From the heights of two World titles at the Crucible to hustling for peanuts in snooker halls in Skerries, Alex hurricane Higgins lived the life of a jack London hero & he changed his sport forever. Higgins was the most non conformist of sportsmen with the disregard for authority that genius & ego combined will bring & on his day he took snooker to a level that purists thought impossible. He was the first player to slam balls at speed into the middle pockets, when he was at the table his body juddered like someone having an epileptic fit as he pulled off ever more improbable shots of pure genius. Twice a World Champion in 72 & 82 ,the antithesis of Davis,Thorburn,Griffiths,Reardon, Hendy & Taylor, he was always the People’s Champion, the flash underdog blessed by God with a celestial touch which never failed to astonish. He hated authority & memorably took a slash in a plant pot at the Crucible the hallowed arena of the sport, refused to wear a bowtie & inspired the genius of Jimmy Whirlwind White who was so close to him that they won the World doubles in some style defeating the saccharine Davis & Meo on their way. Higgins was a one off & he didn’t give a toss for anyone but himself but as we think about his life a couple of moments stand out so clearly. In 1982 when he won his second World Crown, Higgins clutching his baby daughter the tears streaming from him as redemption had been acheived & when he announced later in the 80′s that he was finished with the game, a sad forlorn figure sat in the press room pissed on vodka railing against the World.
Many fans will be sad today, the decline had been slow & painful for Higgins, but he will always be there in the fabric of the sport he re-invented. Could he have beaten Ronnie O’Sullivan? Of course he could, half pissed & blindfolded on his day- he was the greatest player that Ireland ever produced & his mentoring of Jimmy White gave us another great story. Goodbye Alex Hurricane Higgins- you will live in our hearts & minds forever. May he find the peace in death that he never had in a tempestuous tumultuous life lived on the edge bathed in controversy. go to youtube & watch the break that broke Jimmy White’s heart in the titanic 1982 semi final at The Crucible- genius at it’s most pure- take a final doff of the fedora Alex & take a final bow as the curtain falls.The Hurricane will cause no more devastation, but will still make our hearts beat faster as our minds wander back to when he was king.

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