Stephen Hendry reveals his most underrated player of all time – 'He invented naughty snooker'
Published 03/06/2025 at 18:36 GMT+1
Stephen Hendry has hailed Jimmy White for inventing the type of 'naughty snooker' which world No. 1 Judd Trump produces in the modern era of the professional game. Despite defeating White four times in the Crucible final, Hendry feels failure to carry off the sport's biggest prize should not detract from his standing in the sport. "With his talent, he should have won a lot more," said Hendry.
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Jimmy 'Whirlwind' White should be rated among snooker's all-time greats despite losing six World Championship finals, according to seven-time Crucible winner Stephen Hendry.
The Scot famously defeated White in four of those finals - in 1990, 1992, 1993 and 1994 - with the other two losses coming against Steve Davis (1984) and John Parrott (1991).
White did carry off the Masters in 1984 and UK Championship in 1992, but Hendry feels his natural ability merited a greater trophy haul than only 10 ranking titles.
While world No. 1 Judd Trump is associated with bringing 'naughty snooker' to the masses in recent years, Hendry believes White was producing his own brand of attacking flair decades earlier.
"Everybody goes on about him being in six finals, and not winning one, but what a player he was," said Hendry on the World Snooker Tour podcast.
"People look at him now, a bit like myself, and he is a shadow of what he was. He obviously still says he can win the world title, but deep down he knows he won't.
"When you look back, what a player he was. He invented naughty snooker.
"The way he played with his talent, and he has said it himself, with his off-table activities, with his talent he should have won a lot more."
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White and his friend, the two-time world champion Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins, are fondly celebrated as the 'people's champions' among the public with White, 63, continuing to compete on the main circuit.
Ken Doherty, the 1997 world champion, feels White's fondness for a slice of the good life in his peak years perhaps deprived him of the chance to lift the sport's biggest prize in Sheffield.
"I remember Jimmy back in the early 1990s, think it was my first year at the World Championship, and I lost and he took me out around Sheffield," said the Dubliner, who lost 13-10 to White in the quarter-finals of the 1994 World Championship before White lost 18-17 to Hendry in the final.
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"He was still in the tournament. He was second favourite at the time. He said to me, 'come on, and I'll take you out around Sheffield to forget about it'.
"We got absolutely smashed. He took me to parts of Sheffield, that were drinking dens open until 3am in the morning.
"He knew them all. Stephen would have been tucked up in bed with a glass of milk. That was Jimmy White. He would have got to the final that year too. He was a great character, and still is."
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