Episode 7 The Clare Balding Show

Hello, hello! Thank you! Thank you very much. Hello and welcome to the

show. This is where the most exciting names from the world of

sport come to talk. What a line-up we have tonight. He was the star of

the 20 15th Rugby World Cup, known for his no-nonsense and witty

rapport with the players, the world's best and certainly most

popular rescue we, Nigel Owens is here -- referee.

They are from one of the most successful families in sport, with a

combined five World Championship to their names, siblings Rachel and Gee

Atherton are here. And with victories at the Masters,

the Championship and 147 break at the UK Championships, one of the

most popular figures in British sport, White is here!

Cavalier, thrilling, there are not enough superlatives to describe him.

With his trademark flair he transformed the game of snooker to

edge of your seat theatre. He blazed across the base with

swaggering brilliance. He reached the World Championship final six

times. He is the people's champion who has brought joy to millions.

Please welcome, Jimmy the Whirlwind White!

APPLAUSE Thanks for coming on the show.

Welcome to Jimmy White. I am so excited to have you on the show. A

big fan. How old were you when you first picked up a queue? I was 12

when I first started. I started playing pool first. I used to wait

for my dad in a pub and I played pool for a year before I played

snooker. Howl long before you knew you were good at it? Pretty good.

Before I was 13 I was winning money matches. Not the best upbringing, a

bit of a misspent youth. When I was 13 or 14 we would be playing for 100

quid a set. That was a lot of money, a lot of money now. Then we would go

up and down the country. There was no Internet so no one would know who

it was. We used to play the best players and everyone would back

them. You look so innocent there. We travelled up and down the country

for three years playing everybody for money. Presumably you are going

to come up against pretty tough guys who will not like the fact you are

taking their money. What happened then? A few times we were in

situations where we were winning people's money and a few times we

left by the exit, left or the money there because it was not safe. When

did you make the decision that you could make money legitimately from

it, you could turn professional? To be professional in those days you

had to win the embassy Championships and I won that aged 16. I waited for

three years to go to Australia to win the world amateur championships.

I turned professional at 18 but by 16 I knew that is what I wanted to

do. Who came up with the nickname the Whirlwind? You had Hurricane

Higgins and Tornado Draco. Journalists made them up. You were

fast, did anyone say you should try and be more conservative? All the

time. People said you would win so much more if you can't it down a bit

but that is the way I loved playing. I still play that way now. You did

do something incredibly rare which is to score a 147 in a World

Championship. They're in mind we are talking 1992, when the average

salary was ?15,000 a year, and you could buy a house for 50,000.

?1000 for Jimmy White if he cannot the pink and black in.

Quite magnificent, Jimmy White! APPLAUSE

Very, very impressive for its rarity. That was against Tony Draco,

who wants to congratulate you along with everyone else. He gave me a big

bear hug. It was 140,000. I got to the final and I got ?90,000 for

getting to the final. Even though I lost the final I earned the most

money. But I would swap it for the World Championships. The World

Championships is obviously the most popular event, the biggest

audiences, the most famous, and you reached the final six times. The

last time you were in the final which was 1994, you were up against

Stephen Hendry and that was incredibly close. That was 17 each.

I had 20 odd, he got in the balls, he missed and he left me a perfect

situation to win the match and win the title. I pottered about 14 and I

just threw my cue at the Black and I missed it. He cleared up. How do you

recover from that? It is a sport. Obviously, I'm disappointed. That

one has always been hard to follow. I enjoy playing. I went on the next

year and won the tournament. Just World Championships, I have not been

able to get there yet. In between those two finals, in 1993, Hendry

absolutely wiped the floor with you. What happened before that final? My

preparation for that tournament was not the best. I don't actually know

how I got to the final. To get five frames off there was quite a feat at

the time. When you say your preparation was not the best, you

mean almost the worst? I was in Jamaica a month before and I stayed

on for an extra week, a bit selfish really. I did not prepare properly.

