Death of snooker legend Higgins

Former world snooker champion Alex Higgins has died at the age of 61.

Snooker star Alex Higgins died today after a long battle with throat cancer.

The 61-year-old former world champion was known as the Hurricane by his many fans.

Higgins, from Belfast, was diagnosed with throat cancer more than 10 years ago.

Higgins was discovered at a block of flats in the centre of Belfast. He had been unwell for some time.

It is understood Mr Higgins' Sandy Row flat was broken into today after he failed to answer his mobile phone.

Considered to be one of the finest snooker players of all time, Higgins had long-term problems with alcohol and smoking since winning the world title in 1972 and 1982.

Despite his numerous fights and rows with referees over the years, he continued to play the game regularly and appeared at the Irish Professional Championship in 2005 and 2006.

Higgins has been an inspiration for many of today’s best players, including Ken Doherty, Jimmy White and Ronnie O’Sullivan.

Snooker promoter Barry Hearn said Higgins would be remembered as the "original people's champion'' and the man who transformed the popularity of the sport.

Mr Hearn said: “I have known him for nearly 40 years. He was the major reason for snooker’s popularity in the early days.

“He was controversial at times, but he always played the game in the right spirit.

“We will miss him – he was the original people’s champion.”

Steve Davis played a number of classic matches against Higgins in the 1980s.

Tonight he described his former rival as one of the few “geniuses” around the table.

Davis said: “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.

“He was an inspiration to my generation to take the game up. I do not think his contribution to snooker can be underestimated.”

As to his own encounters with Higgins around the table, Davis said: “He was quite a fierce competitor, he lived and breathed the game, very much a fighter on the table.

“It was a love/hate relationship with Alex Higgins. The thrill of playing him was fantastic, but the crowd that came along were not your usual crowd. They were much more noisy and you had to play the crowd as well. To many people in the 1980s he was the only player they came to watch.”

“I used to be quite frightened of him as an individual, he could be quite vexatious. But on the snooker table, my admiration was immense.”

Davis added: “No one player has ever been bigger than the game. But he brought a genius quality that possibly hadn’t been seen before.

“He was one of two or three people I would put the word ’genius’ to when it came to the table.”

Former snooker champion and commentator Dennis Taylor told the BBC: ``I don't think you'll ever, ever see another player in the game of snooker like the great Alex Higgins.''

And he said he had enjoyed some “terrific battles” against the sportsman, adding: “He was a very, very exciting player to watch. He just was totally unique.”

Though Higgins “didn’t look very well” towards the end of his life, he insisted: “He battled right to the end, did Alex, and that’s what he did throughout his whole snooker career.”

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