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Player Profile: Jimmy White
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Category: |
Professional |
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First Name: |
James Warren |
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Last Name: |
White |
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Town / Country: |
London, England |
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DoB: |
02/05/62 |
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Club: |
-- |
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High Break: |
147 |
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Ranking: |
2nd ( 1987/88
to 1988/89 ) |
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Biography: |
Jimmy White is,
without doubt, the most popular player the game has known.
Losing so many times in the world final seems only to have
endeared him even more into the hearts of the snooker fans. He
is also, with the possible exception of Ronnie O'Sullivan, the
most naturally talented player we have ever seen.
Jimmy grew up in South London with his mate, Tony Meo, and spent
more time down the local snooker hall than he did at school. In
fact his headmaster realised his potential and did a deal
allowing Jimmy to skip school in the afternoons as long as he
turned up in the mornings. A local taxi driver sponsored the two
young lads and took them round the country playing money matches
until they started winning bigger events.
Jimmy first came to the attention of those in the game when he
won the national under-16 title in 1977. He was quite simply the
best for his age that anyone had ever seen and at only 16 years
and 11 months he won the English Amateur championship which
qualified him to enter the world event out in Tasmania in 1980.
He duly became the youngest winner of that championship just 191
days past his eighteenth birthday. On his way home he took the
Indian national championship for good measure and then turned
professional.
Everybody was talking about the fresh faced young star and
former world champion, John Pulman, described him as 'The
greatest natural talent that ever stepped into snooker." He
reached the Crucible at his first attempt only to come up
against Steve Davis, the eventual winner, in the first round. At
the start of the next season in only his second professional
event, he won the Scottish Masters and became the youngest
winner of a professional event. Although he lost in the opening
round of his next event, the Jameson, he won the Northern
Ireland Classic, beating Davis in the final and followed that
with a UK semi final, this time losing to Steve. He ended that
first full season with a world semi-final. That match, in which
he lost 16-15 to Alex Higgins, is still regarded as one of the
greatest ever seen at the Crucible. After just a season and a
half he was tenth in the world rankings.
In 1982/83 he was beaten by Ray Reardon in two finals but went
out in the first round in the Embassy and started the next
season with early exits in the first three events and people
were beginning to wonder whether he was just a flash in the pan.
He did get to the UK semi-final and then silenced his critics
with victory over Terry Griffiths to take the 1984 Masters title
at Wembley. He followed this with his first world final and what
a final it was. After the first day, Steve Davis was 12-4 up and
it looked all over. Then Jimmy won seven of the next eight
frames and eventually pulled it back to 16-17 before Steve
finally won 18-16.
He began the next season seventh and although he won two
invitation events, the Carlsberg Challenge and the Irish
Masters, as well at the World Doubles with Alex Higgins and was
runner up in the Scottish Masters, he still had not got a
ranking title to his name after four full seasons on the
circuit. In 1985/86 he started a little better reaching the
final of the Goya Matchroom Trophy and the UK semi-final before
finally capturing a ranking title, The Mercantile Credit
Classic. He also retained both the Irish Masters and Carlsberg
Challenge titles and added Pot Black to his list of victories.
The next season he won both the Grand Prix and the British Open
and runner-up in the Mercantile coupled with a world semi-final
put him up to number two in the rankings. No titles came his way
in 1987/88 but another semi-final at Sheffield ensured he kept
his second spot behind his great rival, Steve Davis. He added
the Canadian Masters to his list of ranking titles in 1988/89
and also won the Hong Kong Masters, an invitational event, but
still slipped down to fourth.
The following season was a bleak one on the ranking circuit but
the World Matchplay title was won and he reached his second
world final losing out to Stephen Hendry 18-12. This was the
first of five successive finals at the Crucible and poor Jimmy
lost every one making six in all. John Parrott beat him in 1991
but on the other three occasions it was Hendry every time. In
1992 he looked to have it won when he was 14-8 ahead only for
Hendry to take ten frames in a row to win 18-14 and again in
1994 with the match all square at 17 all he missed a straight
forward black when he had the match at his mercy allowing Hendry
to clear up for victory. To date he ha never reached another
world final. He did have some consolation in 1992 when he
knocked in a 147 on his way to the final.
Back on the circuit, while he was losing all those world finals
he was not doing too badly. In 1990/91 he won a second
Mercantile title and picked up the biggest prize snooker had
ever offered at that time, £200,000 for winning the one-off,
World Masters as well as retaining his World Matchplay crown.
The British and European Opens came in 1991/2 and he claimed the
Grand Prix and UK titles the season after. These however have
been his last major titles to date and although he continued to
pull in the crowds he slowly slipped down the ranking list and
dropped out of the top 16 for the first time at the end of the
1996/7 season.
In the 1998 world championship he was drawn against his old
rival, Stephen Hendry, in the very first round, a match, which
attracted everyone's attention. Against all the odds it was
Jimmy who came out the comfortable winner 10-4 and although he
went on to reach the quarter finals, it was not enough to regain
his top 16 spot.
He did manage to achieve this the following year even though his
results were not that good only managing to pick up the
consolation prize of the Pontins Professional Title. His return
to the top flight only lasted one season and he was back to
eighteenth again. It is a measure of Jimmy's pulling power that
even when not in the top 16 he continued to receive invitations
to the major non-ranking events.
His efforts to regain that top 16 spot gained a massive boost as
he started the 2000/01 campaign with his first ranking final for
six years in the British Open where he lost 9-6 to Peter Ebdon.
When he followed this with a semi-final in the Grand Prix he
looked assured of a return to the top flight. Sure enough, even
though he did not reproduce that early season form he did enough
to push his ranking back up to eleventh, his highest for six
years. With two quarter-finals in 2001/02, he edged up to tenth
and a semi-final in the Masters at Wembley helped to push is
prize money total through the £4 million mark.
Everyone in the game is delighted he has returned to the top
flight but although he has one every other major title in the
game and stands third in the all-time prize money list, his best
days are now behind him and he seems destined to go down as the
best player never to have won the world title.
But you
can never write off Jimmy White. He bounced back in
the 2003-4 season, stabilising his top 16 position and
crowning his season with victory in the Scottish Open.
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Achievements:
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World Professional Championship runner-up - 1984, 1990, 1991,
1992, 1993, 1994
UK Champion - 1992
Grand Prix Champion - 1986, 1992
Mercantile Credit Classic champion - 1986, 1991
British Open champion - 1987, 1992
Canadian Masters champion - 1988
European Open champion - 1991
Benson and Hedges Masters champion - 1984
Benson & Hedges Irish Masters champion - 1985, 1986
Scottish Masters champion - 1981
World Masters champion - 1991
World Matchplay champion - 1989, 1990
World Doubles champion - 1984 (with Alex Higgins)
Carlsberg Challenge champion - 1984, 1985
BBC Pot Black champion - 1986
Hong Kong Masters champion - 1988
Matchroom League winner - 1993
Pontins Professional champion - 1999
World Cup winning team - 1988 (England)
World Amateur champion - 1980
English Amateur champion - 1979
National Under-16 champion - 1977
Scottish Open Champion 2004
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Chris Turner
Revised June 2002
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