Jimmy White

James Warren "Jimmy" White MBE (born 2 May 1962) is an English professional snookerplayer. Nicknamed the "Whirlwind" and popularly referred to as the "People's Champion", White is a multiple World Championship finalist renowned for losing each of the six finals he contested.

White's extensive list of achievements, however, also include victory in the World Amateur Championship, the UK Championship and the Masters. He is also a former World Doubles champion with Alex Higgins, won the World Cup twice and Nations Cup once with England and is the reigning World Seniors Champion. In 1992, he became the first left-handed player, and second overall, to record a maximum break at the World Championship.

White established himself as a top professional in 1981. After losing 8–10 to eventual champion Steve Davis in the first-round of World Championship, White went on to win his first professional titles – the Scottish Masters (defeating Cliff Thorburn in the final) and the Northern Ireland Classic (defeating Davis).

The World Championship has provided the theatre for White's greatest disappointments. In 1982, he led Alex Higgins 15–14 in their semi-final, was up 59–0 in the penultimate frame and was a red and colour away from the final. After missing a red with the rest, however, he could only watch as Higgins compiled frame-winning 69 break. Higgins won the deciding frame that followed to reach the final.

In 1984 White won the Masters for the only time to date, beating Terry Griffiths 9–5 in the final. He followed this success by reaching his firstWorld Championship final. Trailing Steve Davis 4–12 after the first two sessions, White responded by reducing the deficit to 15–16. He then made an aggressive clearance of 65 to take the score to 16–17, but was unable to build upon a 40-point lead in the following frame, and lost 16–18. White did, however, become a World Doubles Champion later that year when he and Alex Higgins defeated Willie Thorne and Cliff Thorburn 10–2 in the final of the World Doubles Championship.

In 1986 White reached his second Masters final, but was defeated by Cliff Thorburn. However he won the Classic and also retained the Irish Masters title he won in 1985. White won the Classic when he beat Thorburn in the final frame after needing a snooker. Later in the year he overcame veteran Rex Williams 10–6 to win his first Grand Prix title.

White's third ranking win – the 1987 British Open – helped him to end the 1986/1987 season as World number 2, behind Steve Davis who defeated him 16–11 in the semi-finals of the 1987 World Championship. Later that year White and Davis contested a memorable UK Championship final which Davis won 16–14.

In 1988 he defeated John Campbell, Stephen Hendry and Tony Knowles to reach his fourth World Championship semi-final. He played Terry Griffiths and, trailing 11–13, lost a tied frame on a respotted black. Griffiths went on to reach the final courtesy of a 16–11 win. White did at least manage to consolidate his number-2 world ranking. However the 1988/1989 season was less successful, and White's ranking slipped. He trailed John Virgo 11–12 in the second-round of the 1989 World Championship and looked beaten when his opponent was on a break of 26 in the following frame. Virgo, however, called a foul on himself and White was able to win 13–12. The reprieve was short-lived as White was soundly beaten 7–13 by eventual finalist John Parrott in the quarter-finals. White avenged this defeat later in the year by beating Parrott 18–9 in the final of the invitational World Matchplay.

In 1990 White recorded an 16–14 victory over Steve Davis in the semi-finals of the World Championship. It was Davis's first defeat in the event in 4 years. White subsequently lost his second World Championship final 12–18 to Stephen Hendry. However White beat Hendry 18–9 to retain his World Matchplay title later in the year and this win was followed by a 10–4 victory over Hendry (after leading 9–0) in the final of the 1991 Classic. White continued his run of success with victory in the short-lived World Masters, beating Tony Drago 10–6 in the final.

Steve James ended Hendry's reign as World Champion in the 1991 World Championship and White in turn defeated James to reach the final. He played John Parrott and was whitewashed in the first session 0–7. Although White managed to close the gap to 7–11, Parrott was able to seal a convincing 18–11 victory. Parrott then overcame White 16–13 to win the UK Championship later in 1991.

At the beginning of the 2009/10 season White reached the final of the Champion of Champions Challenge in Killarney, eventually losing 1–5 to Shaun Murphy.

Provisionally No. 47 for the season it has seen White have a surprising return of form. His 2nd tournament of the season was the Sangsom 6-red World Grand Prix in Bangkok Thailand. White won the tournament, putting an end to his drought of titles by winning his first since 2004. On his way to the final he beat Shaun Murphy, defending champion Ricky Walden, Mark King and Mark Williams, eventually beating Barry Hawkins in the final 8–6.

Only 1 month later in the Paul Hunter Classic he again reached the final, however this time lost to Shaun Murphy 0–4. Two months later on 18 October White reached the final of the World Series of Snooker in Prague, his fourth final of the season. This time he was victorious, claiming his 2nd title of the season by defeating Graeme Dott 5–3.

On 17 December 2009 it was confirmed that White received a wild card for the Wembley Masters. White played against Mark King in the wild card round, but lost the match 2–6.

Prior to the world championship White won only 2 of his 6 qualifying matches. he defeated Bjorn Haneveer 5–0 at the Shanghai Masters^]and Jordan Brown 5–1 at the Welsh Open. Thanks to this and skipping the UK Championship for I'm a Celebrity…Get Me out of Here! he was in danger to losing his Main Tour spot for the following season.

However he secured his place on the Main Tour for another season with a 10–8 victory over Mark Boyle at the World Championship Qualifiers. He then lost 3–10 against Ken Doherty in the next round.

White started the 2010/2011 season by entering the Players Tour Championship, his best performance coming in the first European eventand at the sixth event in Sheffield, where he reached the quarter-finals each time. After 10 out of 12 events White was ranked 35th in the Order of Merit.

White also reached the quarter-finals of the Six-red World Championship, topping his qualifying group along the way. He failed to qualify for the Shanghai Masters, losing his first qualifying match 3–5 against Liam Highfield. He won his two qualification matches for theWorld Open; but lost in the last 32 1–3 against Ronnie O'Sullivan.

White won the World Seniors Championship, defeating Steve Davis 4-1 in the final. At the UK Championship in December White lost 8-9 to Stephen Hendry in the first-round after he had came through three qualifying rounds to get to Telford. It was only the fifth time in 24 years that White and Hendry had taken each other to the final frame and 16 years since Hendry's 18-17 win over White in the 1994 World Championship final.He participated at qualifying stages of the German Masters, but lost in the second round 1–5 against Jimmy Robertson, White reached the last qualifying round of the Welsh Open, but was whitewashed by Ryan Day, and has qualified for the final stages of the China Open, by defeating Liu Chuang, Peter Lines and Dominic Dale. but had to withdraw from the tournament due to visa problems. White lost his first qualifying match for the World Championship 9-10 against Jimmy Robertson.