JIMMY White is the people's champion of snooker and he still has one burning ambition in the game - to win the World Championship crown at the Crucible in Sheffield.

He has reached the final six times and each time he has been beaten, which means he has also picked up the tag of being the best player never to have won the world title.

The Londoner is still eager to put that right and said: "I still think I have a good enough game to win the title.

"If I thought it wasn't possible, I would go and play golf badly in Spain instead."

He's certainly able to entertain the crowds, as Basingstoke snooker fans were able to witness, first-hand, on his recent visit to The Anvil for the Betfred Premier League Snooker event.

A cheeky smile and a little bit of banter with the audience cuts through the iceman image that many other players in the sport have.

He rolled back the years with some class potting in Basingstoke, winning 4-2 over another elder statesman of the game, Steve Davis.

Last week, he was in action again in the British Grand Prix at Preston's Guildhall, where he lost narrowly in the third round of the event, 5-4 to Barry Pinches, missing out on a quarter-final clash with world number one and beaten finalist Ronnie O'Sullivan.

The 43-year-old grew up in London with fellow professional snooker player Tony Meo, and the pair used to skip school to practise their snooker.

In 1986, he won his first ranking tournaments with victories in the Mercantile Credit Classic and Rothmans Grand Prix. But, for White, his most memorable win came in 1992, when he took the UK crown.

The snooker star said: "At the time, that was the second biggest event behind the world championships, so I felt I had finally arrived in the game."

In a sport which was being dominated by the precise play of Davis, White was the complete opposite, with his lightning fast breaks. Hence, the Whirlwind nickname.

Away from the table, White is a keen supporter of Chelsea and goes to watch them play as often as his schedule allows.

While snooker and his family of five children are his life, that was nearly taken away from him in 1995, when he faced his biggest battle - beating testicular cancer. He made a full recovery and was playing seven days after the operation to remove one of his testicles.

White said: "That changed my outlook on life and now I think that I am so happy to still be playing - and that is fantastic."

In 1999, White was awarded the MBE for his services to the sport. Three other snooker players are part of an elite club to hold the same honour - Davis, John Parrott and Stephen Hendry - the same three who have beaten the Whirlwind in world finals.

While snooker continues to produce fresh new stars, there will always be a place in the sport for White for as long as he wants to play, and the "People's Champion" is sure to be building breaks for a few years to come.