Alex Higgins

Infobox Snooker player
Name = Alex Higgins


Caption =
Born = birth date and age|1949|3|18
Birthplace = Belfast
Nationality = Northern Irish
Nickname = Hurricane Higgins [cite news|url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/01/24/1042911547955.html|title=These days Hurricane Higgins is running out of wind|last=Hughes|first=Simon|date=January 25, 2003|work=Sydney Morning Herald|publisher=Fairfax Digital|accessdate=2008-04-28]
Professional = 1971–1997, 2005–2006
High ranking = 2 (2 years)
Current rank =
Prize money =
High break = 147
Best finish =
Ranking wins = 1
Other wins = 16
World champ = 1972, 1982

Alexander Gordon Higgins (born 18 March 1949 in Belfast), best known as Alex "Hurricane" Higgins, is a professional snooker player from Northern Ireland, who was twice World Champion and runner-up on two occasions.

Life and career

Higgins started playing snooker at a young age, often in the Jampot club in his native Sandy Row area of south Belfast and later in the YMCA in the nearby city centre. In 1968 he won the All-Ireland and Northern Ireland amateur snooker championships.

He turned professional at the age of 22, winning the World Professional Snooker Championship at his first attempt in 1972.Cite web
url = http://www.johnvirgo.com/higgins.asp
title = Where are they now? - Alex Higgins
publisher = johnvirgo.com
date =
accessdate = 2008-04-09] His opponent in that final was John Spencer. Higgins, at 22, was the youngest winner of the title until Stephen Hendry's 1990 victory at the age of 21. He once again reached the final, in April 1976, only to face one of most successful players of that era, Ray Reardon. Higgins led 11-9 but Reardon made four centuries and seven breaks over 60 to pull away and win the title for the fifth time. The Belfast man conceded the match when Reardon was leading by 27-16. Higgins was also runner-up to Cliff Thorburn in 1980, when looking strong favourite to win at 9-5 up before losing narrowly 18-16. However, he won his second title in 1982 after beating Reardon 18-15 (with a 135 total clearance in the final frame); it was an emotional as well as professional victory for him. He would have been ranked #1 in the world rankings for the 1982/83 season but for the forfeit of ranking points following disciplinary action.

Higgins' quickness around the table and flamboyant style earned him the nickname "Hurricane Higgins", and made him a high-profile player. His highly unusual technique sometimes included a body swerve and movement when cueing, as well as a stance that was higher than for most professionals. While Higgins was arguably a classic example of how not to cue, he nevertheless managed to pot balls at a rapid rate. He also drank and smoked during tournaments, as did many of his contemporaries, helping sponsored tobacco advertising. In October 1998, he had an operation to remove a cancer from his throat. A volatile personality got him into frequent fights and arguments, both on and off the snooker table. One of the most serious of these clashes was when he head-butted a tournament official at the UK championship in 1986. This led to a year's ban from snooker. Higgins is now semi-retired and battles throat cancer periodically. He made appearances in the 2005 and 2006 Irish Professional Championships; the comebacks ending in a first-round defeat by Garry Hardiman in 2005 and a similar first round defeat to Joe Delaney in 2006.

His very unorthodox yet effective play is perhaps best encapsulated in his break of 69, made under unusual pressure, against Jimmy White in the penultimate frame of their World Professional Snooker Championship semi-final in 1982. Higgins was 0-59 down in that frame and probably one ball away from going out, but managed to compile an extremely challenging clearance during which he was scarcely in position until the colours. In particular, former world champion Dennis Taylor considers a three-quarter-ball pot on a blue into the green pocket especially memorable, not only for its extreme degree of difficulty but for enabling Higgins to continue the break and keep White off the table and unable to clinch victory at that moment. In potting the blue, Higgins Cuegloss|Screw|screwed the cue-ball on to the side cushion to bring it back towards the black/pink area with extreme left-hand sidespin, a shot Taylor believes could be played 100 times without coming close to the position Higgins reached with cue-ball (he arguably went too far for ideal position on his next red but the match-saving break was still alive).Fact|date=April 2007