What were you doing in Jamaica? ... Having fun! LAUGHTER What was your

idea for having fun? It is well documented. I was always

a big drinker. I dabbled in a bit of cocaine to carry on drinking. I sort

of hit this for about 15 years from my close friends, my family. I am a

bit ashamed that I have done that. I apologise to my supporters for doing

that, because I would have one of the ten World Championships. Do you

think so? I was that good, not being flash, but I was that good. I took

that path, I'm not proud of it. If anyone is about to take cocaine,

don't. That must have an effect on not just your career but on marriage

and family life with the kids? I hid it really well. Coming from a

snooker hall, it you tend to be quite tricky. I did not do it at

home. When I was on the road, doing exhibitions, gambling, that is when

I used to take it. Was their drug testing in snooker? There was, but

with cocaine, I think in seven days it is out of your system. Snooker

was always my first love, even though I had this terrible

addiction. I used to make sure that I had two weeks clean before I

played. It is interesting that you say I apologise to my fans, because

it makes me think winning was not about winning for you, it was about

winning for the fans? I had great support. I still did give 100%. I

would spend 50 hours a week on the practice table and I would get

myself ready, and I did win ten ranking tournaments and 46

invitation tournaments, so I'd done my bit. I always had a good

relationship with the fans because I always met the fans. Do you still

think you're capable of winning the World Championships? Snooker, each

frame is about ten minutes. I still beat these guys occasionally, but it

is keeping it going for two weeks. While I have still got the game in

the practice table and the odd time in the match, I keep going for it.

You were in an era of incredibly well-known names. Snooker was

massive and so were the people playing it. To get the likes of

yourself in the same room as Steve Davis, Dennis Taylor, Cliff

Thorburn, that has got to be something that you would never

forget and indeed you wouldn't. # you can do the Romford wrap will

stop. Look at Jimmy! Chas and Dave with

the Romford Rap. I think my favourite part of that was that shot

of you. Snooker Lupi was out before and it got to number six in the

chart. Then this one only sold about ten singles! It is time to introduce

our second guest. Popular referees are as rare as a New Year resolution

that actually lasts. But this is an exception. Please welcome world

rugby referee of the year, Nigel Owens!

CHEERING Do you know, lots of people writing

or they tweaked and they say you must get so and so on, you must get

so and so on, but I had more requests to get you on the sofa, I

cannot think of anyone else who is a match official who would create so

much in trust. It is great! It is great but you are only as good as

your last game. It can all change overnight, believe me. The

interesting thing about use so many kids would want to grow up wanting

to be a sports star, but they would want to do it on the field of play,

what made you want to be a referee? I was playing football in the first

15 at school and I wasn't very good. I didn't like tackling and that is

not very good for playing rugby. It came down to the last game of the

season, we had not won and my best mate scored a try right underneath

the posts. I thought what I will take this winning conversion up to

win the game and when I booted it it went closer to the corner flag than

it did the post and the sports teacher said, will you go and

referee or something? I went to help out with a couple of the under 12

and under 14 games and I enjoyed it. You have become an Internet

sensation because of the way you deal with players. Let's look at

some of the highlights. I don't know if we have met before, but I am the

referee, not you. Stick to your job and I will do mine. If I hear

shouting again, I will penalise you. and I will do mine. If I hear

Off you go before I change the colour of it! Nigel, there is no

reason I cannot give you that you cannot award the tri-? That means I

can award the tri-? That is it. I'm not going to make a big issue, but

what happens here or what happened afterwards, I did not see it. It

ends here, is that clear? You say I do want to make a big

thing of it but you get all 30 players! New look up at these chaps

and you put them in their place. If you are pretty good at your job and

players respect you, you can keep the respect in the game and it is

not that difficult telling somebody the respect in the game and it is

who is six foot eight because the respect is there from players to

officials and vice versa in rugby, and long may that continue as well.

Jimmy, your brother offered to buy you a cue when you were young, but

did he give you a choice of one thing or another? He gave me a

choice, I will buy you a snooker cue or a racing bike. I said I would

love a racing bike. I took it down the snooker club the next day and it

got stolen. But you did get a cue? They said you can have a pool cue.

They took me to town. I honestly wanted a Jimmy White Paul Q. The

only one left was a John Parrott won, so I bought a John Parrott one.

