Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
HENDRY v WHITE: THE KILLING MACHINE vs THE PEOPLE’S CHAMPION One of the great – if one-sided – sporting rivalries is revived today sparking a wave of nostalgia and some memories of ecstasy and agony
STEPHEN HENDRY and Jimmy White will unleash an unstoppable wave of nostalgia when they do battle once more tonight.
When Barry Hearn handed record seven-time world champion Hendry a tour-card invite in September to lure him out of retirement, this was an occasion beyond even his imagination.
For a five-year spell in the early 1990s, Hendry versus White was almost the only World Championship final in town at the Crucible.
Four times they met in the biggest match in snooker in Sheffield, and four times the Whirlwind suffered agony at the hands of his nemesis.
And today at the English Institute of Sport, also in Sheffield, in a first-round qualifier behind closed doors and four victories from the event proper, the saga is renewed.
White, the ‘People’s Champion’ and now 58, was supremely talented, adored, flawed and unrepentant in equal measure. He never won the big one in six finals in all.
Hendry, now 52 and in his comeback year after nine away, had both world titles and ability, but his personality could not have been more different.
Peter Ebdon once described the Scot as “the baddest, meanest great white shark ever, because he was ferocious… a killing machine on the table, showing no emotion”.
White, in stark contrast, wore his heart on his sleeve, showing vulnerability and human frailty on and also off the table, where his lifestyle was chaotic.
Hendry’s CV tells the story of a glittering career, truly one of the great players, and one whose aggressive style revolutionised the game. But White has also left a big legacy. His matches at the Crucible were made huge occasions by his raucous and partisan football-style support.
Hendry, stunned when learning of the draw live on air on ITV, said: “There were times when you thought, ‘It would be nice to be popular’.
“I am sure if you asked Jimmy, he would have swapped being popular for a world title!
“But it was a fantastic atmosphere to play him in a Crucible final. To walk through those curtains to a wall of noise with pretty much everyone against you… it was a challenge.
“Jimmy and I had been practising before the draw and he had been taking me apart.
“Knowing that if I beat him it could send him off the tour is a difficult thing to think about.
“There is more pressure on Jimmy because of that so, if I did win, it would be bittersweet. It is probably the last time we will ever play competitively in a proper World Championship.”
White came closest in the 1992 final when he saw a big lead disappear to Hendry, and then again in the 1994 showpiece, his sixth and last final.
White said: “No one should feel sorry for me. I have had a hoot at this game. I hope we put on another good match. I will be nervous, I hope I am because that is half the buzz.
“And if I could get back to the Crucible, that would be a dream come true… but it can be done.”