Alex Higgins: The Life And The Funeral In Pictures
by Anorak | 2nd, August 2010
ALEX Higgins, the Hurricane who lived an admirably misspent life on the snooker baize and betting shops lawns, was laid to rest in Belfast. They came to salute a local hero. Someone called him the ‘People’s Champion’. It’s a sentimental turns of phrase for the life of a sporting champion who made the heart beat a little faster.
The Funeral:
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A woman photographs a new mural of Alex Higgins at the Royal Bar on Belfast's Donegal Road where his funeral cortege will pass along on it's way to St Anne's Cathedral where the funeral service will be held tomorrow.
We looked on as Jimmy White, the Whirlwind, carried the body of Alex Higgins down Belfast’s Donegal Road to St Anne’s Cathedral. It was fitting.
In 1984, White lost to Steve Davis in the World Championships final. Your writer was hooked on Higgins’ heir apparent. School took a backseat. White played truant to play the game. I played truant to watch it on the telly.
White would go on to lose in the final five times on the bounce between 1990 and 1994. He never won it.
If sport is about the glory and tragedy, then the snooker played by Higgins and White was among the greatest sport of all.
RIP Alex Higgins. Your nerves, skill and wit were the stuff of life…
His Life
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The new World Snooker Champion, Alex Higgins being saluted by his baby daughter Lauren with his wife Lynne, after last nights's nail-biting battle against six-times champion Ray Reardon at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre. * Higgins holds the trophy for the second time having won it ten years ago.
August 2nd, 2010 at 10:06 pm
John, I also remember seeing Jimmy White play, he came to our sports & social club when he was just seventeen to play an exhibition match against John Spencer…needless to say Jimmy blew John away…
I also have memories of Alex Higgins time in his second home…Manchester…where he was a regular at my local snooker club…
Happy Days..
RIP Alex “The Hurricane” Higgins….the George Best of the Green Baize…. Snooker will never be the same.
August 2nd, 2010 at 9:18 pm
Good photos and true words about Alex and his close friend Jimmy White.
The great games that these snooker legends played kept millions up watching the box until way after midnight.The tension sometimes being almost unbearable as the ball roll-in or out of the pocket.
Jimmy is from Tooting(me too) and I met him around the early 70s when he often went with his family to a social club in Tooting Bec. Back in those days he was just a young boy and several times I watched him playing on the snooker table that was in a room above the club. On one occasion he asked me if I fancied a game but I wasn’t of the generation that was brought up on snooker and I told Jimmy that I would watch him pot the balls. He was very enthusiatic and had his own style when potting but I never imagined that I was in the company of someone who would reach SIX world finals and become famous around the world. I’m very happy that Alex has been given a great farewell by the public and his fans. He was magic and a fantastic champion.