It's been 20 years since "Whirlwind" Jimmy White appeared in the 2001 romantic film BJ's Single Diary. Following the camera, I saw my clothes, pants, and shoes scattered on the ground, and the shouts of Daniel Cliffor, played by Hugh Grant, came: "Awesome baby, meet Daddy me..."
Text / Desmond Kane, European Sports
In the eager anticipation of the audience, the camera switches to the main scene - it turns out that the two protagonists are watching TV, watching White, who is participating in the Snooker World Championships, and he loses a key long stage, which makes Cliff very annoyed. This scene transition is inevitably a little disappointing, but it is also really funny, which corresponds to the protagonist's mood from fanatical obsession to frustration and disappointment.
Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1979 and the following year White moved to the professional snooker arena. That was the time when snooker swept through Great Britain, and even if it didn't actually go into thousands of homes in reality, at least through the TV signal. Compared to Margaret Thatcher, English football and Coronation Street's Ken Barlow, "working class" such as 6-time snooker world champion Steve Davis and Snooker Wise tend to win more TV viewers' attention.
"There were only four channels on TV in the 1980s, and everyone felt like they knew me, as if I had been in East Side." White said. Snooker itself is a soap opera, Jimmy White is a young villain with big ambitions, and thousands of fans in the UNITED hope that White, the "People's Champion", will win a world championship, but the Hollywood-style ending has never been staged.
The World Snooker Championships, held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield in 1977, have been the dream of hundreds of outstanding players, but they cannot tolerate this "whirlwind" in London. Between 1984 and 1994, White folded six times in the world championship finals, writing a piece of history in a strange and wonderful way.
Jimmy White Charm
White lost to Steve Davis in the 1984 World Championship final, John Parlot in 1991, and four more memorable times: in 1990, 1992, 1993 and 1994, the most painful of which was 1994, white saw him win 18-17 in the decider, but lost a black ball at the point to give up the victory.
The bitter defeat was 27 years ago, which also happened to be White's 32nd birthday. White has never returned to the World Championship final, and his encounter has been a reminder to those who always have high expectations: the greater the expectations, the greater the disappointment.
Ronnie O'Sullivan finally beat John Higgins 18-14 18-14 to win the World Championship, his first of six World Championship titles, and he said after winning the title: "Admittedly, the Jimmy White spell has always been lingering in my mind, always reminding me of what happened to him, wondering how he could get back to that field after falling six times in the World Championship final. ”
"In terms of mentality, I've experienced that feeling, I've never felt that way before, but what's certain is that tonight I'm the happiest person in Sheffield."
In 2021, the highly individualistic left-hander will meet seven-time World Champion Hendry again in the first round of the World Championship qualification round, which will sound like a wonderful story again. Interestingly, White still learned from his "old enemy" that the two were going to fight.
"When the signing came out, I noticed two missed calls from Stephen Hendry," White revealed, "and I was playing with another pro and I didn't have my phone with me." Back in the car, I found a whole bunch of missed calls from various reporters, and two calls from Hendry. ”
"Call him back and he said, 'Can you believe this?' From this sentence I deduced that I was going to play against him, which was simply outrageous. We have to be ready for the game and hopefully it's a high-quality game that pleases the audience. ”
Take the lead
White and Hendry have a combined single-shot score of 1,097 in their careers, and they don't need to worry about the quality of the game. Hendry, who retired in 2012, recently returned from the Gibraltar Open, losing 1-4 to his friend Matthew Serte in his first match, during which he also scored 107 points, bringing the number of single shots that had been sealed for nine years to 776.
Like White, hendry, 53, is returning to the Pro Tour with an invitation card, and this World Championship qualifier will be his second match after his return. In the face of Hendry, who has left a deep mark on his life, White knows the importance of this fight, but does not intend to reminisce about the past.
White said: "It's unbelievable, it's outrageous, we've been training together for three months. I knew that the lottery could not be ghosted, the process was carried out live, and as a result, so many players actually took the lead in falling into the signing table. He returned this season to participate in the Gibraltar Open and the World Championships, and the second game we met in the first round of the qualifying round. ”
"Barry Hearn (President of the World Snooker Tour WST) himself told me it was unbelievable, that the wood was in a boat, it was really exciting, and the only thing that was missing was that the place where we were fighting was not Crucible, but at least it would be televised."
This will be the 60th meeting between the two in a pro tournament. The first time took place at the 1986 Scottish Masters, when White won a brilliant 129 points 5-1, but the story between them revolved around the Confrontation at the World Championships.
The world championship finals in which both sides participated were won by Hendry, and in 1992 it was even more brutal, White's 14-8 lead had begun to prepare for the championship speech, but was overturned by Hendry's 10-game victory; in 1995, Hendry brushed 147 in front of White in the semi-finals and advanced to the final.
Of course, White also had "revenge moments", eliminating the Scots in the first and second rounds of 1988 and 1998 respectively, but these victories were more of a little bit of a light beer than Hendry's celebratory champagne, after all, Hendry is one of the best in the history of the sport.
This reunion with Hendry, White can remember the victories that he should have owned, and he himself said that if there is a world championship in hand, will he still be the Jimmy White he is today?
"In 1979 and 1980, I went to Australia to participate in the Amateur World Championships, so I had two less Crucible experiences, and who knows what would happen if I went? Maybe everything was predestined, just as I'm still active in the professional arena. White said.
Indeed, it is perhaps destined that two weathered but still eager veterans will meet at Sheffield Sports Institute and shine again on the Monday after Easter, even if they can't clear it, they can make up for it with a lot of blood.
