White cautioned by police

Jimmy White has been cautioned by police after admitting to taking cocaine in the Preston Holiday Inn (the glamour of it all) in February.

Now the governing body of world snooker must decide whether to take the matter further. It's a tight decision.

On the one hand, people who made Jeffrey Archer their chairman a few years ago, when his lordship thought presenting trophies on TV would help his mayoral campaign, would do well to avoid the thin air on the moral high ground.

Then again, snooker craves recognition as a bona fide sport (rather than a leisure pursuit), and treating cocaine as a performance enhancer would help there, even if a drug which raises the heart rate is clearly a performance wrecker in a game that requires a slow pulse.

Remembering that snooker needs bad boys like Jimmy and Ronnie O'Sullivan much more than they need snooker, a classic British compromise is indicated. A stern reprimand would allow Jimmy to flash a sheepish smile while reading a statement promising to mend his ways.

Which we could all take with a large pinch of salt (so long as we didn't get confused and try to put it up our nose).