Snooker Special Report: Remembering snooker legend, Alex Higgins
The year 2010 has been observed as a significant year for snooker in the past decade. The year was packed with an amalgamation of thrilling matches, controversies and some new systems being introduced to the game.
Amid all the thrill and frill on the table, snooker has lost an illustrious figure Alex Higgins. He died on 24th July this year; the causes for his death include malnutrition, excessive alcohol intake and smoking. Alex lost his teeth due to a
cancer surgery; consequently, he had to depend on liquid form of energy.
Alexander Gordon Higgins who was widely known as Alex Higgins or the Hurricane Higgins was a renowned snooker player. He won world championship titles twice in his career.
Turning professional at the age of 22, Higgins was able to win the 1972 world championship in the first attempt, becoming the youngest ever player to win the titles until 1991.
Alex added and contributed a lot to the sport of snooker and he was famous among many snooker fans for his aggressive and rapid potting style. Due to his fast paced game around the table, he was nicknamed ‘hurricane’. Alex was such a famous figure back in
1970,s that BBC started to cover the world snooker championship just because he was participating in the event.
Many snooker critics acknowledge Alex for bringing the sport to a wide audience pool. When Alex won the world snooker championship in his first attempt back in 1972, snooker was nowhere on the TV. When he won the championship again ten years later, snooker
was a notable TV attraction, credits to Alex.
Many people in the snooker world despised Alex but no one can deny his contributions to the sport’s development.
Alex has been fined several times in his career, for assaulting match referees, and officials. The most tragic thing about Alex’s life could be his homelessness, as he switched living between the empty houses, changing as many as five houses in a week.
Ronnie O’Sullivan can be called the Alex Higgins of today’s snooker scene, as Ronnie too is an aggressive player with rapid mood swings and few psychological problems. However, Alex unlike any other player was on a path of self destruction, as he was reported
to smoke 60 cigarettes a day.
Alex was known to be an unpredictable and difficult personality; he was a heavy smoker and consumed alcohol excessively even during the snooker matches. No matter what sort of a person Alex might have been in his private life, he was surely a nightmare for
many cue-men of his time.
Alex the people’s champion was always surrounded by controversies. His life was sad yet he was famous and loved by many. Until the end of his life Alex was one of a kind and man of his own genre, who always did things the way he wanted to do them.
The Irish hurricane was notorious for his anger and volatile personality, befalling in to arguments and fights often. His final years were sad and stressed out due to his falling health and loneliness.
Being divorced several times, and having break-ups every now and then added to Alex’s loneliness. Alex has been stabbed by one of his girl friends over an argument. Interestingly Alex has spent a part of his life living in a caravan.
Alex Higgins was a snooker genius who lived a crazy life off the snooker table. Alex has been playing snooker after retirement until 2001, later he disappeared to be found dead one day.
Died at the age of 61 Alex cannot be consigned to oblivion for a great snooker player he was and his immense contribution to the sport and its development.
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