By Elliott West
Introduction
Alex Higgins is best known for being a snooker genius. A man who could create a winning break out of nothing and play a style of game that was unconventional but a type that was highly entertaining, crafted and truly gifted despite its irrational nature. Fuelled by copious amounts of alcohol and a cigarette packet that dwindled by the minute, this Belfast player lived out his life in the media, one that was run in the fast lane but sadly led to early demise from malnutrition in 2010, aged 61.
The Gentle Touch
You never knew the Alex Higgins who you would get when you met him and he wasn’t a man to openly show his feelings towards you if he liked you. However beyond this tough exterior, there was a loving, caring and on occasion, a person with a brilliant sense of humour. Since I started writing about snooker, I have been lucky enough to have met a large number of the people involved in snooker and through this avenue, I have caught glimpses of the less publicised Higgins through the recollective stories that those who knew Alex well have told me.
I recently spent an evening with Dennis Taylor for an exhibition in Faversham, Kent and Taylor who knew Alex very well, coming over from Northern Ireland together to play snooker, predominantly around Manchester and Blackpool. In the 1970s, Alex and Dennis did several days of exhibitions and stayed in the same hotel. Whilst Dennis did his own thing, Alex befriended the night porter and spent a lot of his time in the kitchen helping make the food and probably eating some of it too.
One night Alex brought a Spanish woman back to the hotel and decided to play a joke on the porter. Higgins was wearing a gold medallion around his neck. He told the porter that could hypnotise people and he could prove it. Sitting the woman down on a chair, he took off his medallion and proceeded to swing it back and forth in front of her eyes. Falling into a trance, he said to her that when counted backwards from three, she would wake up and be able to speak fluent Spanish. Of course, she did because she was Spanish and the porter fell for it, hook, line and sinker. So buoyed was he by this prank, that Alex even tried it again, this time saying she would wake up, speaking fluent Chinese. Perhaps that was a step too far but no one could resist Higgins when he was charming
He even managed to trick the same porter again, making him believe that he used to be a stunts man in a previous career. Alex recounted the scene in the James Bond film, Live and Let Die when Roger Moore jumped across the crocodiles to escape his enemies. He claimed that stunt double for Roger Moore in that scene was him!
The stories don’t end there. John Virgo often recounts a tale of when he visited Higgins in his digs outside Blackpool involving a mousetrap and a piece of cheese. On arrival at the guesthouse, Virgo entered his room and it resembled somewhere that hadn’t been lived in for months. Strewn across the floor, were large piles of mail and telegrams. However, under a cabinet in the corner of the room, John spotted a mousetrap with a large piece of cheese as an accompaniment. Virgo questioned Alex, asking him if he had a mouse in the room? To which Higgins replied that he did. Quizzed on the trap itself, Higgins replied:
“It’s not set but it’s well fed”.
It Started with a Kiss
The last public snooker appearance that Alex made was at a Snooker Legends event at the Crucible shortly before his death in 2010. Gaunt and looking very frail, Alex turned up to play Cliff Thorburn. Introduced onto the stage to rapturous applause, Higgins walked onto the stage, donning his customary fedora hat. As he approached Virgo, he beckoned him with his hand to come closer and as he did, he kissed John on the cheek. Perhaps Alex knew he didn’t have much time left in this world and wanted to say sorry for the various disagreements that they both had over the years. However, the probable reason for the kiss was that Alex loved John and the feeling was mutual. Higgins was Virgo’s snooker idol, the man who had helped drag the game into the modern age. A rare occasion when the Northern Irishman actually showed his inner feelings and a moment that was extremely touching.
The Family Man
What is lesser known is that Alex actually loved his time with his children. We see this from the episode when his daughter Lauren was brought onto the Crucible stage by his wife Lynn after his 18-15 World Championship victory over Ray Reardon. This was a daring moment but the first in sporting history, one that has been repeated in multiple sports over the years.
He once did a singing rendition of Eileen Barton’s song ‘If I Knew You Were Coming I’d’ve Baked a Cake during an interview at the World Doubles in 1986, watched by Dickie Davis and Jimmy White. A tribute to his daughter who was appearing in a musical at an academy in Stockport. Just one of the many moments that Alex Higgins had a strong sentimental side to his personality.
