Ken Doherty and Jimmy White first met in a ranking event in January 1991 and will do so again in August 2025 at the Saudi Arabia Masters.
The two snooker icons are still battling away on the professional tour with the Irishman now 55 years old and the Whirlwind picking up wins at 63 years old.
They have been drawn to face each other in the opening round in Jeddah on Friday, an awful long way from their first match at the Mercantile Credit Classic in Bournemouth over 34 years ago.
Doherty is looking forward to it, but admits he would prefer not to be facing his old mate.
‘He’s good pal of mine so I would have rather played somebody else, but you can’t help but get excited about playing someone like him,’ Crafty Ken told Metro.
‘We’ve had some wonderful matches over the years and it’s a match that gets the juices flowing.’
The Darlin’ of Dublin remembers that first experience of the Whirlwind in Bournemouth, but more so their first clash in a final, a year later at the Rothmans Grand Prix.
‘It was wonderful, my first big ranking final’
‘I know the first big final we played was the Grand Prix at the Hexagon in Reading, he beat me 10-9,’ remembers Doherty.
‘We had a wonderful match, amazing occasion. I remember I made a century (117) to go 9-all and didn’t get much of a chance in the decider.
‘The place was absolutely packed. You can imagine what the Hexagon was like, close to London and he always had a big crowd following him anyway. It was on the BBC, it was wonderful, my first big ranking final. We’ve had some great matches over the years.’
Doherty’s memories of White go back a long way before they were at the table together, with a teenage Dubliner given the task of sorting out the Whirlwind’s dressing room at the legendary Irish venue Goffs.
‘I remember when I worked at Goffs as a 14-year-old,’ said Doherty. ‘I used to have to clean out his dressing room at times. That was part of my job, as well as being an usher and getting Alex Higgins a vodka and orange juice when he would ask for an orange juice, you know?’
Asked what he would have to clear out of White’s dressing room, Doherty chuckled: ‘Oh, well…that’s another story. You wouldn’t know! You could go in there and it would look like it wouldn’t have been touched and you’d go in another day and you’d think a bomb went off.’
‘I was in awe of him’
They became rivals on the table and friends off it, but the wildly popular Londoner was a hero for Doherty as a youngster.
‘Without a doubt,’ he said. ‘Alex Higgins firstly, then Jimmy White. He would have been a hero to a lot of the players who took up the game in the 80s, because he was on the television, burst onto the scene, was so attractive to watch, went for his shots and was so exciting.
‘You were always gunning for him to win the World Championship in all those six finals that he lost. It was heartbreak for a lot of fans, including myself.’
On those early meetings as professionals, Doherty recalls: ‘I was in awe of him, just to play him you were nervous, you had to pinch yourself.’
The Whirlwind had a rock and roll reputation in his partying days, but his popularity also came through his kind nature, which Doherty has experienced over the years.
‘We became friends and he’s been very good to me and even my son,’ explained the 1997 world champ. ‘He moved to to a school not far from Jimmy in Surrey to board and he was only allowed out at weekends.
‘I didn’t even ask him and Jimmy said to me: “Look at weekends, if you’re taking your son out, rather than go all the way back to Sheffield, stay at my house. There’s a room up there for the two of you, you’re welcome any time. That room is yours.”
‘I’ll never forget that, you know, he was extremely good to me. We always have a great laugh together.’
‘It was one of the best nights of my life’
Doherty has no shortage of tales about the great laughs he has had with White, but there is one that stands out thanks to the Whirlwind’s superstar pals.
‘You talk about rock and roll lifestyle, this was one of the greatest nights,’ remembers Doherty.
‘We’d played a tournament in China and we were going from the north down to Hainan and we had to be there for the Sunday for the opening ceremony. I’d lost on the Tuesday and he rings me in the hotel room on Wednesday and says: “Alright, son, what you doing now? I got a call from Ronnie Wood, you fancy coming to see the Stones with me on Macau Island on Saturday night?”
‘I said: “On Saturday night? Jim, I’d love to but if we don’t go to the red carpet opening on Sunday we’ll get a 500 quid fine.”
‘Jimmy goes: “A monkey? A f***ing monkey? It’s the Rolling Stones and you’re with the Whirlwind of London Town, mate!” I thought for a minute, I said: “Yeah, what am I thinking? Let’s go to Macau!”
‘So he took me to the Rolling Stones and we were all VIP at the front of the stage and I was in Ronnie Wood’s dressing room, Keith Richards comes in, I have a photograph of the four of us. It was one of the best nights of my life.
‘We got to Hainan Island on the Monday instead of the Sunday, got beat again early, as you can imagine after being on the beer with Jimmy over the weekend. I got back from the tournament in Hainan and there was the fine, 500 quid in the post. It was the best 500 quid I’ve ever I’ve ever spent. It doesn’t get any better than that.’
