Whirlwind gives prisoners a break

SNOOKER legend Jimmy White yesterday made a memorable prison break from inside one of the country’s most famous jails.

The Whirlwind invoked the spirit of Johnny Cash’s immortal performances in US state penitentiaries by playing against inmates inside Mountjoy Prison.

Killers, drug dealers, armed robbers and other figures from the criminal underworld packed into the jail’s spartan auditorium under the watchful gaze of warders to see their hero.

And dressed in traditional black waistcoat and trousers the south Londoner crowned the People’s Champion didn’t disappoint his audience.

Prison officers said the wings were buzzing with anticipation over the past month as inmates played each other for the chance to take on the six-times World Championship runner-up.

“It’s more a bit of fun really. Some were a bit nervous there, they probably play a lot better than that on the wing,” said White after the exhibition, which raised money for Ireland’s Special Olympics team.

He agreed to the exhibition match after fellow professional snooker player Alfie Burden’s Dublin-born friend was imprisoned there earlier this year.

The plan was hatched inside the Dublin prison six weeks ago when Burden visited his friend who was looking for a focus to get him through his sentence.

“I said why don’t you put it to them that me and Jimmy can do an exhibition. They thought it was a great idea,” said Burden.

Two prisoners — identified only as Jason and John Paul — were first to take on White and Burden while fellow inmates, surrounding the full-size snooker table, cheered on.

While Jason conceded he was nervous and could have played better, John Paul insisted he hadn’t played for a year and would have won the game had he practised.

During one of the games an inmate who had unwittingly fouled the ball raised jeers from his fellow inmates of “foul, foul”.

But when a forgiving White insisted they should ignore it as the referee never saw it, one shouted back: “No, we’re honest.”

Inmates in the ‘A’ wing presented White with pink cue towels embroidered in the prison’s fabric shop with the snooker star’s name and “Mountjoy Prison 2007”.