Alex Higgins

which channel?

BBC2

Keep watching BBC2. At the mid session interval they are going to show footage of the Snooker Legends tour featuring the Hurricane.

cheers munch, just wondered if he was on Eurosport, who cover the tourny as well.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/snooker/7190256/Alex-Hurricane-...

'Snooker playing zombie found in Ireland'

Alex back on now.

oh my goodness, what a shock. Poor chap.

needs to get back on the booze

Poor old Alex. He did look rough.

Seems a nice enough bloke but I am afraid his problems are entirely self inflicted.

Read his autobiography and came across as a total nightmare. Ripped off all his friends, eventually ran out of them. Huge ego, he was never wrong, always someone elses fault. Painful to read as I admired him as a kid.

I take it all back Ghostdog.
He is an absolute cnut.

lol, maybe he has learned something and sorted himself out, I hope so. The damage is done though, resemblance to Mark E Smith of The Fall is uncanny.

they didn't show him playing much, i wanted to see if he was still any good.

The bloke was always a wrong un

The threat he made to Dennis Taylor was a disgrace

I think the main problem these days is that he sees 30 reds on the table.

what threat was that?

Alex Higgins and George Best two of a kind unfortunately.

I never particularly liked him as a person (and he tried to steal my trilby once when he was drunk at Manchester airport!) but you can't help feeling sorry for someone whose in such a poorly way.

Were you wearing it, or did he try and take it from a chair?

I'm amazed he's mae 60 to be honest. Feel sorry for him - he falls into the category for me, of sports person who attracted fans and sympathy because he showed his emotions so openly. A colder analysis though, suggests he's a pretty unpleasant guy.

In the 80's was in swallow street W1 billy hills with a friend. I left about 10 mins after him. Walking past the Ritz hotel. Police were holding down a man on the pavement outside the Casino door.. It was Alex.

Correction

In the 80's was in swallow street W1 billy hills Alex was in the shop with a friend. I left about 10 mins after him. Walking past the Ritz hotel. Police were holding down a man on the pavement outside the Casino door.. It was Alex.

I was wearing it, Munch Man, and he came over beckoning, saying "Give me the hat, give me the hat!".
I smiled at him and said "No", so he started to get aggressive, until his manager/friend dragged him away.

Oh dear, how rude.

He was, MM, and I'd have taken no notice of him at all if I'd been on my own, but my dear old dad was with me and he got very upset about it.

He sounds like the Godfather. Shame really.

Unheard of to knock in a ton in 3 minutes before he came along.
Before him there was the dour player that would have seen snooker stay in smokey halls.
The players of today genuinely owe him their jetset lifestyle and massive pay cheques.

Plus of course the snooker table fit nicely on screen.
No matter how well it fit ,you wouldn't wanna watch Pullman and his ilk play :D

Agreed, Brodie.
Although not a very pleasant person, he was a wonderful snooker player - and great for the game itself.

Oh yes ,not a nice bloke at all. Strangely aggressive for a bloke 8 stone wet thru :D

STEPTOES YARD 20 Apr 16:25
The bloke was always a wrong un

The threat he made to Dennis Taylor was a disgrace


it was yes

he could've made good on it

REPORTED

i would too

empty threats are no good

Another absolute nutter.

How he is still going, God knows.

Had cancer, been a big alchie and been absolutely fecked, looking on his last legs, for decades.

You could play him for a tenner in the Irish Centre in Cheetham Hill a few years ago whilst he was getting smashed all day. There was a period where the M.E.N. would have a different Alex Higgins story on the front page every week.

Nut job.

Nutter, no. More:
A wild man who caught and sang the sun in flight. And learned, too late, he grieved it on its way.

Alex Higgins on the 'memories' clip, with that funny hat and winning the WC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4_UnpdaYLk

Tommy Toes - wearing a trilby ?????

i was involved in the Irish Professional Snooker C'Ship a few years back, it was the first year in a long time it had been run. We had an idea to get Higgins to play in it. 2 men and his dog watched every game in the first round except one.

Higgins played a young local kid (now a pro but can't remember his name Joe something or other). RTE and TV3 covered it and people queued for 2 hours to get into watch it. Incredible crowd puller, but not a particularly nice man.

He got beat 5-1 i think but made a 50 break in the frame he won that was a joy to behold, to see some of the shots he could make in his state of ill health was incredible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5BYbSfOtVU

Ivory balls and pockets the size of mouses ears,different class.

Bill Borrows biography on Higgins is the reference tome for Alex Higgins.

It is a brilliant read and there is so much material.

Them were t'days. Snooker in shades of grey.

One of the broadsheets did an interview with him a few weeks/months ago (has anyone else noticed how elastic time is?). Vague recollection his cancer had returned. The snooker world would kill to have a young Higgins back. He was television magic but the flame that burns twice as bright etc... Used to bump into him (literally) at the Cheltenham Festival. What memories he would have, had he not destroyed most of his brain. Death claims us all eventually - though he must be tired of waiting for Alex.

met him recently in the old arcade pub in cardiff he has spent a lot of time here over the years also in that day was Barry John.

Higgins used to live about 100yards from me in Ramsbottom in the mid late 80's and he used to go to the local boozer (with his tribly on) and play al the birds at pool while drinking Baileys out of an enourmous snifter. Always seemed v affable,adn at the time he was still a big draw in the game.After that though his wife threw him out the bedroom window and it all went Pete Tongue.Ollie Reed famously helicoptered in and collected Higgins and took him to Guernsey where Ollie lived at the time (jst the man you need when you've got a drink problem!!)

Anyway years later in Manchester Higgings was sleeping in a caravan in someones back garden in Eccles a seedy suburb of manchester.After a long days drinking we hatched a plan to rescue/kidnap alex and take him back to mine ,sober him up and pimp him out playing snooker round the northwest halls etc.So about 12am utterly drunk i drove (yes i know...) us to eccles to try and find higgins.We finds the caravan and 2 of us sneak upto it gently tapping and whispering "Alex" etc.There's movement and the door opens..but alas it's not Higgins but an ENOURMOUS Rastafarian with just a teacosy style hat on stark b0llck naked non too pleased..he bellowed at us (sounded like jive) and in time honoured fashion we made our excuses and left

We decided there and then to call of the hunt for higgins.

Got loads tales about him he was actually begging near manchester train station yrs back what sad waste.

Did more for snooker than all the rest added together, if you were there he is an absolute hero.

I had £10 on jimmy @33:1 for the championship when higgins knocked his 69 break in. Nice break mind, can just about appreciate it after 28 years to mellow.

Lf, you could play my Grandmother in Cheetham Hill up till a year ago. Sadly, she never made it like he did.

Like most top sportsman, a complete**t which is why they are/were so good at what they do

I SAW HIM,YEARS AGO IN THE WILLIAM HILLLS IN MANCHESTER PICCADILLY,HE DIDNT HAVE ENOUGH HANDS TO KEEP PUTTING THE BETS ON,HE WAS RUSHING ABOUT EVERYWHERE,I ALSO SAW HIM WITH A VERY GOOD LOOKING LOADY AT THE BARRY MCGUIGAN FIGHTAT THE OLD MANCHESTER CENTRAL STATION STADIUM,I FORGET ITS NEW NAME

who bet most u or him ?

I saw this the other day

was the ghost of Jim Henson hiding in the rafters and pulling his strings?

RIP