By Elliott West
“If I didn’t think I could win the world title, I’d stop playing”.
Jimmy White
Introduction
The hush of the audience has spasms of rapturous applause. Perspiration, exhilaration and ultimate disappointment, are just some of the ratios that make up watching Jimmy White on snooker. I was probably thirteen when I first saw White play and I believe it was against Mike Hallett in the late 1980s. He was the player that gave me the snooker bug that has never left me, playing a type of game that was attacking, fast and flair ridden. A Tooting whirlwind blew me away and often had me on the edge of my seat, making the hair on my neck stand up and grip the nearest object next to me very tightly on every shot. A disciple of Alex Higgins’ brand of snooker.
The Snooker Legend
James Warren White was born in Tooting, London in 1962. Son of Tommy White, a carpenter and Lillian or ‘Lil’ as she was best known, was as he freely admits, an academic. In fact, he spent most of his time away from Ernest Bevin, a snooker truant who inherited his father’s love of the game down at Zans Snooker Club in Tooting, a club owned by Ted Zanoncelli, frequently by most of the underworld of South London but where any burglars or people who harmed others, were soon weeded out and dealt with appropriately.
It was here that he met his lifelong friend, Tony Meo, a player who was cut from the same cloth as Jimmy. They would both play the numerous money games across the country, using their amateur method of sticking a pin on a map and using ‘Dodgy Bob’, a taxi driver to ferry them there. Monetary victories that the cabby took a small percentage of.
No Regrets?
White still often wonders what would have happened if he had not travelled to Tasmania for the IBSF World Amateur Championship in 1980? He had already won the English Amateur Championship in 1979, defeating Dave Martin 13-10 in the final. Had he turned professional then, he may have denied Terry Griffiths and Cliff Thorburn the World Championship in 1979 and 1980 respectively. He was on fire during this period and could have beaten anyone.
However, Jimmy discovered nightclubs and late-night drinking and chose the high life rather than the dedicated path of practice that players such as Steve Davis elected. A route that led him later to squander an estimated two million pounds on gambling and £200,000 on cocaine addiction. A master of disguise, Jimmy was also clean and sober for tournaments and never failed any of the random testing used in snooker, especially for what he calls the Devil’s Dandruff, cocaine.
Despite this deception, this lifestyle definitely took its toll on this brilliant snooker player, although if you didn’t know about his personal life, you would have thought his nerves just got the better of him. He could have won a lot more but his professional victories are impressive, winning ten ranking titles, including the 1984 Masters and 1992 UK Championship. Sadly he never won the World Championship despite reaching six finals with four of these against Stephen Hendry. The closest he came to the title was in 1994, where he lost to Stephen by a single frame 17-18 and this monkey on his back has lived with him up to this day and I’d probably be the most fired statistic fired at White by the media.
A Survivor
Jimmy has proved himself as a battler though and has managed to overcome everything life has thrown at him including a diagnosis of testicular cancer in 1995. Always a family man, Jimmy is very proud of his children and has found his soulmate in love, Jade Slusarczyk. A lady who has grounded White and showed him how to appreciate life in a slower lane. A long distant memory from when Jimmy once had tea with Ronnie Kray in his cell with finger sandwiches and china teacups, served by Kray’s own waiter. A meeting that lasted for two hours, a favour for a man in Parkhurst prison who had helped retrieve his mum’s stolen handbag and would lead to an in-depth conversation about snooker with his notorious East-end gangster.
The White Legacy
At 61, Jimmy has never lost his belief in winning and to this day he still feels that he could win the World Championship. Still a professional, he can still produce glimmers of his pomp and is still fabulous to watch on a match or practice table. I have been lucky enough to meet Jimmy on several occasions and have always been struck by his down to earth personality. He stays close to his roots despite his fame and is also courteous and approachable. He may be a snooker icon but underneath it all, he is still James Warren White, one of the nicest people you could meet and always prepared to give you his support, advice and his friendship.
