By Saj Chowdhury

White blamed a neck injury for his defeat by King

So near yet so far. And in the end Jimmy White was miles away.

The Whirlwind's dream of reaching the final stages of the World Snooker Championship for the 26th time ended with a 10-3 defeat at the hands of Mark King.

The small media entourage that came to Sheffield to watch the unlikely possibly become likely were later told by 45-year-old White that a cricked neck was the reason for his poor performance.

"The injury could not have happened at a worse time," said the six-time Crucible finalist.

Fair enough, this defeat can be put down to rotten luck but White's other losses during the current campaign are a sign that his star is fading fast.

White is down to a provisional number 75 in the world rankings, which is enough to retain his place on the main tour for next season.

606: DEBATE Sadly, White is finished in ranking events archicrooks

But for how much longer will the former top-16 regular be potting balls on the circuit?

The veteran appeared relaxed prior to the 1000 BST start on Monday and showed no signs of carrying an injury.

He even took part in a personal meet-and-greet with friends and fans outside before the start of the show at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield - best described as a five-star leisure centre.

Even though most observers were unaware of White's condition, those who had paid a fiver to see the match still knew that common sense dictated it would be a cakewalk for King.

And it was.

The standard is rarely high at these qualifiers because there is so much at stake and the punters at this particular tie soon realised this was going to be no exception.

To be frank, it was embarrassing to watch at times. The first four frames were farcically bad.

It took about three minutes to score the first point and things went downhill after that.

The groans and looks up to the heavens were synchronised with each bad shot

Whenever White missed an easy red, King followed it up with an equally poor shot.

In the first four frames, White failed three times with the rest from close range, messed up his safety play and kept misjudging his positioning after a pot.

He quickly found himself 5-0 in arrears.

For his fans inside the arena, including former player Willie Thorne, it was heartbreaking.

The groans and looks up to the heavens were synchronised with each bad shot.

They were given some brief respite from their misery when White fluked a red from a safety to go on and win the sixth frame, 83-30.

But he had yet to make a 50 break and his lack of fluency affected him again in the next three frames, scoring only 26 points in total as King took himself to within two frames of a place at the Crucible.

White's neck injury must have eased during the 10th frame when an out-of-the-blue 90 brought a huge roar.

He then won a scrappy 11th to reduce the deficit to 8-3.

Were we about to see a Dennis Taylor-esque fightback from the people's champion? No.

A glorious 72 break from King, the best in the match, was followed by an error-strewn 13th frame, which proved to be unlucky for White and his final contribution to the contest was a missed red along the cushion.

With the result settled, half of those in attendance began to stream out into the south Yorkshire rain, despite there still being three other matches in session.

Their day was complete, satisfied they had seen White but saddened by the knowledge they may have seen their hero for the last time in the snooker city.