There were plenty of those left on the shelf! I've still got it at

home, in a case. It's a bit surreal now, sitting here. You look at your

heroes when you're growing up and wonder what kind of people they are

and it was a real pleasure to meet Jimmy tonight. You're now having to

adjust to being the star! I wouldn't go that far! Well, you were watched

by millions, as you mentioned, the Rugby World Cup final. What was that

experience like? Did it live up to expectations? Was it even better? It

is the pinnacle of anybody's career. I was trying to think of it as just

another game but of the day gets closer, you kind of realise, hang

on, this is the biggest game in world rugby and it only happens once

every four years and very few of us get the privilege and honour of

refereeing it. So many finders disappoint but this Rugby World Cup

didn't disappoint. It was a great Rugby World Cup. The credit for that

has to go to the players. Your dad couldn't make it to Twickenham, so

he watched the match in your local club and you gave him a call

afterwards and what did he say? Probably quite a few people here

would remind me that in the World Cup final it was a forward pass that

I missed. How I missed it, I don't know. But thankfully it didn't have

any outcome at the end of the game and Mike local working men 's club,

they are great people there, the club was absolutely packed. A lot of

them wearing Nigel Owens masks! I had not rung them for about 25 years

and I remember the number like that. I rang the club and one of the guys

answered and said Geraint, Nigel is on the phone. The club just cheered.

I was pretty much in tears! My dad came on the phone and the first

thing he said was, how the hell did you miss that forward pass?! It just

brought me down to earth, how it should be, really. It's very rare in

sport for people to be comfortable and happy being eight. When you

decided to go public, there are ways of going out of -- coming out of the

closet and there are ways of coming out of the closet. -- happy being

gay. I came out in late 2005 and I pretty

much had to because my life was a complete mess. I was depressed, I

got hooked on steroids, I got bulimic. I think the biggest

challenges that anybody comes across in their life is accepting who you

are. I couldn't accept who I was. It was affecting my performances as a

referee and I was pretty much going to get booted off the international

panel because I wasn't refereeing well enough. You didn't want to be

gay? I didn't, it was totally alien to meet them I was 19 years of age

and having these feelings that were totally alien to me and I didn't

know what it was all about. I was in a very dark place. I did something

one night that I will regret for the rest of my life and something I will

have to live with the rest of my life. I left a note for my mum and

dad and said that I can't carry on in my life any more. Just to imagine

what they must have been going through when they found that in the

morning and there was a police helicopter out looking for me and

they found me and airlifted me to the local hospital where the doctors

pretty much said after a few days in intensive care, they said another 20

minutes and it would have been too late to save you. When my mum came

in to see me that night, and my dad, they said if you ever do anything

like that again you will take me and your dad with you because we

wouldn't be able to carry on our lives without you. I thought to

myself I have to grow up here and accept who I am. With your mum know

why you were unhappy? No, until I told her a few years later. That was

the biggest challenge over with, accepting who I was. And then the

challenge was, can I be who I am, in rugby? I was starting to become a

more familiar face on TV. After about eight months of coming out I

told family friends, there were still people who didn't actually

know. The script writer said we can't do the next eight programmes

in this series and nothing being mentioned about you being gay

because something is going to come up. We put a closet on the stage and

the next thing, the closet opens and I am who I am, and all the jokes

came afterwards. This was going out on New Year's Eve and what I didn't

want to do was put my mum and dad through all this again. So they told

me look, we're going up the club tonight but we are recording the

show and we will watch it tomorrow. I thought, I don't want them to see

the show. I went to my mum and dad's house and I pulled the video

recorder out of the wall, unplug it so it wouldn't work. I got home,

Greg, rang them up and said happy New Year and everything. How did it

go in the club last night? My mum said, bloody awful. I said, why is

that? She said the entertainment didn't turn up. I said what did you

do? She said we all watched your show on the big screen! Thankfully

it just went straight over their heads! Time to welcome our final

guests. They are two of the most successful British sports stars of

their generation. Their World Championship victories have done

much to raise the profile of downhill mountain biking. This is

what they do. It's fast, it's exciting, it's

downright crazy. Please welcome brother and sister downhill mountain

bikers Rachel and Gee Atherton. APPLAUSE

So, for those people who just saw that video and that is the first

experience they have had of downhill mountain biking, Gee, how would you

sum it up? I've been racing for ten or 15 years and I'm still trying to

get my head around it! It's fast, it's aggressive, it's rough, it's

intense. Four minutes of, well, personally I've never experienced

anything more intense in my life. He uses the word intense. Scary! Are

you standing at the top of a mountain going oh, hello! Yeah,

basically, downhill mountain biking is a sport where on your push-bike

you start at the top of a mountain and raced to the valley floor as

fast as you possibly can and the fastest person is the winner. It's

pretty terrifying when you're up there and in four minutes I'm going

to be way down there. You think, all I've got is my bike and my common

sense, to get down there! I don't understand how you do that without

breaking your bike. It's breaking your body that is the worst part!

