Alex "Hurricane" Higgins RIP

[Angus Young]

Alex Higgins has finally lost his battle with cancer. Now I know most people on this site won't know who he was, so YouTube is your friend, but Higgins was one of the greatest snooker players of all time. He had a lifelong battle with addictions, alcohol and gambling mainly, but has spent almost fifteen years battling cancer which destroyed his body.
Higgins took the game of snooker out of the clubs and made it one of the most popular sports on U.K. Television. Despite his addiction problems his natural talent let him conquer the world twice, in 1972 and most famously in 1982, it's rare to see any sportsman in any sport have so much natural ability. When he was first diagnosed with cancer the authorities who control the sport he helped make distanced themselves from him and he was reduced to hustling in bars to pay for his treatment and feed his addictions. Many people thought he had been treated badly but the man himself had no regrets about anything in his life.
Tonight Alex I'll be raising a glass to you. Rest in peace Hurricane.

 

[Greybeard]

I remember watching the 1980 world championship final between Higgins and Canadian Cliff Thorburn. You couldn't find two players more different than the firey, rapid fire Higgins and the calm, deliberate Thorburn. I thought that Higgins had the match won when coverage was interrupted to show the SAS storming the Iranian embassy.
I only found out the next day that Thorburn had come back to win.
That match made me a snooker fan. I was always impressed by how quickly Higgins and Jimmy White played and how they could successfully compete with deliberate perfectionists like Thorburn and Steve Davis.

 

[Angus Young]

I remember watching the 1980 world championship final between Higgins and Canadian Cliff Thorburn. You couldn't find two players more different than the firey, rapid fire Higgins and the calm, deliberate Thorburn. I thought that Higgins had the match won when coverage was interrupted to show the SAS storming the Iranian embassy.
I only found out the next day that Thorburn had come back to win.
That match made me a snooker fan. I was always impressed by how quickly Higgins and Jimmy White played and how they could successfully compete with deliberate perfectionists like Thorburn and Steve Davis.

One of the big arguments that will revolve around any sport is natural talent v dedication. Sports like snooker and darts show it up more because there are less variables. Davis and Thornburn achieved what they did through single mindedness and discipline when training; Higgins and White did what they did because they could.