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Re: Alex Higgins 1949-2010

Postby Wildey

Alex0paul WC wrote:He will be giving Hunter a good few battles now.

and Downing pints with Ollie Reed and George Best

Re: Alex Higgins 1949-2010

Postby Casey

:( :( :(

Very somber. He lived like a legend, the most exciting player of all time, us snooker fans owe him alot.

I hope you have finally found peace Alex. :rip:

Re: Alex Higgins 1949-2010

Postby GJ

RIP alex higgins

:-(

Re: Alex Higgins 1949-2010

Postby Wildey

the Legend of Alex Higgins was so much bigger than the sport in a way what he did on the table was minor to how he lived his life....he wasent everyones cup of tea and he did some stupid things that you cant really blame them to have a negative view of the man but when all thats said Snooker and everyone thats a fan today owes him everything.

Re: Alex Higgins 1949-2010

Postby Casey

He deserved so much more than this.
To be inflected with two crippling diseases - cancer and Alcoholism :(

Re: Alex Higgins 1949-2010

Postby PLtheRef

Such very sad news. I had the privilege to meet him in Killarney with John last year and I had to say he was a gent to me. Snooker will miss him so very much. Rest in Peace Alex.

Re: Alex Higgins 1949-2010

Postby Wildey

the majority of the time im sure he was a gent but because of who he was the negativity got the headlines in resent years nobody wanted to read alex higgins was nice.

Re: Alex Higgins 1949-2010

Postby Monique

http://snookerscene.blogspot.com/2010/0 ... ur-in.html?
ALEX HIGGINS DIES: TRIBUTES POUR IN
Tributes are starting to pour in for Alex Higgins, who died today at the age of 61.

Among those remembering him are his fellow players.

Ronnie O’Sullivan said: “Alex Higgins was one of the real inspirations behind me getting into snooker. He is a true legend and should be forever remembered as being the finest ever snooker player."

Higgins's compatriot and fellow former world champion Dennis Taylor commented: “I had so many terrific battles with Alex, particularly in Belfast. Towards the end it was sad but I prefer to remember him as he was when he first came on the scene.”

Willie Thorne said: “He made the game what it is today. I knew him well. He used to stay with me. My mother would do his ironing. It’s very sad news. Snooker fans will miss him greatly.”

Barry Hearn: "He was the major reason for snooker's popularity in the early days. He was controversial at times, but he always played the game in the right spirit. We will miss him – he was the original people's champion."

John Parrott: “We knew his health wasn’t great. When he played in the Legends in April he was very poorly. It’s really sad and he will be missed. You’ll never meet another human being like him. He was mercurial. One minute he was charming, intelligent and witty and the next he could turn and have a nasty side to him but he puts bums on seats. I used to tune in to Pot Black to watch him. I went to watch him in exhibitions, He was totally different. I’ve seen him play shots nobody else has ever played.”

Re: Alex Higgins 1949-2010

Postby Monique

http://snookerscene.blogspot.com/2010/0 ... plete.html?
ALEX HIGGINS DIES: A LEGEND, A REBEL, A COMPLETE ONE-OFF
Image
Alex Higgins brought one thing to snooker that above all else cemented his place as one of snooker's most important figures: the public.

He won the World Championship in 1972 at his first attempt when snooker barely registered with the British sporting public. By the time he captured the title again in 1982 it had been transformed into a frontline television attraction, largely due to the Northern Irishman’s intoxicating playing style and vividly dramatic personal life.

Higgins’s 1982 success at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre remains among snooker’s most iconic moments. As the trophy was presented he tearfully beckoned his wife, Lynn, and baby daughter, Lauren, on to the stage to share in the glory.

There were to be many more emotional moments in a life lived without compromise. Higgins could have accumulated more silverware than he did were it not for his volcanic temperament but his capacity to find trouble ensured he retained a huge fascination and, therefore, a sizeable following. His last playing engagement came in a Snooker Legends night at the Crucible in April where he received a rapturous ovation.

Higgins was born in Belfast in 1949 and learned his snooker trade at the Jampot Billiard Hall. He won the Northern Ireland amateur title at the age of 18 and moved to Blackburn to pursue a career on the green baize. Snooker at this time was in the doldrums with just a handful of professionals, little media coverage and television exposure limited only to the weekly Pot Black series. At his first attempt, Higgins won the world professional title. At 23, he was the youngest ever winner until Stephen Hendry captured the crown in 1990 at 21.

