory. White's defeat may be attributed to a combination of his own inability to secure crucial frames from winning positions, to an opponent who played his best snooker as White faltered, and, less importantly, to one or two instances of bad luck. White admitted later that he had been drinking the night before and that this was a contributing factor to his downfall.
White also reached the final in 1993 but found Hendry much too strong: his 5-18 defeat was the second heaviest reverse in a final in the modern era. However, arguably his best chance came in the 1994 final, his fifth consecutive and third in a row against Hendry. White trailed 1-5 early on but recovered well to lead 10-9. Hendry again surged clear 15-13 and 17-16 but a break of 75 from White took the match to a decider. In the final frame, White was on a break of 29 and leading the frame by 37 points to 24. He then missed an easy black off its spot, after which commentator Dennis Taylor observed: "Dear me, that was just a little bit of tension". Had White potted the , he would have been required to pot only three more reds (with blacks) to leave Hendry needing penalty points to win. As it happened, Hendry cleared with a technically straightforward break of 58 to win the title. Gracious in defeat, White joked that Hendry was "beginning to annoy" him in the post-match interview.
White became the first player to beat Hendry twice at the World Championship, when he added a 1998 first-round win (10-4 after leading 7-0 and 8-1) to his 13-12 second-round success over Hendry ten years earlier. The feat has since been matched by Matthew Stevens and Ronnie O'Sullivan.
White is one of only six players to have completed a maximum 147 break at the World Championship (1992). He has also compiled 253 competitive centuries during his career.
Rather than being deficient in any technical aspect of the game, for instance he is very proficient in using the rest, it is arguable that occasional moments of inconsistency or lack of concentration, particularly at critical points in a match, have cost White dearly. But for these, his record could have been even better. His improvement in the 2003-04 season also highlighted how tough a player White could be when he adopted a more disciplined approach and reined in his array of shots.
Despite being best known for snooker, he is also a pool player. Along with Steve Davis and Alex Higgins, White was a member of Europe's victorious Mosconi Cup team of 1995, and won the deciding match against Lou Butera.
Tournament Wins
Ranking Wins
Non-Ranking Wins
Filmography
White had a cameo role as himself (as the World Billiards Champion) in Stephen Chow's 1990 kung fu and billiards comedy film, Legend of the Dragon.
On the popular BBC game show Big Break, White was the first player to clear the table with 3 reds still remaining in the final part of the challenge (thus winning the top prize for the contestant he was playing for). He was introduced to the studio audience on each appearance with the song "Jimmy Jimmy" by the Undertones.
In popular culture
Jimmy White has endorsed three computer games: Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker, Jimmy White's 2: Cueball, and Jimmy White's Cueball World. These computer and video games have been released for numerous machines, from 8 bits up to second-generation consoles and mobile phones, including the Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, Sega Genesis, Mega Drive, Game Boy Color, Sony PlayStation, Playstation 2, Dreamcast, Xbox, and PC platforms. In June of 2007, he was contracted to the online billiard website Play89.
Personal life
White had an operation for testicular cancer in 1995. He was married to Maureen White, and they have five children. He currently lives in Epsom
In 1999, he was awarded an MBE. Coincidentally, the three players to have beaten him in the world finals (Davis, 1984; Hendry, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994; Parrott, 1991) have also received an MBE. A keen poker player, he won the second Poker Million tournament, held in 2003, which also had Steve Davis at the final table. He is also good friends with professional poker player Dave "The Devilfish" Ulliott.
In November 2007, his father, Tommy White, died aged 88. With his daughter Lauren Albert, White is a director of Jimmy White Ltd, which had a turnover of £180,359 in 2006.
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