Alex Higgins
dies at 61
News Credit:
World Snooker
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Alex Higgins, one of snooker's all-time greats, died today on
Saturday after a long battle against cancer.
The two-times World Champion, who was aged 61, was found dead by
carers in his flat in his native Belfast. He had suffered from the
affects of throat cancer for 12 years, and his weight recently
plummeted to seven stone because of a problem with his teeth which
prevented him from eating solid food. Friends raised £20,000 so that
he could have new teeth fitted, but he was too frail to have surgery.
World Snooker Chairman Barry Hearn said: "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."
Born in 1949, Higgins started playing snooker at the age of 11 in
the Jampot Club in Belfast. Soon he was beating older boys and men,
and legend has it that he walked quickly around the table to avoid
clips on the ear from incensed opponents. Later, his rapid and
attacking style would earn him the nickname 'The Hurricane'.
After considering a career as a jockey, he focussed solely on
snooker and turned professional age 22. Remarkably, he won the World
Championship at his first attempt in 1972, beating John Spencer
37-31 in the final. Higgins captured the imagination of the snooker
public, his personality and playing style a dramatic departure from
the traditional image of a snooker professional. Young, flamboyant,
from a working class background and wearing his heart on his sleeve
on and off the table, he was a player that the ordinary man could
relate to. His technique was also anything but orthodox; his whole
body seemed to be on the move as he struck the cue ball, but somehow
the balls nearly always found their target.
More than any other player, he helped transform snooker from a niche
game into the most popular sport in Britain by the early 1980s, with
millions turning on the television whenever he was playing, and
hundreds packing the venues of the major events..
In 1982 he won his second World title; the gap of ten years between
his first and second crown remains a record. With perhaps the most
extraordinary break in snooker history, including a sequence of
improbable pots slotted into pockets around the table, he defeated
Jimmy White 16-15 in the semi-finals, and went on to beat Ray
Reardon 18-15 in the Crucible final. The moment when his wife Lynn
and baby daughter Lauren joined him on the stage, Higgins in tears
as he clutched the infant in one hand and trophy in the other, is
among the most memorable in televised sport. He was also World
runner-up in 1976 and 1980 and won the Masters in 1978 and 1981.
UK
:: 24 July
2010
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