Snooker star issued withering putdown to Jimmy White while on bus to tournament

Jimmy White was once on the receiving end of a brutal putdown from a rival, who blurted out a witty comeback during an exchange of views while travelling on a bus.White never managed to win the despite reaching six finals between 1984 and 1994. He has since triumphed at the World Senior Championship on four occasions, a record unmatched by any other player.At one point, he was ripped to shreds over his Crucible failures by Dominic Dale, who fired back at White after taking a helpful suggestion the wrong way.In an interview with Stephen Hendry , Dale recalled a conversation he had with White during a bus trip to an event in Dubai.

Hendry asked: “I remember you upset Jimmy, didn’t you?” Dale laughed before responding: “Oh my goodness me, you’re not supposed to remember these things! We were on the bus going to the venue. I’m sitting right behind him.”He turned around and said: “Alright Dom, how are you doing?’. He talks out of the corner of his mouth, like that, you know what I mean? He says: ‘Tell me something. Have you still got the cue with that white thing on it?’.”I said: ‘Oh, yes, the original ferrule for the cue. I’ll never change that’. He says: ‘Why don’t you put a brass one on? You might be able to play better’. I took it wrong, I thought he was implying that I was a useless player, which was probably right anyway.”So why don’t I put a brass ferrule on and it might make me a better player? Just off the cuff, I said: ‘Why don’t you practice blacks off the spot? You’d be world champion’.

“I never even thought about what I was saying! It just came out. That was horrendous. He didn’t know what to say and neither did I.”The two players faced each other 14 times and could not be separated in terms of results, winning seven games each. Their most recent meeting was a qualifier for this year’s Wuhan Open, with White securing a 5-3 victory to book his place at the tournament.Dale will retire at the end of the season with two ranking titles to his name, having won the World Open in 1997 before claiming victory at the Shanghai Masters a decade later. White, meanwhile, has no plans to put his cue away for the foreseeable future.Speaking in October, he said: “I enjoy practicing, enjoy doing exhibitions, enjoy entertaining. I still make 147s and, now and again, I have a little buzz where I can beat anybody.”I got [my card] on merit the last couple of years. Barry Hearn did say to me, what I’ve done for the game, as long as I keep playing in all of the events then I’ll keep getting the wildcard, but it’s nice to get it on merit.”