Jimmy White has a heartbreaking World Snooker Championship final record.

The Whirlwind is a six-time finalist at the Crucible but has never won the sport’s biggest prize.

White has won 10 ranking events and been as high as second in the world during his illustrious career.

However, he has never triumphed in Sheffield despite reaching his first final back in 1984 aged just 22.

On that occasion, White was narrowly beaten by Steve Davis, losing 18-16 to the six-time world champion.

Reflecting on his first final appearance, White told talkSPORT’s Danny Kelly in his My Sporting Life documentary: “In ‘84, it was the height of snooker because there was only a few channels on TV. Everybody knew everybody. We had a fantastic match.

“I was 12-4 down and there was a commentator called Jimmy Meadowcroft and I passed him in the hallway and he says to me ‘you keep playing with the tip’. I said it was a little bit hard and he agreed.

“Once he confirmed it I changed it. He put a new tip on for me and at 1am in the morning me and him are in the Crucible practicing, which obviously wouldn’t be allowed now.

“I came out in the morning and won the first four to go 12-8, game after the interval I’m 50 in front with three reds left. Davis doubles the red and then pots the other two reds and blacks to win that frame. I then won the next three.

“If he doesn’t get the double, it would have been 12-12 but ended up 13-11. He ended up beating me 18-16. That was my first taste of defeat in a final.

“I had no problem at all, I thought I’d win it next year.”

It would be six years before White would reach another World Championship final, though.

He made up for the delay by reaching five showpiece matches in a row between 1990 and 1994.

Describing the achievement, Kelly said: “This was one of the great runs in sporting history.

“You reach five successive world title finals between 1990 and 1994 and you manage to lose all of them.”

Of those finals, four came against Stephen Hendry, with the other an 18-11 loss to John Parrott in 1991.

In response, White admitted: “The one after that in 1991 I lost to John Parrott, who had an amazing seven frames of snooker.

“He had an amazing fluke on the third or fourth frame. I snookered him and he swerved round and managed to pot it. That was a bit of a sickener as I might have been able to stop that run. He went 7-0 up and I couldn’t catch him.

“Two of them I threw away, I was 14-8 up and I was sat in my seat thinking who I was going to thank. I lost total concentration.

“He won three or four frames and got the bit between his teeth. He ended up beating me 18-14. That was a hard one to swallow.

“The others, he beat me 18-12, I was actually playing okay. Then he beat me 18-5, but I hadn’t practiced that year so how I got to the final I don’t know.

“The closest one was when he beat me 18-17. I was 17-16 down, 60 behind and managed to clear up to stay in the match.

“In the last game, I had a fantastic opportunity and got down to the black but twitched and threw my cue at it.

“I missed and another World Championship had got away from me.”

Although he has not appeared in the final at the Crucible in the two decades since his sixth defeat, White is a four-time World Seniors Champion.

Meanwhile, the 62-year-old is set to enter qualifying for this year’s World Championship next month.

Now ranked 93rd in the world, White will have to come through four rounds of qualifying to reach the main draw.

The venue stage of the tournament is scheduled to begin on April 19 and will run through to the final on May 5.