Jimmy White
James Warren White is an English professional snooker player who has won ten ranking events. Nicknamed "The Whirlwind" because of his swift and attacking style of play, White has reached six World Snooker Championship finals during his career but finished runner-up on each occasion. He has won two of snooker's Triple Crown events, the 1984 Masters and the 1992 UK Championship. White is a record four-time World Seniors Champion, winning in 2010, 2019, 2020 and 2023.
White won the English Amateur Championship in 1979 and he turned professional in 1980. He reached his first World Championship final in 1984 and won his first ranking event at The Classic in 1986. White reached five consecutive world finals from 199094, losing all of them, including four to Stephen Hendry. His form then began to decline, and his last ranking event victory came at the 2004 Players Championship. His last appearance at the World Championship was in 2006 and he has unsuccessfully attempted to qualify each year since. After dropping out of the top 64 in 2017, White was given invitational tour cards for a place on the World Snooker Tour up until 2023. White regained his card on merit at the end of the 202223 season, before being given a new invitational card in 2025 to run until the end of the 202627 season.
White's ten ranking event titles currently place him twelfth on the all-time list of ranking event winners. A mainstay in snooker's top 16 for much of the 1980s and 1990s, White has a career high ranking of second. He has made over 300 century breaks in professional competition, and was also the first left-handed player, and the second player overall, to record a maximum break at the World Championship. White is a member of the World Snooker Tour Hall of Fame.
Early life and influences
James Warren White was born on 2 May 1962 in Tooting, London, England, and studied at Ernest Bevin School. 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 Zanincelli's snooker hall, Zan's. It was around this time that White met Tony Meo, with whom he would compete in money matches at different venues, with stakes put up by taxi driver "Dodgy Bob" Davis, who also drove them to the venues. White played his "hero" and future friend Alex Higgins for the first time, aged 13, in an exhibition in Balham. Speaking much later about Higgins' influence on his career, White said that watching Higgins play in the 1970s was "the reason I started to play the game." White has also acknowledged the influence that Higgins had on his playing style saying "I modelled my game on him...I was only the whirlwind because he was the hurricane." In 1976, club owner Henry West, who managed leading snooker prospect Patsy Fagan, met White at Zan's and became the manager for him and Meo.Career
1977–1991
White lost 23 to Meo in the final of the 1977 Pontins Junior Championship, and defeated David Bonney 32 in the final of the British Under-16s Championship the same year. He won the 1979 English Amateur Championship a month before his 17th birthday, becoming the youngest champion at the event. He won the London Section of the tournament by defeating Danny Adds 4–1 in the final, and then secured victory in the Southern Area section, culminating with an 85 win over Cliff Wilson. White then defeated Northern Section winner Dave Martin 13–10 in the grand final. White reached the final of the Pontins Spring Open, beating Doug Mountjoy, Neville Suthers, John Howell and Paul Medati before losing 37 to Steve Davis, despite Davis giving White a 30-point start per frame and White having led 31.The Billiards and Snooker Control Council decided to exclude White from the 1980 World Amateur Snooker Championship as a punishment because he appeared to have been impaired by drinking alcohol during a Home International match against Steve Newbury, but reversed that decision the following week. White was the top seed for the championship, and won all six matches in his qualifying group. In the quarter-finals, from 24 against Newbury, he won 54, and then eliminated Paul Mifsud 86 in the semi-finals after trailing 03 and 46. He sealed victory with an 112 win against Ron Atkins and became the youngest winner of the title.
White had already been accepted as a professional by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association before the World Amateur Championship, to take effect after the tournament. In his debut season, he defeated Bernie Mikkelsen and Jim Meadowcroft in the qualifying competition for the 1981 World Championship but then lost 8–10 to Davis in the first round. Around April 1981, White changed his management to Sportsworld, set up by Harvey Lisberg and Geoff Lomas, which paid West £10,000 for the transfer. Lisberg arranged for White's teeth to be straightened, his hair to be permed, and encouraged him to wear good suits. A photoshoot with Patrick Lichfield was arranaged to provide press pictures. White's makeover was featured on the BBC TV news and current affairs programme Newsnight.