Higgins’s 37-31 defeat of John Spencer, the defending champion, in the final signified a changing of the guard. The polite, staid world of snooker had never seen anything like the player nicknamed ‘The Hurricane.’ He would go on to revel in his status as ‘people’s champion,’ packing venues even after his game had declined to the point he could no longer compete at the top level.

Yet for all the controversy, Higgins deserves to be remembered as one of snooker’s greatest ever players. He won the Masters, the game’s premier invitation title, in 1978 and 1981 and recovered from 7-0 down to beat Steve Davis 16-15 in the final of the 1983 UK Championship.

In 1984, he won the World Doubles title with Jimmy White, his protégé who remained a close friend to the end, digging him out of many holes, particularly financial. The remarkable 69 break Higgins made when a frame from defeat to White in the 1982 Crucible semi-finals has been constantly replayed and is still regarded as the finest match saving contribution ever produced under pressure, consisting of a series of difficult pots each executed with the unique Higgins swagger.

Higgins finished runner-up to Ray Reardon in the 1976 World Championship and lost 18-16 to Cliff Thorburn in the 1980 final, coverage of which was interrupted by live news reports from the Iranian embassy in London, which was being stormed by the SAS. So engrossed were millions in the snooker that the BBC was deluged with calls demanding they return to the Crucible.

Higgins’s tumultuous private life kept him in the public eye but snooker’s administrators grew tired of his behaviour, which often crossed the line from the merely rebellious to plain unacceptable. In 1986 he was suspended for five tournaments after headbutting Paul Hatherall, the tournament director at the UK Championship in Preston, who had asked him to undergo a drugs test.

Four years later Higgins was banned for an entire season for a litany of offences, including threatening to have his compatriot and fellow former world champion Dennis Taylor shot and punching a tournament press officer. The subsequent loss of ranking points meant he had to enter tournaments at the qualifying stage and, with his game already in decline, Higgins began a slide that would ultimately end his career.

His death had been predicted many times over the last three decades but Higgins was renowned as a fighter. In 1989, he won the Irish Masters despite having to limp around the table after falling 25 foot after a row with his then girlfriend. He survived throat cancer in 1998 and returned to smoking, despite having attempted to sue the tobacco companies who had bankrolled the sport during his heyday.

Higgins last played in the televised stage of the World Championship in 1994, when he became involved in an argument with the referee, John Williams, about where the official was standing. His last match on the circuit came three years later at the qualifying school in Plymouth where he was escorted from the venue for being abusive and eventually found lying on the ground in the early hours, the victim of an attack with an iron bar.

He attempted various comebacks, none of them successful, and in more recent times cut a sad figure, bitterly deriding the players who now dominate the circuit he helped to build. Last October, he played Thorburn again in a Legends tournament in Glenrothes. His frail frame and inability to talk in anything but a whisper reduced his notoriously tough Canadian opponent to tears.

Right to the end Higgins relished his role as one of sport’s great anti-heroes. He was uncompromising and could be impossible to be around, even for his friends, but was the key figure in snooker’s rise from obscurity to the television big time.

He divorced Lynn in 1985 and is survived by her, Lauren and his son, Jordan.

Re: Alex Higgins 1949-2010

Postby Wildey

Ive never Known 606 snooker to be as busy with people ive never seen posting there says it all really.

Re: Alex Higgins 1949-2010

Postby Lucky

wildJONESEYE wrote:Ive never Known 606 snooker to be as busy with people ive never seen posting there says it all really.



Yeah, fantastic response on 606....the man seemed to command respect <ok>

Re: Alex Higgins 1949-2010

Postby KrazeeEyezKilla

I remember during the World Championships they showed a short feature on the 1982 Semi against Jimmy White. The pots they were knocking in were unbelievable. Whatever it was Snooker looked so much better when he was at the able than anyone else.

Re: Alex Higgins 1949-2010

Postby SnookerFan

I was in the pub, and the news came in on the news channel that came on. Weirdly enough, I was wearing a T-Shirt with him on...

I spent the afternoon in the pub drinking with some mates, but was sober enough to go out for a couple this evening. It's fitting that I heard the news in my local pub, it's what he would have wanted. Come online with a nightcap, giving the man a wake.

