--
Snooker legend Jimmy White says the reason he has continued playing is because he carries a small hope of one day winning the elusive world championship despite losing the last of his six finals almost 20 years ago.
In Jimmy White: Sports Life Stories, which is due to air on ITV4 at 10pm on Tuesday 26 November, the Whirlwind says his main thrill and focus in life remains snooker. He reveals the distractions he believes affected his performances during his heyday are behind him, telling the documentary he has now quit smoking, has no interest in gambling and rarely drinks.
While younger men like Ronnie O'Sullivan have come into the sport and become world champions, he says while winning the title which he lost out on six times between 1984 and 1994 is increasingly unrealistic, he holds out a hope that he could one day still do it.
I'm proud of getting to six finals. I've won ten ranking tournaments, I've won 46 invitation tournaments, I've won the world doubles, the world matchplay, the world amateurs.
It's this one tournament, basically our blue riband tournament, that I'm still chasing. I'm still chasing the dream of being world champion.
You know, to get to six [world] finals of a game like snooker playing the style that I do is a feat in itself. If I didn't think I could win I wouldn't play. Realistically, you know my boat has sailed.
I still feel that, you know, if you can get it together and you keep practicing, keep working on your technique, which I'm doing at the moment, and I'm winning the games, so who knows. You know I haven't given up yet. I haven't given up, and as long as my game's still there there's no reason why I can't go on and win the world championship.
Obviously you've got some fella there now called Ronnie O'Sullivan who's in the way and the likes of John Higgins, it's a lot harder but not impossible.
Five times world champion O'Sullivan, meanwhile, says Jimmy has simply been unlucky. But he doesn't believe he still stands a chance of winning that elusive world title.
I think the hardest battle was to keep coming back to the world championship, to keep coming back year after year. You know, that took courage and I just think he was unfortunate that he came up in an era when Stephen Hendry was playing, because if he wouldn't have done I'm sure he would have won the world title.
Jimmy is one of the most optimistic people I know. He still thinks he is going to win the world title and to have that belief in yourself is a good asset to have.
In my heart I would love to see it happen but in my mind, and I know what it's like to go through that, and knowing the standard of play, the type of players that are around, to me it's highly unlikely. But it's not because he's not good enough, it's just a physical thing.
Jimmy's eldest daughter Lauren says despite how convinced her father is that he will win the world title, she thinks he may be destined not to.
It must be very disappointing for him but you wouldn't know it from every time he talks about it or his career or anything, you wouldn't think that it was a bad thing and I think it was just one of those things that wasn't meant to be. Not his destiny, rather than anything else.
Son Tommy White says he respects what his father does for him and has done in the past - especially as it pays for his schooling.
It's good that he's going out and still achieving at the age he is, doing what he's doing. Working hard for my education. That proper drives me on.
Jimmy talks about snooker's high-profile years of the 1980s and 90s, when he was at the top of the sport. He admits he enjoyed the lifestyle.
I was getting a lot of attention, getting a lot of money, you know, and having a lot of fun. I would drink too much and I would be out too late. And obviously the gambling, you would be gambling when you're drunk so you're making terrible mistakes. But I sort of quietened down on the gambling and it went to the nightclubs and messing about, you know, seeing that side of life. There was just a lot of drinking going on.
But the drinking and the gambling led to a chaotic home life for his then-wife Maureen and their children, he says: Me and my wife because of my behaviour, we had an up and down relationship, a love-hate relationship, all the time we would split up, I must have re-furnished 50 flats over the years. But, you know, she's a wonderful woman, a wonderful mother.
On reflection, he says his drinking and gambling may have prevented him from winning and dominating the sport: No disrespect to the players that I beat but my preparation was bad. Obviously if I had my time again I would have prepared better and I would have won more tournaments but there was no balance at all. I was pretty selfish in the way that I thought that if I practiced I could still drink and party.
Most recent headlines
04/08/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, is excited to announce Santiago Solanas as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO)....
03/06/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, a...
29/04/2024
29 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia announces James J. Robinson's debut feature First Light
First Light
Principal Photography is underway on Firs...
29/04/2024
Capitol Broadcasting recently became the inaugural company honored with inductio...
28/04/2024
Mediahaus delivers the first SRT live-streaming sports production over 5G with U...
27/04/2024
On April 26, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher E. Kubasik joined CNBC's Mor...
27/04/2024
PORTLAND, Oregon Audinate Group Limited, the developer of the Dante AV-over-IP solution, announced significant new additions to Dante Connect, its cloud-based D...
27/04/2024
TORONTO Bell Media has launched 10 English and French-language FAST channels featuring entertainment, factual, news, and sports programming. The new free stream...
27/04/2024
An extensive new analysis of the news segments in the broadcast evening news programs of ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS has found that broadcasters devoted most of their...
27/04/2024
GERMANTOWN, Md. EchoStar's Hughes Network Systems has opened a new manufacturing facility and private 5G incubation center in Germantown, Maryland....
27/04/2024
Harry Pappas, one of three brothers who founded Pappas Telecasting Companies in 1971, died April 24. He was 78 years old....
27/04/2024
ATLANTA and LONDON Mexican telecommunications and broadcast company Televisa has selected Synamedia for an overhaul of its broadcast distribution....
