Higgins coverage, by James O'Fee

Naturally the death and life of Alex "Hurricane" Higgins has received considerable coverage in the local media. I'm taking these extracts from yesterday's issue of the Newsletter (Belfast) since they throw light on aspects of Higgins's life.

The newspaper quotes Barry Hearn, described as " World Snooker Chairman". Hearn must be a power in snooker since the report mentions Hearn as manager of multiple World Champion, Steve Davis. Steve Davis, by the way, was generous in his tribute to Higgins calling him "snooker's only true genius". But then, Steve Davis could afford to be generous. Hearn is quoted thus -

Alex was a fabulous player and played shots which had even been thought of at the time - people gasped. He helped to take the game from the working-class background of misspent youths into more global entertainment during this period.

But Alex rewrote the book on misspent adulthood.

He was a dreadful gambler and I cannot remember him winning one bet - he would go through his pockets and bet every penny, and the evening would always finish wih him asking 'could you not lend me £50 for my train fare home?' - and you would obviously never see that again.

Alex asked me to manage him several times, but I said 'You would be a nightmare, mate. We would end up rolling around in a backstreet killing each other."

And Newsletter journalist Billy Kennedy writes -

Back in 1968, when I occupied the role of secretary of Bessbrook town hall management committee in south Armagh, my committee decided upon a snooker exhibition at the hall as a fundraiser. Through the help of Linfield Football Club captain, the late Tommy Dickson, I lined up a number of top snooker players from Belfast who included Jackie Bates, Maurice Gill and a relatively unknown cocky young guy called Alex Higgins, who Dickson knew from the Donegall Road/Sandy Row area.

The two snooker tables in Bessbrook town hall were, and still are, among the best in the country. Indeed, British champion the great Joe Davis played an exhibition there in the 1950s while on tour in Northern Ireland.

The 1968 exhibition attracted a full house of the sport's enthusiasts in the area and from across the community divide - and while Jackie Bates and Maurice Gill played their best shots, it was the uncanny skills of the 19-year-old Higgins which really caught the eye.

Higgins in later life

Alex, even as a youth, was in a very special class as a snooker player and he knew it. Indeed, when it came to his agreed payment for the night, he was also somewhat mercenary. For Higgins quibbled with me that the £10 (good money in 1968, especially in a mill village like Bessbrook) was not enough. And when he said that he wanted a staggering £15, I decided that I needed the approval of the committee chairman and honorary treasurer.

The treasurer, a canny school principal, was frugal with the committee's money and he bluntly refused to pay Higgy the extra fiver.

The other guest players were very happy with what they were getting but, when he played most of the time allotted, Alex made an earlier exit than planned, much to the disappointment of the many crammed into our large snooker room who could have watched him all night.

I learned the next day that he had travelled to nearby Newry to show off his skills at the local Catholic working men's club - the leading snooker club in the area at the time - and, in unfamiliar surroundings for a lad from Sandy Row, had made enough money from the captivated punters to pay for a taxi back to Belfast in the early hours, and more to spare.

On a point of clarification, Alex Higgins grew up in Abingdon Drive off the Donegall (two 'L's) Road, Belfast. The Donegall Road meets the thoroughfare Sandy Row a short distance away and the district is often called by the latter's name.

Higgins's last days were spent in a block of flats on the Donegall Road, a short distance away from the Royal Bar whose barman grew up, like Alex, in Abingdon Drive. So the "Hurricane's" life had turned full circle.