Re: Alex Higgins 1949-2010

Postby Bourne

He was very much before my time and some of the stories that I see about him that were not so positive were disappointing but then again it wouldn't have been Alex Higgins to not have controversy follow him, his talent was undoubted, never a dull moment. At least he is in peace now.

Re: Alex Higgins 1949-2010

Postby SnookerFan

In a way, you can compare Alex Higgins to another sporting idol of mine, Muhammad Ali. Not to speak ill of the dead, but both Alex and Ali at the times of their primes had very controversial personal lives. Ali's talks of the vietnam war, and discussing of black supremacy and segregation was very much issues of the time, Higgins getting drunk and beating up his wife weren't. Either way, they weren't loved by all in their time, but they were pioneers in their sport. Higgins invented a style of play that hadn't been seen before. Now that style of play is common place. If you watched Alex in todays game he'd be known as Alex "Plays at the same speed as everyone else" Higgins. That guy invented shots. Pots he were making had other baffled, as they hadn't even considered that shot would be possible. Others may have popularised that style, but Higgins literally invented it. How Ronnie O'Sullivan plays today, Alex Higgins before him invented it.

A work colleague of mine met Muhammad Ali when he came to visit the place I work at. I wasn't lucky enough. I was, however, lucky enough to meet Alex Higgins. But the sad thing was, I didn't feel lucky at the time. Less then ten minutes walk from my flat, last year, Alex was playing an exhibition against Jimmy White. I went. Afterwards there was a chance to meet the players. I asked for Alex's autograph. He signed it, if you can call scribbling your name on a piece of paper signing it. He looked at me, but his eyes were confused. The guy seriously didn't know where he was. This guy would have to get pregnant to weigh half what I do, and he wasn't all there. Comparable to Ali again, his lifestyle gave him physical illnesses. This does not make the loss any sadder. If it wasn't for Alex, snooker wouldn't have been quite as popular in the 1980s, and wouldn't have the style it is played now.

Good person? Questionable, at best. Did he leave a legacy? More then all of us on this website combined will do.

RIP Alex Higgins. I am having a beer for you tonight, these feelings form part of the wake I am having for you. Like him or not, you can't be a snooker fan without liking the effect he had on the game.

Re: Alex Higgins 1949-2010

Postby Wildey

Bourne wrote:He was very much before my time and some of the stories that I see about him that were not so positive were disappointing but then again it wouldn't have been Alex Higgins to not have controversy follow him, his talent was undoubted, never a dull moment. At least he is in peace now.


ive seen him at his worst on a exibition with jimmy in elsemere port in 1995 he lost 5-4 i had the guts to go up to him ask for a autograff and the reply i had was "go away cant you see ive bucking lost" but somehow i expected that reaction so it never harmed my opinion of him

Re: Alex Higgins 1949-2010

Postby Lucky

Ali and Higgins!!!!!! Not even closely related, Higgins problems were all self inflicted, a true definition of the troubled genius, Ali was a great with a commendable belief in what was right! Higgins was a fantastic player and has done more to raise the profile (rightly or wrongly) of snooker!

Re: Alex Higgins 1949-2010

Postby SnookerFan

wildJONESEYE wrote:
Bourne wrote:He was very much before my time and some of the stories that I see about him that were not so positive were disappointing but then again it wouldn't have been Alex Higgins to not have controversy follow him, his talent was undoubted, never a dull moment. At least he is in peace now.


ive seen him at his worst on a exibition with jimmy in elsemere port in 1995 he lost 5-4 i had the guts to go up to him ask for a autograff and the reply i had was "go away cant you see ive bucking lost" but somehow i expected that reaction so it never harmed my opinion of him


Lets get this right. I don't believe in speaking ill of the dead, but I don't believe in changing my opinion of somebody purely based on the fact they've past on. He was a controversial character, and not everybody liked him. I will put it only like that, out of respect of the fact that he has just died. But we all know I could word what I said more strongly, and most wouldn't disagree that there were at least reasons for me having that opinion.

However, I am a fan of snooker, and that man gave snooker more then any other individual. The sport is what it is today because of that man, in my opinion. And you can't say that accurately about any one other snooker player ever, except maybe the Davis brothers who pretty much invented the sport. We owe a lot as snooker fans to Alex Higgins, of this there is no debate. It's stone-wall fact. And for this, I personally believe, he should be remembered for, on at least tonight, the night he died.