In Clive Everton's TV documentary "The Story of Snooker" (2002), Steve Davis considered Higgins the "one true genius that snooker has produced", [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/1281558.stm BBC documentary] BBC Sport website, 17 April 2001; accessed 27 August 2007] despite the autobiography of his contemporary fellow professional Willie Thorne (one of the leading players of the 1980s who played against Higgins many times) criticising Higgins as "not a great player".Cite book|title=Double or Quits: The Willie Thorne Story|last=Thorne|first=Willie|authorlink=Willie Thorne|location=Liverpool|year=2004|pages=p. 140-41] Higgins arguably fulfilled this potential only intermittently during his career peak in the 1970s and 80s; Everton puts this down to Davis and Ray Reardon being "too consistent" for him on the whole.

Regardless, Higgins' style and popularity helped make snooker a growing television sport in the late 1970s and early 80s. Higgins also made one of the first 16-red clearances (in a challenge match in 1976); it was a break of 146 (with the brown as the first "red", and sixteen colours: 1 green, 5 pinks and 10 blacks). [http://www.snooker.org/Plr/records.shtml "16 Red Ball Clearances"] ]

Higgins returned to competitive action in September 2007 at the VC Poker Irish Professional Championship in Dublin but was whitewashed 5-0 by former British Open champion Fergal O'Brien in the first round at the Spawell Club, Templelogue. [http://eurosport.yahoo.com/04092007/58/higgins-action.html Eurosport news] Yahoo Eurosport website 4 September 2007; accessed 4 September 2007]

On 12 June 2007 it was reported that Higgins had assaulted a referee at a charity match in the north-east of England. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/snooker/6744831.stm "Higgins 'hits ref' at fund-raiser"] BBC Sport website, 12 June 2007; accessed 12 June 2007]

It is estimated that Higgins earned and mostly spent a £3 million fortune over twenty years. [http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/1999/05/10/fhead.htm "Cancer-stricken Higgins urged by friends to dodge cameras at funeral"] , "The Examiner International News", 10 October 1999; accessed 20 April 2007]

Outside snooker

Higgins has been married twice and has a son and a daughter with his ex-wife Lynn.

Higgins has been fictionalised in a novel: He appears at the end of Martha Grimes' mystery "Jerusalem Inn", in which snooker plays a major part. He plays and wins three rounds against one of the book's main characters.

He published his autobiography, "From the Eye of the Hurricane: My Story", in 2007. [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/jun/16/snooker.features "The People's Grouch", The Guardian, June 2007] .]

Tournament wins

Ranking wins

*World Championship - 1982

Other wins

*World Championship - 1972 (Did not become a ranking event until 1974)
* Canadian Open (1975, 1977)
*Benson & Hedges Masters - 1978, 1981
*Irish Masters - 1989
*Coral UK Championship - 1983 (The UK Championship did not become a ranking event until 1984.)
*World Doubles - 1984 (with Jimmy White)
*World Cup - 1985, 1986, 1987 with Ireland team
*Irish Professional Snooker Championships - 1972, 1978, 1979, 1983, 1989
*Mosconi Cup - 1995 Ryder Cup style 9-ball pool event, against Team U.S.

References

*Borrows, B., "The Hurricane: The Turbulent Life & Times of Alex Higgins" (London, 2002)
*Hennessey, J., "Eye of the Hurricane: The Alex Higgins Story" (Shropshire, 2001)
*Higgins, A. and Francis, T., "Alex Through the Looking Glass" (London, 1986)

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/snooker/2889881.stm BBC website article on Alex Higgins]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/cta/sport/events2002/snooker/best_of/higgins_white_1982.ram BBC Sport media clip of part of Alex Higgins' clearance against Jimmy White in 1982 (2:11)]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/media_acl/avdb/sport_web_uk/video/9012da68003ecc0/bb/09012da68003ef41_16x9_bb.ram BBC Sport media clip of the whole of the above famous frame against White (13:59)]