SnookerEd25 wrote:Pink Ball wrote:Dragonfly wrote:I voted 3. Williams is certainly an all time great. Won loads of other stuff too.
I have always struggled with the whole Alex Higgins legend thing. Ok he won 2 and not a huge amount otherwise. His win in 82 was hugely helped by Davis early exit. Is he better than Robertson with 1 win. Absolutely no way.
I think anyone who wins 3 is up there with the best of the best.
Higgins won the UK Championship, the Masters (twice), British Open and Irish Masters (twice). He had an incredible career.
A. Higgins might have won 3 worlds. He started playing to the crowd in 1980, & Thorburn ground him down in the final session.
Not my opinion, the words if Clive Everton on the History of Snooker video / DVD - & he generally knows what he is talking about.
A while ago, I constructed my own rankings from 1969 onwards taking into account all the professional tournaments. It's far from perfect, of course, because some events were invitational or a select group anyway but nonetheless, I feel it offers a more accurate feel of the balance of play than the official world rankings did, which counted just the previous three World Championships.
What is even more remarkable is that Higgins scored very lowly in the 78 and 79 World's in which he lost in the last 16 and quarter final and yet is still miles ahead at the top of the list. My point to all this, is Alex probably could've gone on to win in 77, 78 and 79 had he not gone out 13-12 on each occasion (his opponents being Mountjoy, Fagan and Griffiths). Reardon were Spencer were starting to decline; Davis was yet to arrive and thus, Higgins have seized the opportunity.
My top 16 for 1979/80 was:
1 A Higgins 65
2 J Spencer 48
3 C Thorburn 47
4 R Reardon 38
5 T Griffiths 38
6 Den Taylor 35
7 D Mountjoy 33
8 J Virgo 27
9 G Miles 27
10 E Charlton 25
11 P Mans 25
12 S Davis 19
13 F Davis 19
14 K Stevens 17
15 B Werbeniuk 16
16 Dav Taylor 13
I excluded the UK because it was open only to UK residents.
Tournaments included:
World Championships (78 & 79), Masters, Canadian Open, Champion of Champions, Holsten Lager, Bombay International, Pontins Pro, Limosin, Wilsons, Padmore, B&H Irish, Gold Cup, Pontins Camber Sands.