Jimmy White interview: How Ronnie O'Sullivan inspired Whirlwind's fairytale run to UK Championship in York

The 60-year-old will walk out at the UK Championship in York tonight – 30 years after winning the UK title in 1992 - to face Welshman Ryan Day. It will be his biggest match since playing in the Masters in 2010, and he is the oldest player to qualify for the last 32 since Eddie Charlton in 1993.

A rejuvenated White showed flashes of brilliance, which made him a fans’ favourite for over 40 years, in battling through four qualifying rounds – beating the likes of Stephen Maguire and Dominic Dale along the way – at Sheffield’s Ponds Forge this week simply to reach the televised stages at the Barbican.

The Whirlwind is, quite rightly, regarded as snooker royalty, one of the sport’s pioneers – winning everything the sport has to offer bar the World Championship, where he fell at the final hurdle six times – having been a professional for 42 years.

He freely admits he thought his days of chasing silverware were over, but attributes time working on the Eurosport commentary team – alongside O’Sullivan – has inspired him on the table.

“I always have played exhibitions and demonstrations, some locally, some worldwide,” White told The Yorkshire Post. “You have to keep your eye in.

“Probably 20 years ago I was thinking ‘well, I will just play the exhibitions side’, I wasn’t too concerned about competitions.

“But the last five years, since I have been working with Eurosport, being around Ronnie O’Sullivan – I have always had the passion – but I seem to have got the will to practice again.

“Now all of a sudden, I have hit form, and know this type of play I have can win a tournament. I am delighted with my game at the moment.

“I have played Ronnie in exhibitions all around the world – and he is like Rafael Nadal in the tennis exhibitions – he is still trying to annihilate the guy in the other seat. That keeps me sharp.

“I love the game, I love competing, and I actually didn’t care who I drew in the tournament.

“Make no mistake, I am really looking forward to York, it’s going to be fantastic.”

White beat John Parrott 16-9 to win his only UK title back in 1992 at Preston’s Guild Hall.

“I can’t believe it’s 30 years ago,” said White. “I am 60, but I still feel like I am 25.”

He arrived in York last night, and insists he is not here ‘to make up the numbers’ believing he still has the game to be a major contender.

A week battling through the qualifiers in Sheffield certainly shows his work spent on the mental side of his game is paying dividends.

“I have worked on the mental side of the game in the last few weeks,” admitted White, guaranteed at least £10,000 in York to boost his current world ranking of 89. “My mindset at times, even when I was playing Dominic Dale and 2-1 up, I lost all concentration. You get a bit negative when you lose concentration, but I just had to say to myself ‘come on, keep it going’. It was the same against Maguire, I was 3-1 down but I still fancied winning.

“If you have that inner-confidence, it’s great and it keeps you going. It keeps your expectations high of yourself. So when I did get an opportunity, I took them.

“If I take my practice game, my A game, I would win the World Championship. But it’s keeping it going for 17 days. I haven’t even kept it going for a week for a long time.

“So it just shows how important my game is. As you get older your concentration levels drop.

“Before, I can be playing, in the balls, and one part of my brain will be saying ‘did you water the plants before you left home?’ The other part of my brain says ‘that’s irrelevant, you have a job to do, pot these balls’. I am having all these conversations (in my head).

“At the moment, I am tuned in nicely, which is good and just focused on the game, practice is going well, and i just can’t wait.”

White will be joined in York by three-time UK champion Ding Junhui, who also had to battle through the qualifying rounds in his adopted hometown of Sheffield.

Ding booked his return to York with a 6-4 defeat of Robert Milkins.

“I missed a good chance to win 6-3 and then I was worried because Robert is always a dangerous player,” said 35-year-old Ding, who won his first UK title at the Barbican as a teenager in 2005.

“It has been a long time since I won anything, I don’t know what has happened. I am focussing on practice but then during a match, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.”