At the start of the 1981–82 snooker season, White won his first professional title, the non-ranking Scottish Masters, having defeated Ray Reardon and Davis in matches that went to a before beating Cliff Thorburn 9–4 in the final. White trailed 0–3 and 1–4 but then won eight frames in succession to win the title and the £8,000 first prize. Later in the year he also won the invitational Northern Ireland Classic, defeating Davis 119, but Davis whitewashed him 09 in their semi-final at the 1981 UK Championship. His performances led to him being given an invitation to the 1982 Masters, where he lost 45 to Eddie Charlton in the first round. At the 1982 World Snooker Championship, he eliminated world number one Thorburn, then Perrie Mans and Kirk Stevens, to reach the semi-finals. He led Alex Higgins 15–14 in their semi-final, and was 59 points ahead in the penultimate. After missing a red with the rest, he could only watch as Higgins compiled a frame-winning 69 break. Higgins won the deciding frame that followed to reach the final. Reflecting on the match many years later, White said "facing him at the Crucible in Sheffield is what I had dreamt about from when I was 10 years old." When the professional rankings were updated at the end of the season, he moved from 21st place to 10th.
The 1982–83 snooker season was the first in which two tournaments outside the World Snooker Championship counted towards the ranking list. White reached the final of the second of these, the 1982 Professional Players Tournament where he was defeated 810 by Reardon. He also lost to Reardon in the final of the non-ranking 1983 International Masters. At the 1983 World Championship, he suffered a first-round exit to Meo, 810.
File:Terry Griffith 1991.jpg|thumb|alt=Terry Griffiths playing snooker|White's first Triple Crown victory was against Terry Griffiths at the 1984 Masters
In 1984, White won his first Triple Crown event at the Masters, although the concept of the triple crown did not exist in snooker at the time. White beat Charlton, Reardon and Kirk Stevens to reach the final where he triumphed over Terry Griffiths 95. He followed this success by reaching his first World Championship final. Trailing Davis 4–12 after the first two sessions, White responded by reducing the deficit to 15–16. He later made a 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 Thorburn 10–2 in the final of the World Doubles Championship. In February 1985, White successfully won a court case against Lisberg, who had sought to prevent him changing management to Golden Leisure. After winning the 1985 Irish Masters with a 95 victory against Alex Higgins, White reached the quarter-finals at the 1985 World Championship in April, but exited the tournament with a 1013 loss to Tony Knowles.
White took a 7–0 lead against Thorburn in the 1985 Matchroom Trophy final, but was beaten 10–12. In 1986, he reached his second Masters final, but was defeated by Thorburn 59. However, he defeated Thorburn in a final-frame decider to win his first ranking title, the Classic. Having won the first four frames and leading 4–3 after the first, White forfeited a frame for arriving late at the second session, and finished that session one frame behind at 7–8. In the deciding frame of the third session, White ; he Thorburn on the final and after Thorburn failed to hit the pink, White potted pink and black for victory. Later that season, he retained the Irish Masters title with a 95 victory over Thorne.
White changed his management again in September 1986, joining Barry Hearn's Matchroom stable; the addition of White meant that Matchroom managed seven of the top 13 players. White reportedly paid £50,000 to Golden Leisure's successor company to buy himself out, while still paying a proportion of his earnings to Sportsworld under the terms of the earlier court ruling. He played future rival Stephen Hendry for the first time professionally at the 1986 Scottish Masters, with White winning their clash 51. Later in the year, he overcame veteran Rex Williams 10–6 to win his first Grand Prix title. He lost in the deciding frame to Davis, 12–13, at the 1987 Classic. White's third ranking event win came at the 1987 British Open, where he lifted the trophy after a 139 victory over Neal Foulds. This helped him to end the 1986–87 season as world number two, behind Davis who defeated him 11–16 in the semi-finals of the 1987 World Championship.
Later in 1987, White and Davis contested the UK Championship final which Davis won 16–14 after they had been level at 7–7 and 12–12. White was part of the England team that were crowned the 1988 Snooker World Cup winners. Playing alongside Davis and Foulds, the trio secured a 9–7 victory over Australia in the final. In 1988, he defeated John Campbell, Hendry and Knowles to reach his fourth World Championship semi-final. He played Griffiths and, trailing 11–13, lost a tied frame on a re-spotted black. Griffiths went on to reach the final courtesy of an 11–16 win. White played John Virgo in the second round of the 1989 World Championship and won 13–12. The reprieve was short-lived as White was 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 a 16–14 victory over Davis in the semi-finals of the 1990 World Championship. It was Davis's first defeat in the event in four years. White subsequently lost his second World Championship final 12–18 to Hendry. However, White beat Hendry 18–9 to retain his World Matchplay title later in the year and that win was followed by a 10–4 victory over Hendry in the final of the 1991 Classic. White continued his run of success by beating Tony Drago 10–6 in the final of the 1991 World Masters for his third successive tournament win.
He played Parrott in the final of the 1991 World Championship and was whitewashed in the first session 0–7. Although White managed to close the gap to 7–11, Parrott was able to seal an 18–11 victory. White was defeated by Parrott again, 13–16 in the final of the 1991 UK Championship. It was White's fifth defeat in five UK and World Championship finals.