JIMMY White has a message for snooker fans planning on coming to see him at Colne Muni next Friday night.

“Just tell them please ask me what you like, I won’t be offended,” said arguably the most popular snooker player of them all.

Dubbed The Whirlwind due to his speed around the table, Jimmy is probably the finest player never to have won the world championship having been the beaten finalist six times.

The publication of his frank autobiography Second Wind led to him being much in demand in theatres to talk about his remarkable life.

“The book did so well they started to ask me to go out and do these question and answer evenings,” said Jimmy. “I’ve got to be honest, I really didn’t think I’d enjoy them but they’ve been amazing.

“There’s been such a good atmosphere in the venues and we’ve had such good questions from the crowd. Before you know it, everyone’s hanging on to your every word. The whole evening just goes by in a flash.”

In Jimmy White - the Sporting Life Story which is heading to Colne, the audience will be able to see archive footage as Jimmy talks about the highs and lows in his career and shares some hilarious anecdotes about his life in snooker.

The second half of the show will then give the audience to put their own questions.

“I’ve found that sometimes it’s good to reminisce,” he said. “When I was working on the book it did open up a few old wounds and I know that I could have done a lot of things to make a lot of things easier for myself.

“But I look at it this way If I hadn’t done what I have done I wouldn’t have met all the people I’ve met and had the life I’ve had. There’s no point in having regrets.

“And I’ve found I really enjoy talking to the fans. With no disrespect, they are not like journalists asking questions who tend to have a reason to ask a particular question. The fans are asking innocent questions, they just want to know about you.

“They often ask me about the playboy image I had when I was younger and I’ll say to them ‘let’s reminisce together’ because I can’t remember myself what I got up to.”

Jimmy also enjoys taking fans back to his very early days.

“When I was about 14 me and Tony Meo (who became a fellow professional) would stick a pin in the map and get a taxi and we’d play anybody in the area.

“You’ve got to remember it was before the internet or mobile phones and people would say ‘we’ll back our champion against these two snotty nosed kids, they haven’t got a chance. And we’d clean up.

“Having said that we did get run out of a few places and there were times when we had to give the money back - it was the only way we were allowed out of the club.”

Now 56, Jimmy is still playing regularly and has just started to take part in competitions on the burgeoning seniors circuit.

“That’s going from strength to strength,” he said. “It’s proving very popular and the competition is as fierce as ever.

“I’m still doing what I love doing. I’m still playing professionally as well as going out and about talking about it so I’m really a very lucky boy.

“Oh, and you can tell people in Colne I won’t be saying anything nice about Steve Davis or Stephen Hendry,” he laughed.

Jimmy White, a Sporting Life Story Colne Muni, Friday, March 8. Details from 01282 661234 or www.themuni.co.uk