Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins RIP

[Fruitcake]

Poetry in motion on the green baize at his best.

Nuff said.

[khazalid]

and only half as abrasive as o'sullivan!

[Pedronicus]

he looked frigging terrible in the last few months of his life.

Used to love watching him play those shots, where he hit the cue ball so hard, after the shot, the cue would fly up in the air like he was holding Excalibur.

in the modern game a coach always tells you to stay down on the table after you've taken your shot. Alex didn't do that sort of stuff. Alex would of nipped back to his chair, had a slug of vodka and a couple of puffs on a Marlborough, and the cue ball would still be in motion.

[obliterationX]

A true snooker great. May you rest in peace. What you brought to the game cannot be replicated or duplicated in any manner; you were truly a unique, legendary, and wholly likable character, on and off the table. Not to mention flippin' hilarious.

Thanks, Alex. I'm sure I speak on behalf of all snooker fans when I say you brought this game to life.

[Fruitcake]

in the modern game a coach always tells you to stay down on the table after you've taken your shot. Alex didn't do that sort of stuff. Alex would of nipped back to his chair, had a slug of vodka and a couple of puffs on a Marlborough, and the cue ball would still be in motion.

That's how I remember watching him back in the 70s

[sonicsteve]

A minutes applause seems to be the thing these days, so

[Chariot of Fire]

This guy was a bit of boyhood hero for my brother and me, growing up as we did with a table at home (so snooker was of interest, despite only having Pot Black on BBC2 with Eddie Charlton). It was probably when he pissed in the plant pot and made front page news that he won an even bigger fan base.

Pedro hit the nail on the head re Alex's playing style - and the more he drank the more outrageous his shots would be. I had the pleasure of knowing him and playing with him (and Jimmy White, with whom he'd often travel) on a regular basis at a pool bar called Ridgway's here in town. 9 ball was far more suited to his shotgun playing style. This is the great thing about Hong Kong - people such as this could regularly come out (as Alex and Jimmy did every year) and, away from the prying camera lenses, get up to all sorts of mischief and be exactly who they wanted to be. They were good times. The chap that used to fly them out here was a Kiwi called Bob Moore who made squillions with a computerized betting system. He committed suicide some time in the mid 90s all in very strange circumstances. All I could find on the chap was this piece:

Bob Moore stories are legendary. One tells of how, at a bar in Surfers Paradise, he was told by the manager to wait in line for a game of pool. So he marched into the owner's office, bought the bar, marched out, forced the manager to rack up the balls and then sacked him on the spot. He reneged on the deal the next day. Alan can't confirm that story, but he was there the day Moore threw a similar tantrum in a Hong Kong pool bar called the Flying Pig. The Flying Pig had two pool tables. Whenever he was annoyed, Bob threatened the owners that he would buy the Chinese restaurant downstairs and open up a bar with three pool tables. One night, he flew off the handle and did it. 'He turned it into a bar-type disco with three pool tables,' Alan remembers. 'It cost him millions.'

He really did love pool ! The bar Moore opened was Ridgway's, named after his Aussie mate and partner Bruce Ridgway who in 2000 was nicked in Australia's biggest ever drugs haul http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?t=455456

These are just two of the very shady characters Mssrs Higgins & White used to hang out with. I can't begin to describe how much fun it all was though. He'll be sorely missed, but at least the man left his mark (and I don't just mean the plant pot).

[brian fletcher]

I cant begin to tell you how much money i lost, betting on Alex against the likes of Steve Davis, Cliff Thorburn and especially Terry Griffiths.... There were many others who beat Alex regularly, but they could never compare to the absolute beauty of his game.
I guess the same goes for Jimmy as well.... Nobody in the game had his cue-power, or vision... But Jimmy just could`nt get it together in the Worlds.... All that talent and losing finalist 6 times...
Thank god we now have another true cueist in Ronnie.... He has everything!!!! Except maybe, belief in himself sometimes...