By Elliott West
“I won the world amateur title at 14 so everyone’s saying I’m going to be world champion by 20, but it’s never going to work out that way, the way the game is. You’re a big fish in a small pond. The standard now is better than it’s ever been, anyone can beat anyone”.
Michael White
Introduction
Watchful eyes would have noticed that the Welsh snooker player, Michael White has been missing from the snooker tour in recent years. The reason is that he fell off the main tour in 2020. This gifted player who made his first century break at the age of 9, was the world amateur champion by the age of 14 and won his first professional title, the Indian Open in 2015 and the Paul Hunter Classic in 1017, has been struggling with his own personal demons, these being a struggle with alcohol and depression. Barriers that have severely affected his performance and caused several years of soul searching and a need to reinvent himself.
The Road to Recovery
This player from Neath in South Wales is far too good to be off the main tour for long and thankfully this has been averted by his success at the recent World Championship qualifiers. The 30-year-old who first turned professional when he was 15 and made the quarter-finals at his debut World Championship appearance in 2013, has been dubbed the name ‘Lightning’ and was widely considered to be one of the brightest talents in snooker. A bounce-back that filled Michael with confidence and a realistic aim of returning to the top 16, the last time being when he had his highest ranking of 15th in 2015.
The Quandary
Michael White has had to soul search and figure out why his decline in snooker was so rapid. The pressure on a snooker player to succeed is immense and it seems that White has fallen victim to these forces. The knock-on effect of this has been that he became mentally weaker and susceptible to a complete lack of confidence. Lifestyle hasn’t helped matters with the Welshman turning to alcohol as a support mechanism.
However, following a strict practice regime and a cleaner life, Michael turned a corner at this year’s World Championship qualifiers, beating Jordan Brown 10-8 to reach the first round proper of the World Championship at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. Sadly he wasn’t able to progress further and came up with an in-form fellow countryman Mark Williams who froze out White for the majority of the match, winning 10-3. Despite this defeat, the Welshman should be happy with his efforts and this is the first step to getting his feet firmly in the competitive environment.
Depression and alcohol dependency is not easy to combat but Michael should be applauded for his efforts. White seems to have mellowed and is no longer that volatile character that he once was. Perhaps the move to another decade in his life has steadied the ship and made him realise that this wasn’t the solution. So be prepared for a possible surge of Welsh excellence as this dynamic snooker makes a return. Someone who has the credentials to do match play damage and take a multitude of scalps.