27/04/2024
Participate in the Survey - The Impact of AI on Media and the Creative Industry
Pascal Wagner April 26, 2024
0 Comments
By participating in this surve...
27/04/2024
SDVI Rally Access Workstation Earns Two Top Awards at 2024 NAB Show
Brie Clayton April 26, 2024
0 Comments
SDVI, the leading platform provider for clo...
27/04/2024
Berklee's Music and Health Institute Launches Community Health Musician Cert...
27/04/2024
Charter Communications reported higher first-quarter profits despite continued cord-cutting and competition for broadband customers....
27/04/2024
Two environmentally-focused groups are partnering to engage the unscripted TV world in finding better ways to address climate change. Reality of Change is an ec...
27/04/2024
Sarah Garcia has been promoted to weekend anchor at KTLM McAllen, Texas, known as Telemundo 40. Starting April 27, she will anchor Noticias Telemundo 40 weekend...
27/04/2024
CBS Sports said it launched a new 24-hour free, ad supported streaming television (FAST) channel devoted to the UEFA Champions League....
27/04/2024
Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts received $35.4 million in compensation in 2023, up 11% from the previous year, according to a proxy statement filed by th...
27/04/2024
Art Happens Here With John Lithgow, which sees the actor study dance, ceramics, silk-screen printing and vocal jazz with students in Los Angeles, debuts on PBS ...
27/04/2024
Remember Leave It to Beaver? Bewitched? Dragnet? When cable ratings were rising?...
27/04/2024
Next up for the weekend binge at Catchy Comedy is Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Every weekend, Catchy Comedy features The Catchy Binge, a marathon of a classic sitcom....
26/04/2024
Sundance Film Festival CDMX 2024 kicks-off today with screenings in 5 theaters in Mexico City and the opening-night film, FRIDA, directed by Carla Guti rrez...
26/04/2024
[Editor's Note: This interview is part of a larger feature about the women d...
26/04/2024
Once again this year, SGL Carbon opened its doors to interested children and young people. On the occasion of the German Girls and Boys Day, which took place on...
26/04/2024
Orders1 of $5.5 billion; book-to-bill of 1.06x
Revenue of $5.2 billion, up 17%,...
26/04/2024
Five Considerations For Communications Modernization In The 21st Century
In the digital-enabled battlespace, the Joint Force needs to shoot, move and communica...
26/04/2024
CBS Sports has launched Champions League as a new, 24-hour streaming channel that will serve as the year-round destination for nonstop highlights of the UEFA ...
26/04/2024
Despite tough competition in the streaming space, Roku reported solid results in Q1 2024, beating revenue expectations, with total net revenue up 19% YoY to $88...
26/04/2024
LONDON AND TORONTO Pinewood Toronto Studios has appointed Sarah Farrell as general manager of the Studios in downtown Toronto....
26/04/2024
Quantum to Offer Advanced Filesharing Technology and Performance in StorNext and...
26/04/2024
FilmLight Colour Awards welcomes 2024 entries and introduces new Emerging Talen...
26/04/2024
Picture Shop Announces Chris Evans as Head of Unscripted
Brie Clayton April 26, 2024
0 Comments
Picture Shop announced Chris Evans will lead Unscripte...
26/04/2024
Participate in a Survey - The Impact of AI on Media and the Creative Industry
Pascal Wagner April 26, 2024
0 Comments
By participating in this survey,...
26/04/2024
Toy maker Mattel said it is working with Samsung to launch its first free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels later this year....
26/04/2024
Trusted Media Brands (TMB) said it named Marty Moe as president....
26/04/2024
Ron Howard is the director on Jim Henson Idea Man, a documentary that premieres on Disney Plus May 31. Henson of course created Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Big...
26/04/2024
The ice continues to melt under the regional sports network business as the Seattle Kraken of the National Hockey League have made a long-term deal to broadcast...
26/04/2024
Heading into the upfronts, Warner Bros. Discovery said it launched Olli, a first-party data platform advertiser can use for converged, targeted advertising camp...
26/04/2024
CBS has renewed the drama The Equalizer, which will see season five on in 2024-2025. Queen Latifah stars....
26/04/2024
The CW has entered into an exclusive multiyear broadcast partnership for the Miss USA Pageant and the Miss Teen USA Pageant. The 73rd Miss USA Pageant will air ...
26/04/2024
Fuse Media isn't mincing words in a campaign urging its young viewers to register and participate in the 2024 elections....
26/04/2024
Dead Boy Detectives, a series from Neil Gaiman about a detective agency staffed by ghosts, debuts on Netflix April 25. George Rexstrew and Jayden Revri are in t...
26/04/2024
The Story Collective has gradually repurposed the former Mortlake Brewery to include production offices, workshops and sound stages
By Matthew Corrigan
Publi...
26/04/2024
Perkett joins the company following a 25 year career in product management, product marketing, engineering and user experience (UX) across multiple industries
...
26/04/2024
Teradek, the industry leader in wireless video transmitters and receivers, announced today the launch of new Bolt 6 LT 750 and Bolt 6 Monitor Module 750 RX with...
26/04/2024
NEW YORK Amagi has appointed Richard Perkett chief product officer (CPO)....
26/04/2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has announced the results of the 2024 NAB Radio and Television Board of Directors elections. The...
-- 
