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jimmy white ken doherty given tour cards.

Postby csprince

Sunday 11 Apr 2021 10:00AM
Jimmy White has been given an invitational tour card for the next two seasons on the World Snooker Tour, due to his outstanding contribution to the sport.

The 58-year-old Londoner lost to Stephen Hendry in the first qualifying round of the Betfred World Championship this week.

Despite some impressive results this season, including a run to the last 16 of the BetVictor Gibraltar Open, White would drop off the tour at the end of the season. However his invitational tour card, first awarded in 2017, has been extended by two years.

White has won ten ranking titles as well as the Masters, and has reached the final at the Crucible six times.

In a joint statement, WST Chairman Barry Hearn and WPBSA Chairman Jason Ferguson said: “Jimmy is one of snooker’s one-time greats, not only in terms of his achievements on the table, but also in his massive worldwide popularity. He has done so much to promote snooker through his playing style and charisma. He remains a great asset to our sport and we had no hesitation in offering him a tour card for the 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons.”

White said: “I would like to thank Barry and Jason, I am very grateful for this opportunity and I’m looking forward to a new start next season.”

In all there will be four invitational tour card holders during the 2021/22 season: White, Marco Fu, Ken Doherty and Stephen Hendry.

Re: jimmy white ken doherty given tour cards.

Postby The_Abbott

No surprise. He has a lifetime card essentially.

I do wonder how many more they can give out. Fu is an exceptional case and I do wonder if Fu fails to return to form whether the 2 years is all he will get. Although I guess its similar to Wattana who had an invitational card for a number of years.

Doherty in the second of his card and currently on course to fail to make it into Top 64 based on ranking average.

Hendry. If he fails to win any substantial matches I think he should have a rethink about his return.

Where is J-Bag's card?

Re: jimmy white ken doherty given tour cards.

Postby Reg Varney

The_Abbott wrote:Hendry. If he fails to win any substantial matches I think he should have a rethink about his return.


He said pretty much in the post-match interview after his loss to Xu Si.

There' no chance Stephen will continue to do what Jimmy does, if he can't be competitive or perform to standards he thinks are required, he'll call it a day for good

Re: jimmy white ken doherty given tour cards.

Postby cupotee

you would have thought white had set up enough financial interests or made enough out of the game coupled with his broadcasting to call it a day , what were his outstanding contributions since the 1990's players found their feet , now its more like an outstanding contribution to being an eyesore .

Re: jimmy white ken doherty given tour cards.

Postby chengdufan

cupotee wrote:you would have thought white had set up enough financial interests or made enough out of the game coupled with his broadcasting to call it a day , what were his outstanding contributions since the 1990's players found their feet , now its more like an outstanding contribution to being an eyesore .

He's playing cause he loves it though, isn't he. He'd be doing something different if he needed to earn to make a living.

Re: jimmy white ken doherty given tour cards.

Postby cupotee

chengdufan wrote:
cupotee wrote:you would have thought white had set up enough financial interests or made enough out of the game coupled with his broadcasting to call it a day , what were his outstanding contributions since the 1990's players found their feet , now its more like an outstanding contribution to being an eyesore .

He's playing cause he loves it though, isn't he. He'd be doing something different if he needed to earn to make a living.


haha so he's getting a free ride because he has enough anyway and because he loves it , ok well thats that then ;-)

Re: jimmy white ken doherty given tour cards.

Postby SnookerEd25

He puts bums on seats though, that's the bottom line. I know half a dozen or so people who would hum and ha, and then probably decline, if i asked if they wanted to accompany me to watch live snooker but would jump at the chance if Jimmy were one of the players involved, even if it is just a shell of a once-great player.

Hearn knows this, and thats why he has pound signs for eyeballs.

Re: jimmy white ken doherty given tour cards.

Postby cupotee

SnookerEd25 wrote:He puts bums on seats though, that's the bottom line. I know half a dozen or so people who would hum and ha, and then probably decline, if i asked if they wanted to accompany me to watch live snooker but would jump at the chance if Jimmy were one of the players involved, even if it is just a shell of a once-great player.

Hearn knows this, and thats why he has pound signs for eyeballs.


ok but someone could counter that those people who would probably decline aren't really snooker fans anyway , are those people and that mentality contributing anything to the game , i won't go over recent old ground on here but you need youngsters getting familiarised with pro snooker and not 5 minute clips of white clearing up pulling the 84 final back to 17 - 16 imo .

Re: jimmy white ken doherty given tour cards.

Postby mick745

Juddernaut88 wrote:Ken certainly deserves a tour card but Jimmy I'm not so sure about.


It depends how you define "deserves". He doesnt deserve it in terms of results. Sport isnt a charity.

White reached 6 world finals. Did he "deserve" to be world champion? Not as much as the opponents who beat him he didnt.

Re: jimmy white ken doherty given tour cards.

Postby SteveJJ

The_Abbott wrote:No surprise. He has a lifetime card essentially.

I do wonder how many more they can give out. Fu is an exceptional case and I do wonder if Fu fails to return to form whether the 2 years is all he will get. Although I guess its similar to Wattana who had an invitational card for a number of years.

Doherty in the second of his card and currently on course to fail to make it into Top 64 based on ranking average.

Hendry. If he fails to win any substantial matches I think he should have a rethink about his return.

Where is J-Bag's card?


Ronnie, MJW, Higgins would definitely be offered as and when they require them.

You'd probably expect Ding for the same reason as Wattana got his.