That too! That is the hardest part, the obstacles don't move when he hit

them, or sometimes on a racetrack you practice over and over again

before the actual race and sometimes the only way you know you're on the

right line is because you hit your little finger on tree every single

time, so every run UR whizzing past the tree at 40 or 50 mph and you

think you're on the right line because I just touched the trade!

Sometimes you get it wrong and you get the tree in your face! It's

millimetres of precision. Between the two of you, you have been

incredibly successful. How many world titles or medals have you got?

Rachel has... I've won two World Championship 's and Rachel has won

three, I think... What do you mean, think! For you guys, it won't be so

much fitness that gets the better of you, it will be injury. Just to get

an idea of the sort of crashes we're talking about, have a look at this.

Oh! That is just... You are the one on the bike. Talk us through why

this happened. Well, it was a good one, I admit. That wasn't meant to

happen. That was never the plan when I took off. I wasn't really nervous

about this line, it was all set up, the take-off was marked out and I

had the speed and I hit the lip and then... You didn't have the speed!

Within seconds of taking off I realised I was maybe a degree to the

right a fraction of the line will start I was actually fine, I mean...

I already had a broken ankle at this point. I had broken my ankle two

days before this. That's Mike skis for why I crashed, but I mean...

It's a very groovy sport a very cool sport, they have their own language

in mountain biking. For Nigel and Jimmy, this is a bit of a test. You

need to tell me what the following mean in the context of mountain

biking. Bonk. Well, I know what it means in West Wales! Would it the

hitting and bouncing off? Rachel, give us a context, how would you use

bonk? I would say on that road ride I totally bonked. Messed up? Yes,

hit the wall, ran out of energy. Grinder. I would say Cliff Thorburn,

fell off! I would say no comment! When someone is trying to block you?

No, it's a training ride. On a very aggressive hill. A yard sale. Use it

in context? That video of Gee crashing was a total yard sale. It's

where everything is left around you after a crash, everything is

scattered, like you're having a yard sale. I once had a crash and got

kicked over the bars and landed and knocked myself out and rag doll and

I don't remember but Rachel tells me my shorts were around my knees!

Totally unconscious. That's the best example of a yard sale! Adds a

different kind of yard sale, I think! You are all actively involved

in trying to get more people involved in your sport, in men

touring and motivating others. Jimmy, you've also been very

supportive of some players, I'm speaking specifically of Reanne

Evans, who is trying to come the first woman to compete in the World

Championships. I watched her match online and she was that close to

qualifying. If she had beaten Ken Doherty she would have gone to the

Crucible and women's snooker would have taken off. She can compete with

the men and that's what we need to see. That would change the sport

dramatically. Absolutely, there are so many girls playing in clubs in

the UK, because there are enough nightclubs now. She needs to break

through. Are you trying to get young girls involved in downhill mountain

biking? Yeah, as long as they don't beat me! No, definitely, yeah. Gee,

in a different way you are raising the profile of downhill mountain

biking, because you're certainly going to get noticed! With a photo

shoot like that! You've got very big hands! That was for charity. In my

defence! Anything goes! You know, you obviously all get

offered things that people might want you to promote and you

certainly will be now, Gee. It's difficult sometimes to make those

choices of what you're going to agree to put your name to and what

you're going to agree to advertise. Jimmy, I'm really fascinated to know

what made you say yes to this? Sitting around in airports and

driving long distances isn't the most exciting pastime, especially

when you suffer from nobby Stiles, that is piles to my non-cockney

friends. If you suffer from Nobby Stiles, don't suffer, get Ultra

Clear Plus. LAUGHTER

APPLAUSE Did the cream work? It works, and I

own 5% of the company! Good for you. Are you sitting country? I'm fine,

comfortable, yeah! Thank you all so much. We've run out of time but you

have all been brilliant guests. Huge thanks to my studio audience but

most of all to Rachel and Gee Atherton, to Jimmy White and denied

11 does well. Thank you all for watching. We will see