Snooker legend Jimmy White recalls how he took his dead brother on a pub crawl for one final farewell

Snooker legend Jimmy White has recalled the disturbing story of how he “kicked the door of the undertakers” to collect his dead brother and take him on a pub crawl.

White has won 10 major tournaments in a career spanning multiple decades, which included a whopping six World Championship finals defeat.

The 60-year-old snooker star has endured a chequered history outside of the sport, including dealing with a drug addiction, a gambling problem and a drinking addiction.

White, who is currently ranked at No 87 in the world, was hit with tragic news in 1996 that his brother Martin had passed away after losing his battle with cancer.

The six-time World Championship finalist wanted to send his brother off in one epic farewell and, strangely enough, decided to take Martin to the pub one final time.

Speaking in his autobiography Second Wind, White recalled how they were “crying” and “laughing” during their crazy adventure with his deceased brother.

According to White, the police “sympathised” with him after busting his brother’s dead body out and claimed that “no charges followed.”

The snooker player wrote in his 2015 book: “We were so sad. We’d been drinking in the pub the night before the funeral and the bill came to £4,600. It was a proper drink.

Alamy

“We were all crying and so I told my sister we were going to get Martin.

“I kicked the door of the undertakers and the lock fell off. Just like that, it opened! I went in, there was no alarm.

“He was there, in his suit, so I phoned a driver and we took him out and carried on drinking. We felt we had to spend more time with him.

“We were crying, laughing, crying, laughing. It went on for about five hours. The driver going back realised my brother wasn’t alive, so he refused to take us.

“We had to get a taxi. On the way, the next driver looked in the mirror and said: ‘He don’t look too well.’

“We put him back and then the police came. They sympathised with me, there was no damage done. We lost his hat somewhere, but no charges followed.”

Topics: Snooker

Adnan Riaz

Adnan Riaz is a journalist for SPORTbible. He studied for a B.A. in History at the University of York and followed it up with an M.A. in Multimedia Journalism at MMU. Before he started writing about sports, he spent over four years in the gaming press. He has worked for several publications, including Hardcore Gamer, LADbible and the Manchester Evening News. Follow him on Twitter to find out what he is working on next. Got a story tip for Adnan? Email him: [email protected]

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