The travails of Jimmy White have been well documented over the years. Arguably the most talented, and certainly the most beloved player of his generation, White will nonetheless forever be remembered for being the ‘nearly-man’ of snooker. Recent years have been tough for the six-time World Championship runner-up. White is now 46 and down to 65 in the world rankings; his last ranking event title was five years ago and, to make life even more difficult, he’d been handed an unenviable first round draw in the Welsh Open against one of the most in-form players on the snooker circuit, Ali ‘The Captain’ Carter.
Surely only a madman would choose to back Jimmy White in such a scenario. A madman, or a fearless punter perhaps. For, having scanned the spread betting markets for the Carter vs White contest, one quote really caught my eye and I elected to SELL CARTER / WHITE POINT SUPREMACY AT 140.
Firstly, a word of warning: the point supremacy market is one of the most volatile and, frankly, dangerous markets in the whole of spread betting. Conversely, this also makes it one of the most fun. It works by aggregating the total points scored by each player in a given match and working out the difference between them. So a best of three frame match which ends 100-0, 50-55, 43-44 would end in a 2-1 win for Player B, but a 94 point supremacy win for Player A. Being a spread market, you don’t just want your chosen player to win, but rather to absolutely batter his opponent in every single frame.
A White thrashing of Carter was probably too much to hope for, but I nonetheless had high hopes that Jimmy would put on a decent show for his adoring public. He’d shown some great form during qualifying, thrashing former World Champion Ken Doherty 5-0 (in mitigation, it should be noted that Doherty’s form is on a downward spiral this season so rapid that it makes White’s look mild in comparison) and offered some encouraging noises that he felt back to something near his best. And so, giving up a 140 point start in the match, even to a player of Carter’s class, did seem a little excessive.
DURING THE MATCH
Two frames in, and everything was going swimmingly. After a nervy opening frame, White made a glorious break of 72 to level the match at 1-1 and, more importantly, reduce to point supremacy to just 2 in Carter’s favour. The bet, at this stage, was very much onside. The next hour and a half, however, demonstrated the lightning speed at which this type of bet can go against the punter. Carter reeled off four consecutive frames, winning by 52, 64, 48 and 80 points.
White had his chances during these frames, but missed every one of them. As the match swiftly came towards its conclusion, White cut an increasingly forlorn figure, showing every one of his 46 years. The contrast between the weathered former star, and Carter, this bright, young talent bounding around the snooker table on his way to another big-name scalp, could hardly have been starker.
The damage, in the end, was a 106 point loss (Carter won 376-130). A poor result, by any standards, albeit one on a very volatile market where you stake far less per point than you would normally. Still, watching Jimmy troop out of the arena with his now-familiar hangdog expression, I wondered whether, deep down, I had once again been supporting for the Whirlwind more with my heart than my head. Was this really fearless punting, or just foolhardy sentimentality?
JW
Although Ali Carter it a very good player i thought Jimmy White would have at least won a few more game because he lost 5 frames to 1 and i was expecting a 5 to 3 or a 5 to 4 victory.
Posted by: Scott Forster | September 25, 2009 at 10:04 PM