Dragons fight tigers
It must be said that the market is still realistic, White has become a favored party in this legendary showdown, he has been competing with the world's best snooker players on the professional tour for many years, and recently at the WST Pro Series, he has exploded a personal high of 140 points in more than a decade, and at the Gibraltar Open, he also eliminated 2015 world champion Stuart Bingham 4-2 at the Gibraltar Open.
Alex Higgins and White
White was definitely Hendry's predecessor, who trained as a teenager with Whirlwind White and his friend Hurricane Alex Higgins until he turned professional at the age of 16. Alex Higgins, a two-time world champion, died of malnutrition at the age of 61 after a long period of alcoholism.
Like Steve Davis and Cliff Mulberry, hendry at his peak was reluctant to compliment the moody, maverick hardcore Higgins. It wasn't until 2010, when Hendry traveled to Belfast for Higgins' funeral, that he realized how far-reaching and reverent Higgins's influence on Snooker was so profound and enduring.
"I was aware of alex's contribution to our sport and felt it was necessary to give him a ride," Hendry recalled, "and to be honest I was a little disappointed to see that there were not a few top snooker players at his funeral, and I don't think they recognized his excellence and didn't appreciate his contribution." ”
Hendry and White continued Higgins' style of play in the 1980s, giving the sport an offensive mindset rather than a blind old path, which may be the norm today, but it was groundbreaking at the time. White recalls: "I remember the first time I played Hendry was at Lang's Supreme in Glasgow, when he was 13 or 14 years old, and he came to train with me and Higgins. ”
Hendry and Alex Higgins
"From then on we were sure that Hendry would definitely be a permanent resident in the snooker world, and even if he was that young, you could tell he was a gifted child. Personally, I would always respect him because he attended Higgins' funeral. ”
"Unlucky for me, I met The global super-powered Steve Davis in the '80s, followed by the offensively strong modern player Hendry. That's what I like about the style of play, just score a ball and you can clear it, and snooker should play like that. Alex also respects him, and we have always been optimistic about his success. ”
Last year, the Senator Snooker World Championship was held at the Crucible Theatre, and White beat Hendry 4-2 in the semi-finals, and then reversed Ken Dahdi 5-4 after falling behind 0-4 to win the cup, and finally blew a "whirlwind" again in Crucible. As for White's coolest encounter, he chose the one in 1990 when World Matchplay won 18-9.
He said: "I won him in all four stages of World Matchplay, an unforgettable victory. We've had some incredible encounters, and Stephen Hendry is the kind of player who will give his all. I said in training that his focus on the game was as high as ever, but unfortunately the two of us had to meet in the first round of the qualifying round, and since the wood was already in the boat, it was natural. ”
White carries the coffin for Alex Higgins
White is currently ranked 83rd in the world, and he needs to beat Hendry to be expected to retain his professional qualification through the world rankings, of course, it is not excluded that WST President Herne will send him another invitation card. Hearne sees White as one of the top ten players in history and still struggles to accept the fact that White did not win the World Championship.
Hearne said: "When I watch the old-school snooker game, I always feel surprised that these dudes did not have a world championship. I've been watching him play, still expecting him to win, and his status and glory will only make you wonder: Why not finish old Jimmy? ”
"He was technically solid and gentle, but it was as if he had stopped too long while following Moses across the riverbed, only to be engulfed in water (the story of Moses' division of the sea). Snooker should also thank him because he is such a good, great player and he is a true snooker ambassador. ”
Extra power
White currently contributes to the snooker cause as both a player and an interpreter commentator, and as long as he wants to continue playing, Hearn and Hendry are reluctant to be the ones who forced him to retire, but he still wants to be on his own.
Steve Davis and White
"I need to win to continue playing professionally, but I have to beat everyone I meet in the back, and that's my extra motivation." White said, "After the Gibraltar Open, I knew I had to win a game or two to keep my professional qualifications, and it didn't make any difference whether I was playing Stephen or anyone else. I enjoyed the game, practiced well, and the only bad luck was that I had to play against him. ”
White's 2014 autobiography, The Second Wind, details his addiction to gambling, drugs and alcohol, which has been cited countless times, is a small miracle that White can still live up and down the snooker business he loves.
Old-fashioned snooker stories always serve as good fodder for tabloids — for example, he was rumored to have been to parkhurst prison on the Isle of Wight to teach gangster Ronnie Clay to beat snooker, a story no less famous than when he lost a black ball in a World Championship tiebreaker, but as time went on, legend and fact were sometimes confused.
There was a recent anecdote about White, saying that white had spoken before a World Championship final in the early nineties: "I'll let him take a step first, give him 10 grams of cocaine and 4 bottles of whiskey." White angrily countered this, saying that it was completely false and that such words completely defied Hendry's achievements.
Jimmy White at the Senatorial World Championships
It's all, it's nonsense, send me these two sentences. White said angrily.
If Hendry's glory returns to win again, White is afraid that he will be pierced again, what if he loses this time? White replied, "I haven't thought about losing, so I can't answer that question." ”
More legendary
White was mentioned in a popular BBC quiz show, Pointless, which produced a high score of 55 (higher scores means more audiences who answered correctly), and it seemed that everyone knew and understood him. Host Richard Osman asked the question: "The winner of the World Elders Championship, but the six-entry World Championship does not have a crown." ”
Another host, Alexander Armstrong, complained: "This is a really annoying question. Osman continued: "Yes, but in a sense it is more legendary, arguably the most successful loser in history." ”
The sports world doesn't recognize second place, but Jimmy White may be an exception. In Crucible, he seems to have come and gone between heaven and hell, experiencing highs and lows, but also gaining memories that are more precious than the defeat itself. Coming to Japan is long and ambitious.