Re: Alex Higgins 1949-2010

Postby Wildey

Lucky balls wrote:Ali and Higgins!!!!!! Not even closely related, Higgins problems were all self inflicted, a true definition of the troubled genius, Ali was a great with a commendable belief in what was right! Higgins was a fantastic player and has done more to raise the profile (rightly or wrongly) of snooker!

Alex was a Fan of Ali and in the early days he saw himself as a Ali character

Re: Alex Higgins 1949-2010

Postby SnookerFan

Lucky balls wrote:Ali and Higgins!!!!!! Not even closely related, Higgins problems were all self inflicted, a true definition of the troubled genius, Ali was a great with a commendable belief in what was right! Higgins was a fantastic player and has done more to raise the profile (rightly or wrongly) of snooker!


Point taken. Ali's beliefs were questionable in todays society, but were very much politics of the time, and some of which (ie. his refusal to fight in Vietnamn) were controversial at the time, but sympathised with later.

I was merely making the point that they are both icons of sports I love, who now have physical illnesses due to lifestyle choices. Okay, Ali's choice was to take part in a sport where people had to hit you in the head, and to fight on longer then his body could take it. Alex's was to drink, drink some more, smoke, drink yet more and smoke again. Is Ali more admirable as a person? Probably. But, I was just making a comparrison, because I believe they were two men who may have led different lives, but made an impact on the sport and beyond it, and personally I think Alex's loss is almost as huge as Alis would be.

Youngsters nowadays may not be able to grasp the impact these two men had, but boy. Impact did they have.

Re: Alex Higgins 1949-2010

Postby Lucky

wildJONESEYE wrote:
Lucky balls wrote:Ali and Higgins!!!!!! Not even closely related, Higgins problems were all self inflicted, a true definition of the troubled genius, Ali was a great with a commendable belief in what was right! Higgins was a fantastic player and has done more to raise the profile (rightly or wrongly) of snooker!

Alex was a Fan of Ali and in the early days he saw himself as a Ali character



I'm doubting Ali saw himself as a Higgins character!!!

Re: Alex Higgins 1949-2010

Postby SnookerFan

Lucky balls wrote:
wildJONESEYE wrote:
Lucky balls wrote:Ali and Higgins!!!!!! Not even closely related, Higgins problems were all self inflicted, a true definition of the troubled genius, Ali was a great with a commendable belief in what was right! Higgins was a fantastic player and has done more to raise the profile (rightly or wrongly) of snooker!

Alex was a Fan of Ali and in the early days he saw himself as a Ali character



I'm doubting Ali saw himself as a Higgins character!!!


I was just making an analogy. I admire Ali possibly more then anybody, but this isn't about him.

Re: Alex Higgins 1949-2010

Postby Lucky

Ali, Higgins, Best.......all heroes, and icons, and you could add more to the list....Tyson, Gazza......even Tiger, the greatest in most sports are troubled by demons, genius comes with a price!

Re: Alex Higgins 1949-2010

Postby Roland

This from Cliff Thorburn:

It’s a sad day and it will bring back a lot of memories for everybody. He was somebody’s son and somebody’s brother and somebody’s husband and somebody’s father.

We had our differences but they didn’t mean a thing once we started playing. He was dynamic and he had a way about him. As a player he tried so hard and he never gave up. It was literally life and death with him when he was playing a match. He was very innovative too with the way he played. He played in an innovative era along with John Spencer and Ray Reardon, and between them they invented a new way of playing which was more aggressive than what went before.

In the last few years I started to feel sorry for him. He was on the Snooker Legends tour and it was so sad, I would rather have sat down and had a coffee with him and not played him. I know he had lots of fans out there and people wanting to help him out, and I hope he’s remembered for all the good things and all the happiness he brought to everyone.

And sometimes with what went on and off the table he was a little eccentric, but he could sure play the game. He was a wonderful player, and very tough to play against.

Re: Alex Higgins 1949-2010

Postby paperbackwriter

I'm always amazed by how fast people are able to react, I think I have yet to realize that it happened. I could go on about what I loved about him and I wouldn't even have to start about what he did for the game- simply, almost everything about him is fascinating to me. I guess I could be satisfied watching a match during which he was off the table all the time- just enjoying his absorbing personality. But of course that would be a waste, since it could only get more exciting when it was his turn to play.

Re: Alex Higgins 1949-2010

Postby Wildey

nice sentiment from cliff <ok>