Then we'd see about Selby, Trump and Robbo.

Youd hope by that stage the likes of White, Hendry and Ken would have packed it in

Re: jimmy white ken doherty given tour cards.

Postby chengdufan

Dan-cat wrote:Didn't Jimmy just get to the quarters of something? Had a bit of a streak?

He reached the last 16 in Gibraltar, knocking in 11 50+ breaks. His results:
4-3 v O'Connor
4-2 v Bingham
4-3 v Chen Zifan
2-4 v Wakelin

Re: jimmy white ken doherty given tour cards.

Postby The_Abbott

chengdufan wrote:
Dan-cat wrote:Didn't Jimmy just get to the quarters of something? Had a bit of a streak?

He reached the last 16 in Gibraltar, knocking in 11 50+ breaks. His results:
4-3 v O'Connor
4-2 v Bingham
4-3 v Chen Zifan
2-4 v Wakelin


He deserves a ten yer card for that little run. Amazing ;-)

Re: jimmy white ken doherty given tour cards.

Postby Empire State Human

badtemperedcyril wrote:It's like the golf Masters champions getting invited back for life! :gramp:

That emoji reminds me when Sam Snead was invited to play the ceremonial opening shot at the Masters in the early 2000s, when he must've been aged 90. He duly sliced it into the crowd and KO'ed a spectator.

Re: jimmy white ken doherty given tour cards.

Postby badtemperedcyril

Empire State Human wrote:
badtemperedcyril wrote:It's like the golf Masters champions getting invited back for life! :gramp:

That emoji reminds me when Sam Snead was invited to play the ceremonial opening shot at the Masters in the early 2000s, when he must've been aged 90. He duly sliced it into the crowd and KO'ed a spectator.

Haha... That'd be like Ray Reardon coming on now to play the opening shot and taking the refs eye out with his follow through!


p.s. ESH, I'll have some more stuff for you shortly. :hatoff:

Re: jimmy white ken doherty given tour cards.

Postby PLtheRef

chengdufan wrote:
Dan-cat wrote:Didn't Jimmy just get to the quarters of something? Had a bit of a streak?

He reached the last 16 in Gibraltar, knocking in 11 50+ breaks. His results:
4-3 v O'Connor
4-2 v Bingham
4-3 v Chen Zifan
2-4 v Wakelin


That was the third time since he was originally relegated from the Tour in 2017 that he reached the Last 32 of a ranking tournament.

Re: jimmy white ken doherty given tour cards.

Postby mick745

My view is this.

Firstly get a tour card on merit or not at all.

Secondly this enforces the feeling that snooker is stuck in the past. Continuing the careers of players just because of their long ago contributions to the sport is slightly patronising like giving some sweeties to a child.

Re: jimmy white ken doherty given tour cards.

Postby SnookerEd25

mick745 wrote:My view is this.

Firstly get a tour card on merit or not at all.

Secondly this enforces the feeling that snooker is stuck in the past. Continuing the careers of players just because of their long ago contributions to the sport is slightly patronising like giving some sweeties to a child.


Or SnookerFan.

Re: jimmy white ken doherty given tour cards.

Postby orky

I totally disagree with Jimmy White being given another tour card, whatever people may say about his contribution to the game in the past, today he is a fraction of the once great player he was years ago now. And he has been a fraction of the player for the last 15+ years. Even then he had a resurgent 2003-4 season after being in the wilderness for most of the years prior to that effectively from around 1995ish.

It makes a mockery of the sport to be honest, what number tour wildcard is this for him? The first one I can just about understand but that's about it.

I was his biggest fan when he actually was a great snooker player. He has another 2 year wildcard but I will be surprised if he can win 10 professional matches in that time. I'd like to see since he was given his first tour wild card, how many professional matches he has won.

Re: jimmy white ken doherty given tour cards.

Postby cupotee

orky wrote: what number tour wildcard is this for him?


this will be his 4th straight invitational tour card , the thing is i suspect he doesn't have much decency anyway , beyond whatever media spin about him and his contribution , precisely what contribution exactly in the last quarter century , i'd like to see barry hearn and his family go too but thats for another time and place .

Re: jimmy white ken doherty given tour cards.

Postby Reg Varney

orky wrote:I'd like to see since he was given his first tour wild card, how many professional matches he has won.


Courtesy of cuetracker:

34 wins, 66 losses, 1 draw

If we're to break it down by season:

2017/18 - 11 wins, 18 losses

2018/19 - 9 wins, 16 losses

2019/20 - 5 wins, 16 losses

2020/21 - 9 wins, 16 losses

There are some caveats with all of that.

Of the 11 victories in 2017/18, one was in the Shoot-Out

Of the 9 victories in 2018/19, two were in the Shoot-Out. Jimmy never progressed past the L64 in anything else.

Of the 5 victories in 2019/20, two were in the World Six Reds, his only other wins on tour that year were over Hammad Miah, Ivan Kakovski and Michael Georgiou.

Of the 9 victories in 2020/21, four were in Best of Three matches at a WST event and one was in the Shoot-Out. His run in the Gibraltar Open was the first time he'd strung three wins together in a tournament since the Riga Masters back in 2017/18.

So 24 wins, in what I would class as "proper" matches.

Notable scalps during that time in meaningful events: Ali Carter (6-2, UK Championships, 17/18), Anthony McGill (5-3, German Masters, 17/18), Stuart Bingham (4-2, Gibraltar Open, 20/21)


   

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