Thread: Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins.

This is a copy and paste from The Daily Mail.
Very sad to see.


Des Kelly: Tragic sight of Hurricane Higgins that's blown itself out



Last updated at 12:33 AM on 24th May 2010


There is something about witnessing a sporting icon in decay that brings our own mortality into sharp focus.

In my mind, Alex Higgins is still ‘The Hurricane’, genius and scourge of the snooker world, preserved for all time as the flamboyant, fedora-wearing, hell raiser who was just as likely to scuffle with a referee as clear every ball on the table in a blur.

And I am still 17 years old, completely mesmerised by his every shot.

Rise and fall: Higgins at a charity fundraiser this week with Jimmy White, John Virgo and Tony Knowles

So to see the Hurricane all blown out is a distressing sight. Gaunt, down to under six stone, and said to be living on baby food because he has lost his teeth, Higgins was simply unrecognisable as he stood alongside fellow former professionals such as Jimmy White and John Virgo this week.

Here was the man who transformed snooker into a compelling spectacle. In an era of bow ties, Brylcreem and boredom on the baize, he was brash, unpredictable and exciting.

Higgins was anointed ‘the People’s Champion’ and pushed the game to new peaks of popularity. When he faced White in 1982 in the World Championship semi-final, I was transfixed.

As ever, Higgins was a bundle of twitches and nervous energy, sucking on a chain of cigarettes, skipping around the table and slamming balls into the pockets with the wildly unorthodox cueing action of a pool player.

Way we were: Higgins and wife Lynn and daughter Lauren in 1982 after the World Championship final

But 15 frames to 14 down and trailing by 59 points, his tournament looked over. Somehow, he improvised a clearance of 69 that stretched the laws of geometry, claimed the next frame and the match and went on to beat Ray Reardon in the final.

That’s the image I want to remember: the picture of a tearful Higgins being handed his baby daughter Lauren and hugging the trophy. They are the good times, the moments we cherish in our sport.

The Hurricane: Alex Higgins

Now I see a man who is gravely ill, someone who should really be in a hospital, not standing alongside well-intentioned fundraisers. Higgins has had throat cancer, although the disease has been in remission for nearly a decade.

He says radiotherapy has damaged his gums and he needs £20,000 for teeth implants. If dental work can help provide a answer to Higgins’ problems, or even change the course of his life for a while, then the money is well spent.

But finding a solution to the dependence Higgins has on alcohol, smoking and other stimulants is far more painful than any trip to a dentist.

Higgins is not living in sheltered accommodation in Belfast on £200-a-week state handouts because he suffered from cancer. He is in this situation because he is a ferocious drinker and a gambler who somehow lost £3million along the way.

Even before his own Manchester fundraiser, Higgins was in the bookmaker’s laying bets. That doesn’t help his cause much.

This is the point when people usually say snooker should be doing more to help him out of his predicament and, of course, there is a great deal of justification in that.






Many of today’s players owe a huge debt of gratitude to Higgins for the profile he gave the game. But the man has to want to help himself first.

Higgins has been hammering the booze, the cigarettes and the rest since he was in his 20s. He hasn’t suddenly become unwell.

In fact, his longevity is amazing considering how he has tested his constitution on a predominantly liquid diet for vast stretches of his life, long before missing teeth and baby food became part of his story.

There is a reason why so many Manchester city centre hotels do not allow Higgins to stay. He can be charming, eloquent and entertaining.

Or he can be bitter, nasty and violent, all in the time it takes to drink a couple of pints.

Only it’s never a couple of pints. Higgins headbutted an official who asked him to provide a urine sample for a random drugs test. He hit his last ex-girlfriend with a hairdryer.
He threatened to shoot fellow player Dennis Taylor and punched a tournament director in the face. Just three years ago, in a charity match against White, he punched a referee who had dared to call a foul.


Even now, he has a habit of making journalists go to the cash machine before he’ll agree to any interview. Fair enough.
It’s certainly more honest and direct than scurrying to Max Clifford. But as one friend who knows him well put it: ‘Give him cash and he’ll love you. Otherwise he can be an ignorant...’

Higgins believes the game betrayed him, that people were jealous of his popularity.

He calls most of his contemporaries ‘b******s’ and is bitter at the course his life has taken compared to theirs. Bearing all this in mind, snooker seems to be remarkably benevolent when it comes to giving Higgins a hand.

Glory days: Higgins during his prime on the green baize

That is how it should be. When illness strikes any family, it is cruel, horrible and unfair.

And I am sure there are many more deserving cases for sympathy in the world than Higgins. Yet we cannot help ourselves.

Sportsmen hold a special place in our affections. We are fascinated by their brilliance and by the frailties too, but it is their brilliance that blinds us to so much else.

That’s why Higgins will get his £20,000 and more and I won’t begrudge him a penny.

Whether he spends it on teeth, however, is another matter entirely.






Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-1280361/Des-Kelly-Tragic-sight-Hurricane-Higgins-s-blown-out.html#ixzz0oqWR0JYP

For some reason I find the whole article distasteful.

A champion in his time, now leave him be.

That first picture shook me . can't see him being around for much longer.

It is very shocking.

I suspect the other eccentric snooker genius, Ronnie O'Sullivan, is likely to follow this path as well, if he doesn't get it together.

It's a cliche, but extreme talents seem to be highly flawed individuals.

Originally Posted by withnallstoke

This is a copy and paste from The Daily Mail.
Very sad to see.

English libel laws prevent me, [mainly on grounds of cost], replying to this post - suffice it to say Higgins is no hero in my eyes.

If you liked his play and his character have tissues near bye.

At his best

^ A bit like me after a few vodkas, but on a pool table....

Originally Posted by billy the kid

That first picture shook me . can't see him being around for much longer.

Yeah. Looks like a scarecrow. Wish I'd not seen that now.

Originally Posted by Bogon

(the chapter with White, Higgins and Ollie Reid is very funny).

Very very good. Green owed.

I was eating in the same restaurant as Higgins and Jimmy White a long time ago.
I've never seen two guys act so badly and insult so many people and not get their heads bashed in, they even went into the toilet and smashed that up.
They paid for the damage and went on their merry way.

I never really cared for either of them after that night.

Originally Posted by kmart

Originally Posted by billy the kid

That first picture shook me . can't see him being around for much longer.

Yeah. Looks like a scarecrow. Wish I'd not seen that now.

He's looked like that for years now. Seems to just keep on going.

He came into a boozer I worked in around '98 & it was shocking to see him like that. He was happy to sign autographs for the lads & as is custom with a legend like Alex we never charged him for his drinks.

I also saw him kick off big time in our local snooker hall, around five years earlier, when he lost £5 on a game of pool.