Vintage stuff from mature White

It was almost like old times as Jimmy White, the source of many a mis-spent youth, thrilled a capacity audience in the £200,000 Benson and Hedges Irish Masters at Goff's yesterday. He needed only two hours to beat Mark Williams 6-2 in a remarkably one-sided first-round tie.

The 36-year-old Londoner is one of the great survivors of a game that has taken a punishing toll on several of his contemporaries. And after this unexpected boost, he felt sufficiently buoyed up to declare: "If I manage to maintain this form, I could go all the way."

Few would begrudge such a change of fortune to a player who has had to face bankruptcy, despite career prize-money of £4 million. Then there was a successful battle with cancer.

Later in the day, the atmosphere was more subdued for another first-round match in which Goff's debutante Stephen Lee beat Alan McManus also by a 6-2 margin. Though McManus was runner-up here in 1973 and 1974, this was the fourth successive occasion for him to depart the scene in his opening match.

White, in a loosely-fitting waistcoat which camouflaged a thickening waistline, seemed to stroll casually around the table against a player he once inspired to take up the game. But his serious intent was reflected in recoveries from 0-1 and 1-2 to be level 2-2 with Williams at the mid-session interval.

By that stage, the scrappy nature of the match was reflected in only one significant break - a 65 in the third, by the reigning Irish Open champion. But White devotees were too rapt to be bothered by such details. By keeping pace with the winner of three ranking events this season, their man looked set to upset the odds.

"C'mon Jimmy," the roar went up after White won the fifth frame to take the lead for the first time in the match. Then came a treat for even the most demanding purist.

In the sixth frame, Williams laid a superb snooker with the white placed flush behind the yellow on its spot. White's response was a recovery of pure perfection. Using five cushions, his judgement of pace was so precise as to have the white ease up against a red, a few inches off the top cushion.

Later in the same frame, fate took a hand. Leading 37-13 and engrossed in a potential frame-winning break, he was put-off by a clearly audible walkie-talkie which resulted in a brown bobbling in the yellow pocket. Justice was done, however, when the brown ran up the table and dropped into a corner pocket.

From there, White completed a break of 36 up to the black, to secure the frame and a 4-2 lead. By that stage, he had produced some vintage long potting and remarkably controlled safety play, but rather sloppy positional play limited his opportunities of significant break-building.

Brilliant cue-ball control was in evidence once more, however, in the seventh frame. Again it was in an escape from a snooker, this time involving a shot down and up the length of the table, which glanced off a side cushion before knocking the last red into the pocket. To a huge cheer, Williams conceded and White's lead was now 5-2.

After that, the end was fairly predictable as a thoroughly discouraged Welshman failed to lift himself to the form that has made him the provisional world number three. "Jimmy out-played me in every aspect of the game," admitted Williams afterwards. "I've now got to practise a lot harder before the upcoming British Open."

Williams, who was meeting White for the first time in a tournament of this nature, went on: "Jimmy was my idol from the time I was 10 or 11. I loved everything about the way he played. He certainly had a major influence in shaping my career."

This pleased White. "I feel honoured and proud that I have encouraged youngsters into the game," said the player who has thrilled a generation with his skill, only to suffer the pain of losing six World Championship finals.

Last September, White's wife Maureen gave birth to their fifth child, named Tommy Tiger - after Jimmy White's father who, incidentally, was at Goff's yesterday and after the Chinese year of the Tiger. So, he availed of the opportunity of a few unbroken nights' sleep, by getting here last Saturday.

"I played golf at CityWest," he said. And how was his game? "Absolutely terrible, but the decision to come here a few days early has clearly paid off." White went on: "I'm playing fantastic in practice. All I need now is to bring that form to the table."

His next assignment is a quarter-final meeting tomorrow night against Ronnie O'Sullivan, who was stripped of this title last year following a positive drugs test during the tournament. Was O'Sullivan too laid back in his attitude to the game?

"It may look that way, but he's very deceptive," said White. "Ronnie's a fantastic player and, believe me, he wants to win every match he plays." If the so-called Whirlwind can build on yesterday's success, O'Sullivan may need all his competitive skills, to survive.