A look at the career of one of snooker’s legends, Alex Higgins
Alex Higgins from Belfast was a big name in the world of snooker. He was born on March 18, 1949.
The former world snooker champion and two-time runner-up died with throat cancer on Saturday, July 24, 2010 at the age of 61. It is said that his dead body was found in his apartment which was then confirmed by his family and friends later on.
Alex Higgins was also the former world’s double champion with Jimmy White. He also had won the world cup thrice with the All Ireland team.
Alex had his own way of playing the game. Although it was unconventional but his love and passion for the game made him a legend. He had won 24 major titles of snooker.
Alex Higgins was also known as ‘Alex the Hurricane Higgins’ due to the fast play he always used to present to the audience and viewers. He was also considered as one of the best players Britain has ever produced.
Alex started playing at a very early age of 11 and was responsible to bring the game to a higher level. In 1968 he participated in the Northern Ireland amateur snooker championship from where he started off his journey to become a legend.
He became the world championship at the age of 22 later on beating John Spencer in 1972 with a frame score of 37-32, also becoming the youngest ever world champion. However, the record later on was broken by Stephen Hendry as he became the world champion
in 1990 at the age of 21.
One of the most memorable matches he played was 1983 UK Championship where he was playing against Steve Davis. Alex was trailing Steve by seven frames as the scores were 0-7. From there Alex bounced back and won 16-15 making a famous comeback. Another
victory against Stephen Hendry in Irish Masters 1989 is also very famous where he defeated the young Stephen at the age of 40.
Alex was a chain smoker and fancied alcohol. He also was into cocaine and marijuana. These things later on became the reason for his throat cancer. It was diagnosed in 1998 and since then he was fighting with it only for his fans. He played some exhibition
matches for them as well after he was diagnosed with cancer.
The reason of him being so much into the drugs was his broken marriage and loneliness as per most of the people. He used to drink and smoke all the way during his matches he played.
But even after all this, he was still loved by his fans and was labelled as the people’s champion because of his popularity and controversies.
He was an interesting personality for his fans as during his match they used to see a lot of drama going on, arguing with the referee and playing aggressively all the time were common things.
His most serious clash occurred at the UK championship in 1986 where he head-butted a referee and was fined 12,000 pounds for it. In the 1990 world championship he lost in the first round against Steve James, and afterwards punched the tournament official
Colin Randle in the abdomen before starting off with the press conference in which he announced his retirement.
He carried an image of a bad boy all the time as he was accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year boy but in 1983 his tenderness was seen for the first time when he recorded a tape for one of his fans that was in coma. He went into the hospital to meet
him as well.
Despite all these things his game can never be forgotten and his legacy will be now carried forward trough the snooker players until the end and he will always remain as a shining star on the planet of snooker.
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