In the professional snooker of the 1980s, Jimmy White and Steve Davis were representatives of the top players of the time. A few days ago, "Whirlwind" White described the confrontation between the two as a "war" when he was a guest of the European sports "The Break", and you can imagine how fierce the confrontation between them was in the heyday of snooker.
After decades of praise, White and Davis have become "legendary" as high-profile snooker players. Throughout his career, White amassed £5 million in tournament prize money and Davis £5.5 million.
Inside the snooker arena, the performance of the two on the table may not be much different, and what really cut their position apart is that White has reached six world championship finals but has not won a title. Eurosport launched the special in the original season of the World Snooker Championships, and Neil Fultz and Jimmy White talked about the headline battle between the two in a show.
Jimmy White said: "Neil knew that Steve Davis of the '80s was the toughest of all my opponents. His strokes are excellent, his charisma is as good as his scoring ability, his competitive form is stable, and he rarely makes mistakes. ”
"My style is more like John Higgins, probably more offensive than Higgins, and when he gets the chance, he will try to hit the ball, so the media will start to create a new competition for the two of us, after all, Steve Davis alone has won."
"Steve and I actually like this relationship. I was basically wasting time going around partying, and Steve was practicing hard, so I didn't have any jealousy of him, but to know that playing against him was as fierce as a war, and I competed with him for five or six years, and this competition was still good for the sport. ”
"Whirlwind" White recalls the classic matchup between the two in the 1984 World Championship final, when he was unable to drag the game into the decider and missed the championship.
He said: "In the final against Steve, I fell behind 16-17, scored a red ball and did not get a pink ball, so I made a high-quality anglobal, and as a result, Steve successfully scored a red ball with his Rolls-Royce general advanced stroke, originally I was 40 points ahead, but in the end he was on the green ball to ensure the victory. It should have been an easy battle into 17 draws. ”
Although the result was not satisfactory, White once made a risky move to chase points: a new leather head in the middle of the game! White revealed: "In that game I was 4-12 behind after the first two stages, a snooker commentator Jim Meadowcroft used to skin the players, I said that it was too hard to play now, so we changed a new leather head, which is something that we would never dare to do now. ”
"I went to the game at 12:30 in the middle of the night to train on the ground, got used to the new skin, and the next day I won the first three sets, and another stage I won a 4-0, so I chased the score to 11 to 13, maybe I instinctively chased it to 12 draws!"
"If I had the equipment and technology I have today, maybe it would have been a different story, and I really feel that I am only one step away from the champion."