Why the People’s Champion is still the greatest never to win the World Championship
Winners make sport, that’s for sure, but even more endearing is the story of the nearly man; close but no cigar; the one that got away. At least that’s the case here in Britain. The love of glorious failure has at times never been more evident than in the game of snooker. Cue Mr Jimmy White (if you’ll pardon the genius pun).
Sure, other sports lay claim to similar. Ivan Lendl is still the best tennis player never to have won Wimbledon by some way. Likewise, golf still counts Colin Montgomery as its greatest exponent without a major to his name. We could even examine Team GB athletes of the the past who achieved everything but the elusive Olympic Gold (think Paula Radcliffe, Steve Backley, et al).
But snooker seems to raise the debate more often than any of them put together. For years White, with his rolls-royce cue action and ‘People’s Champion’ mantle was proclaimed the best never to land the World Championship. However, without naming any names (Stephen Hendry), it’s become the opinion of some fans, ex-pros and pundits alike that this dubious baton has been passed over to Ding Junhui.
So what would Dan Green do in a situation like this? Ask the experts of course! Who better to start with than the man who’s seen it all? Veteran pundit, Snookerscene editor and all-round anorak of the green baize, Clive Everton, is in no doubt as to the identity of the best of the bridesmaids: “It has to be Jimmy White,” he insists. “He won a lot of other tournaments and came very close – as near as you can get!”
Quite. Those who witnessed that missed black in the 1994 final probably have almost as many nightmares about it as Jimmy does. Would it be referred to as ‘Blackgate’ these days? Anyway, in the seasons leading up to that fateful moment, he came up against a sizeable chunk of the very best there’s ever been. Alex Higgins was still Mr Rock n’ roll on (and off) the table, compounded by the 1982 semi-final, where the Hurricane produced one of the greatest clearances of all time to turn the match around.
Everyone thought White would get many more chances, which he did, but the rest of the 80s saw the Steve Davis era in full throttle, followed by Hendry’s domination of the 90s. Unlike Ronnie O’Sullivan, the greatest of Ding’s opponents and most naturally-gifted player to pick up a cue, they never suffered from mental fragility and were relentless winning robots. The Whirlwind was, and is, anything but.
What about someone who’s of a different generation, but still at the heart of today’s game behind the scenes? Step forward Ivan Herschowicz, Head of Media for the World Snooker Tour, who believes it’s harder to separate the pair: “It’s a real toss-up between them. Jimmy’s an all-time legend, by far one of the best players of both the 80s and 90s. He won ten ranking events away from the Worlds and is possibly in the top ten of all-time, certainly the top 15.” Of the Chinaman he remarked: “Ding was brilliant between 2005 and 2017, won an awful lot and made the world final in 2016. Unfortunately he ran into Mark Selby at his awesome best.”
Now, I’m nothing if not biased, but for me it’s still the Whirlwind that takes the honours (if that’s the correct term to use) despite what some might say. So, with my 80s/90s hat now firmly in the ring, allow me to explain. As brilliant as Messrs O’Sullivan, Selby and John Higgins (how could we forget him?) have been, none of them have dominated like Davis and Hendry did. Yes, that may well be down to the general standard being higher these days, but as already mentioned, the will to win and sheer bloody-mindedness on the table were on another planet back in the day.
It would be remiss not to consider the opinion of someone who has considerable experience at grassroots level, so let’s see what Brian Rinkert, manager of the extremely popular Grantham Billiard Club, makes of it, whilst creating the best ham salad rolls this side of Sheffield. “For me, it’s Barry Hawkins,” says Brian. Wait, what? Talk about throwing a curveball! “He’s had a lot of personal problems and been in a lot of semis,” he explains, “he’s just a class act. Jimmy was unlucky to be in the Davis and Hendry eras, but the old argument is that there was only a handful that could give him a game.”
So with that blowing things wide open, here’s something else to consider. The main factor people cite as Ding’s biggest failing is pure bottle, one of those unidentifiable things that makes the great the greatest. But when you’ve got 8 billion folks watching back home in China, with the Rocket thrown into the equation, it’s kind of understadable. Yet he’s never met O’Sullivan in any triple crown final, compared to White’s four infamous encounters with Hendry at the Crucible. Apart from anything else, it’s 6-1 in terms of final appearances to…. well, I’m sure you’ve guessed if you didn’t already know.
Still, who’s to say Ding won’t overtake Jimmy and become runner-up on another six occasions? Then again, he might even win it one day, and we’ll never need to have this conversation again.
What do you think? Is it Ding who’s the awesome also-ran, or are White’s glorious failures still part of the Crucible’s crowning glory? Leave your comments below.
The Early Whistle 