Jimmy White caused one of the more unusual storylines in snooker history this week in 2005, involving an HP Sauce-inspired name change, a row with the BBC and a quite stunning comeback.
The 'People's Champion' changed his name by deed poll to Jimmy Brown in the build-up to the Masters as part of HP Sauce's sponsorship of the brown ball in all major tournaments that season - and he was even toying with the idea of keeping it for World Championship.
Ahead of the event, 'Brown' said: "With a bit of luck, the name James Brown will be engraved on the Masters trophy at the end of next week. The sponsorship of the brown ball really puts the fun back into snooker and, given my previous surname, I wanted to follow that lead."
However as he walked out for his first-round clash with Matthew Stevens inside a packed Wembley Conference Centre, the BBC's presenters, pundits and commentary team - not to mention the on-screen graphics - referred to him only as White.
The Whirlwind was unhappy enough about this snub to write a strongly worded letter to the BBC that even threatened legal action should they continue to call him White. It read: "As you may well be aware from some of the media coverage over the past week, I have officially changed my name by deed poll to James Brown. I am writing to you to inform you of this and more importantly to ensure that in any references to me made during your broadcast of the Masters, be they verbal or visual or in captions, you always refer to me in the context of my new identity.
"As has always been the case, I am happy for Jimmy to be used instead of the more formal James. Therefore please refer to me as Jimmy Brown in all instances for the duration of the tournament."
The BBC stood firm as they felt it would effectively be giving HP Sauce an indirect way of achieving sponsorship on their programme, while World Snooker even thwarted him further by confirming that he'd previously entered the tournament as 'White' before his decision to change his name.
On the table he fell 5-2 down and after winning the next frame he then needed two snookers and a clearance to save the match.
An inspired White eventually pulled level at 5-5 before bringing the crowd to its feet in the decider with an array of showboating pots - and a memorable fluke - to complete an astonishing victory.
"Didn't go in...could still go in...IT HAS GONE IN!"
— Chris Hammer (@ChrisHammer180) February 15, 2022
On this day in 2005, @jimmywhite147 had the crowd on their feet for eight pots in a row - including a fluke of the ages - to beat Matthew Stevens. He changed his name to Jimmy Brown for this event but the BBC didn't play ball pic.twitter.com/IG8fiph6wh
White would then go on to edge Mark Williams in another deciding frame during the quarter-finals only to suffer a heavy 6-1 defeat to eventual champion Ronnie O'Sullivan in the last four.
The Rocket hadn't won the Masters since his maiden success over fellow 19-year-old John Higgins back in 1995 but 10 years on he brushed aside the same opponent 10-3 to end his drought.
