By Richard Preen

World Ranking: 10
Date Of Birth: 02/05/62
Form: R32/R32/QF/R32/R32
World Championship best: Runner-up – 6 times

Always the bridesmaid is a tag that's likely to haunt Jimmy White for the rest of his career.

White, a six-time Crucible runner-up, has an army of adoring fans and if World Championships were awarded on fan-base size alone then Jimmy would be the outright winner.

As it is there is still a space reserved in the Jimmy White trophy cabinet for snooker's most prestigious prize.

White came excruciatingly close to lifting the title in 1994 but a rudimentary black rattled the jaws of the pocket allowing Stephen Hendry to make a clearance and wrap up an 18-17 victory.

That remains the best opportunity that Jimmy will probably ever have of becoming world champion but he remains confident that a world title is within him.

Last year was Jimmy's darkest hour at the Crucible when he let frustration get the better of him in a last sixteen encounter with Matthew Stevens.

After missing a straightforward ball, Jimmy launched the cueball into the reds thus conceding the frame, even though the points remaining amounted to more than enough for a frame win.

In the end White went down 13-3 and will be eager to put this memory behind him as he prepares for this year's World Championships.

His season to date has been poor without a single ranking event victory to his name.

With this record in tow it's highly likely that he will lose his coveted top 16 ranking, unless he can make an impression in the last two events.

His one high point arose this season at the non-ranking Benson and Hedges Masters where he recovered from a 5-1 deficit to beat Peter Ebdon 6-5.

This was to prove a false dawn for White who has recently decided that regular exhibition play is detrimental to his competitive matchplay.

Winning £100,000 in a recent televised poker competition he will have, at least, kept the bank manager from the door, although Jimmy would swap all this if he could be dealt a decent hand at Sheffield!