My Sporting Life is The i Paper’s peek behind the curtain at what drives sports stars to greatness. Snooker legend Jimmy White reveals all about his drink and drug-fuelled past, the toughest opponent he faced and his close friendship with Ronnie Wood.
The highest point of my career?
Winning the UK Championship and making the 147 in the World Championship, they were my two biggest achievements. And obviously I won 10 majors, the Masters, but the UK was my biggest win.
I’ve got a snooker club now in Woking
I’m enjoying that part of it. I had clubs years ago, but I didn’t really take a lot of notice of those. I had one in Bahrain and I had one in Epsom but I was sort of half playing, half not playing.
And snooker is not like football or boxing, even with golf, you lose a bit of power with snooker. It’s about having a desire. The game still fascinates me.
I still play to a high level, obviously not as consistently as I was, but my game’s still there, so while it’s still there I’m going to keep competing, I’m still on the main tour.
If I had my time again…
In the six finals, two of them I should definitely have won, one when I was 14-8 up and I lost 18-14. The wheels fell off, and obviously I missed 17 each, I missed an easy black, so they’re my two biggest disappointments.
The way I was living my life, I was drinking, gambling, taking a lot of cocaine in those days. So it was amazing to do what I did, really. Most people enjoy life without being a gambler and a drinker and the cocaine sort of fuelled it all.
But that’s all gone now. It’s all in the past. I’ve got no regrets at all. Obviously I’d prepare better, but at the same time, the way I was going, if I’d won it all, who knows what would have happened? Maybe I’d have got worse than what I was. So, no, the game’s drawn me back, especially now I’m enjoying it more. There’s no negativity. It is what it is. It’s gone now.
Steve Davis was the toughest opponent I played against
He was so solid and so tactically good. Me being an attacking player, even when you beat him, you felt like you had been in a war.
The support I got is because I’m an attacking-style player. The fans went on a rollercoaster with me. That was why I had such a big fan base and still have, to an extent. Whenever I play, I still fill them up. Zhao Xintong, the world champion, he plays that style now.
And obviously the greatest player of all time, Ronnie O’Sullivan, he plays the attacking game. I’d heard a lot about him, and then when I saw him in Blackpool all those years ago, it was like a breath of fresh air. He was just amazing. Just what snooker needed. He was very clever. He took a little of myself, Ray Reardon, Stephen Hendry, Steve Davis and put all the sort of four stars together with his natural talent to become this awesome winning machine.
My grandson Ralphie plays for Surrey
He is a fantastic young cricketer. His dad was a very good club cricketer, so that has always helped. He’s a great little batsman.
I go and watch him all the time. He is very dedicated. And obviously I have given him the opposite advice to me…
I didn’t go to many games before, but now I go all the time. It’s a respectful, brutal and difficult game. I just respect them so much, because when you get close to it and see what they have to go through to win, it’s phenomenal stuff.
I didn’t think for a minute a Rolling Stone would know who I was
Ronnie Wood is a good mate of mine. Our kids went to the same school. And then when we met, I found out he had Joe Davis’ snooker table in his house in Richmond.
He has tables in all his houses now, plays all the time, and the Rolling Stones have a table backstage when they tour. They have a game after the sound check. So him and Keith Richards really enjoy snooker.
We’ve been close pals for nearly 40 years. He’s got a good cue on him, actually, but he hits the ball too hard. It helps him relax. A lot of people play the game for relaxation. He’s one of them. We went to the football once with Peter Cook, me, Ronnie and Rod Stewart. That was a good day out, I must confess.
I’ve been a Chelsea fan my whole life
I first went to Stamford Bridge nearly 50 years ago with my brother. Chelsea were playing Millwall at home. It was quite terrifying afterwards, what with all the trouble and all.
I love Cole Palmer. He reminds me a bit of Gianfranco Zola. We will be all right next year with this young team.
As for my favourite player, Frank Lampard, John Terry, even going back to Peter Osgood. There’s too many to list. I still try and go to as many games as I can.
Jimmy White will be providing daily expert analysis of the 2026 World Snooker Championship, live on TNT Sports and HBO Max from Saturday 18 April
