'Hurricane' Higgins succumbs to throat cancer
Source: Agencies |
July 26, 2010, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
ALEX Higgins, a two-time world champion whose cavalier style helped to popularize the game in its 1970s-80s heyday, died in his Belfast home on Saturday after a long battle with throat cancer. He was 61.
Higgins, the Northern Irishman nicknamed Hurricane for his playing style, won the 1972 world championship at his first attempt, beating John Spencer 37-32 in the final to become the youngest winner of the title. He'd lose two more finals in 1976 and 1980 before regaining the crown in 1982 with an 18-15 win over Ray Reardon.
Despite being diagnosed with throat cancer 10 years ago, the heavy-drinking Higgins was playing as recently as 2007.
Six-time world champion Steve Davis said Higgins was one of two or three players he would label a genius with a cue.
"To people in the game he was a constant source of argument, he was a rebel. But to the wider public he was a breath of fresh air that drew them in to the game," Davis said.
Barry Hearn, chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, called Higgins "the original people's champion." Higgins' dislike of officialdom, while adding to his public admiration, also landed him in frequent trouble.
For headbutting the tournament director of the 1986 UK Championship, he was banned from five tournaments and fined. He threatened to have rival countryman Dennis Taylor shot in 1990, and soon after he punched a official in the stomach at the worlds, leading to him being banned for a year.
"I don't think you'll ever, ever see another player in the game of snooker like the great Alex Higgins," Taylor told the BBC.
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