Jimmy White lost 10-5 to Ashley Carty in the 2025 World Snooker Championship qualifiers on Friday, a defeat that may see him lose his professional status.
The 62 year-old fought hard after going 6-1 behind at the English Institute of Sport in what was the second round of the preliminaries in Sheffield.
But where he managed to overturn a 7-3 deficit in his first outing of the competition against Anton Kazakov, he could never quite back on even terms against Carty.
It means White’s wait for a return to the Crucible Theatre extends for another year, having not qualified to participate at the iconic venue since 2006.
The early loss at the World Snooker Championship qualifiers also means that the Whirlwind will lose his current tour card.
A disappointing campaign in which he only reached the last 32 of one ranking event – the Northern Ireland Open in Belfast – has resulted in his failure to guarantee tour survival on his own merit.
Only the top 64 on the official two-year rankings and an additional four players who are not otherwise safe from the one-year list can regain their cards.
It was through the latter avenue that White managed to secure a fresh two-year card back in 2023, coming after a resurgent season during which he qualified for the UK Championship.
He reached the last 16 of the German Masters soon after, but positive results since then have been hard to come by.
Indeed, the Londoner’s provisional end-of-season ranking is way down at number 93 in the world.
Hope for the large legion of Jimmy White fans is not all lost, however.
Invitational Tour Cards have been given at the discretion of the WST and the WPBSA in the past with White having availed of this three times through his lifelong services to the sport.
White first received a two-year invitational tour card at the end of the 2016/17 campaign, and it was twice renewed after that.
It would be a surprise if he wasn’t offered the opportunity again, but there has been no official confirmation as of yet.
If he doesn’t get offered an invitational tour card, White will have to go to Q School if he wants to extend his career as a professional player.
Arguably the most popular player in snooker history, Jimmy White first turned professional in 1980 soon after winning the prestigious World Amateur Championship.
He quickly became one of the game’s leading stars, capturing the Masters in 1984 and a maiden ranking title at the Classic two years later.
White won ten ranking titles in total, including the 1992 UK Championship where he beat John Parrott in the final.
But it was at the World Championship where White’s legacy will be most remembered.
He went on a 12-year run of reaching the quarter-finals or better and played in five successive finals between 1990 and 1995, having first contested the title-deciding affair in 1984.
The world title that he and his fans desperately craved eluded him, however, and he will go down as a nearly man in Sheffield.
“For me to still be able to play and compete now is like a godsend,” Jimmy White told old rival Stephen Hendry, who beat him in four Crucible finals, on the Cue Tips YouTube channel recently.
“I’m going to play for another three years, and if I don’t win a tournament I’m going to stop. I’m 62. People think ‘why are you doing it? You’re nuts’.”
“I’m trying to work on the mental side. I get myself so at it because you play so well practicing, but all of a sudden you cannot pot a ball.
“You love the pressure, because that’s half the buzz.”
Featured photo credit: WST
