White has planty to do
Jimmy White faces an uphill battle to qualify for the final stages of the Royal London Grand Prix after losing his first two group matches in Prestatyn.
White, winless in any tournament for 11 months, was beaten 3-2 by Leicester’s Tom Ford in the first of the six round robin matches he is required to play in North Wales.
And things went from bad to worse for the 44 year-old when he lost 3-1 to another Leicester professional, Joe Jogia.
It left White needing to win his last four matches to stand a chance of reaching the televised phase, which starts on October 21 at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre.
White opened with a break of 67 against Ford and compiled runs of 39 and 40 in the fourth frame to make it 2-2 but could score only two points in the decider.
Jogia fired in a break of 110 in the third frame before comfortably clinching the fourth to compound White’s misery.
The Londoner’s disappointing run of form saw him slip from eighth to 35th in the world rankings at the end of last season.
He was beaten 5-3 by Jimmy Michie in the qualifiers for the Northern Ireland Trophy and has lost to Graeme Dott and Ken Doherty in the Betfred Premier League.
White has not fared any better in 8-ball pool – he failed to make it through the initial group stages of big money events in Las Vegas and Reno during the summer.
John Parrott, who beat White in the 1991 World Championship final, made a much better start to his Grand Prix qualifying campaign by winning his first two matches.
Parrott, 42, defeated Glasgow’s Drew Henry 3-2 before wrapping up a 3-1 victory over Tamworth’s Dave Gilbert.
