Alex Higgins

Higgins's speed around the table, his ability to pot balls at a rapid rate and flamboyant style earned him the nickname "Hurricane Higgins" and made him a very high-profile player. His highly unusual cueing technique sometimes included a body swerve and movement, as well as a stance that was noticeably higher than that of most professionals.

The unorthodox play of Higgins was 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, 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 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 went a little too far for ideal position on his next red but the match-saving break was still alive.[26]

At the time of his 1972 triumph at the World Championship, Higgins had no permanent home and by his own account had recently lived in a row of abandoned houses in Blackburn which were awaiting demolition. In one week he had moved into five different houses on the same street, moving down one every time his current dwelling was demolished.[31]

In 1975, Higgins' son was born. Higgins's first marriage was to Cara Hasler in April 1975 in Sydney. They had a daughter Christel[10] and divorced. His second marriage was to Lynn Avison in 1980. They had a daughter Lauren (born late 1980)[32] and son Jordan (born March 1983).[11][33] They split in 1985[28] and divorced. In the same year, Higgins began a relationship with Siobhan Kidd, which ended in 1989 after he allegedly hit her with a hairdryer.[34]

He had a long and enduring friendship with Oliver Reed.[35]

He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1981 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews.

In 1983 Higgins helped a young boy from the Manchester area, a fan of his who had been in a coma for two months. His parents were growing desperate and wrote to Higgins. He recorded messages on tape and sent them to the boy with his best wishes. He later visited the boy in hospital and played a snooker match he promised to have with him when he recovered.[36]

In 1996, Higgins was convicted of assaulting a 14-year-old boy,[25] while in 1997 then-girlfriend Holly Haise stabbed him three times during a domestic argument.[28] He published his autobiography, From the Eye of the Hurricane: My Story, in 2007.[37] Higgins appeared in the Sporting Stars edition of the British television quiz The Weakest Link on 25 July 2009.[38]

For many years, Higgins smoked heavily. He reportedly smoked 80 cigarettes a day.[39] He had cancerous growths removed from his mouth in 1994 and 1996.[40] In June 1998, he was found to have throat cancer;[11] on 13 October of that year, he had major surgery.[41] He could only talk in a whisper in his last years.[42]

In early 2010 he suffered from pneumonia and breathing problems,[43] and on 31 March he was admitted to hospital.[44] In April 2010 Higgins' friends announced that they had set up a campaign to help raise the £20,000 he needed for teeth implants, to enable him to eat properly again and put on weight. Higgins had lost his teeth after intensive radiotherapy used to treat his throat cancer. It was reported that since losing them he had been living on liquid food, and had become increasingly depressed, even contemplating suicide.[45] He was too ill and frail to have the implants fitted.[46] Despite his illness, Higgins continued to smoke cigarettes and drink heavily until the end of his life.[47] He was admitted to hospital again in May.[42]

By the summer of 2010, Higgins' weight had fallen to 6 stone (38 kilograms).[25] Despite having once been worth £4 million, he was bankrupt and survived on a £200-a-week disability allowance.[45] He was found dead in bed in his flat on 24 July 2010.[4][33] The cause of death was a combination of malnutrition, pneumonia, tooth decay, and a bronchial condition, although his daughter Lauren stated that he was clear from throat cancer when he died.[48] His children survived him.[49]

Higgins' funeral service was held at St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast on 2 August 2010. He was buried in Carnmoney Cemetery in Newtownabbey, County Antrim. Among the snooker professionals in attendance were Jimmy White, Stephen Hendry, Ken Doherty, Joe Swail,[50] Shaun Murphy and John Virgo.[51] Doherty and White were pall bearers.

Alex Higgins was an inspiration to many subsequent professional snooker players, including Ken Doherty, Jimmy White and Ronnie O'Sullivan. In Clive Everton's TV documentary The Story of Snooker (2002), Steve Davis described Higgins as the "one true genius that snooker has produced",[52] although the autobiography of a contemporary leading professional Willie Thorne characterised Higgins as "not a great player".[53] Higgins arguably fulfilled his potential only intermittently during his career peak in the 1970s and 80s; Everton puts this down to Davis and Ray Reardon generally being too consistent for him.[54]

Regardless, Higgins' exciting style and explosive persona helped make snooker a growing television sport in the 1970s and 1980s. Higgins also made the first 16-red clearance (in a challenge match in 1976); it was a break of 146 (with the brown as the first "red", and 16 colours: 1 green, 5 pinks and 10 blacks).[55]

In 2011, Event 8 of the Players Tour Championship was renamed as the Alex Higgins International Trophy.[56] In 2016, WPBSA chairman Barry Hearn announced that the trophy for the new Northern Ireland Open tournament would be named after Higgins.[57][58]

Higgins' professional rivalry with Steve Davis was portrayed in a 2016 BBC feature film entitled The Rack Pack, in which he was played by Luke Treadaway.[59]