Alexander Gordon Higgins (born 18 March, 1949) is probably the most exciting and technically gifted snooker player that I have ever seen.

The Jam Pot just off Belfast’s Donegall road was where young Alex Higgins began to play snooker. After the war, times were hard and a large jam jar could be exchanged for 3 pence or for a game of snooker, hence the name of the Club, the Jam Pot.

Alex Higgins speaks of this time when he says: “I found I had an eye to watch people, to look at their actions. I was very good at memorizing things, people’s mistakes, the rights as well as the wrongs– that if you hit the ball in this direction perhaps you might create something– improvisation I suppose.” Alex turned professional at the age of 22.

By 1968 he became Northern Ireland amateur champion, then all-Ireland Champion one year later. He led Belfast’s YMCA to a victory in the Players No.6 UK Team Trophy against Glamorgan Labour Club.

From these beginnings he went on to win two World championships, in 1972 at his first attempt and in 1982 against Ray Reardon or ‘Dracula’ as Higgins liked to call him. He lost two other championship finals, against Cliff Thorburn in 1980 and Ray Reardon in 1976.

The 1982 world championship was held at the Crucible in Sheffield. Steve Davis was defending his title and lost 10-1 to Tony Knowles. In round 2 Doug Mountjoy played Higgins and at one stage Higgins needed 11 frames to win and he pulled it off.

The Quarter Final was against Willie Thorn, which Higgins won 13-10. Higgins was then through to the semi-finals and played Jimmy White. Reardon played Eddie Charlton in the other semi final.

Higgins won in a very exciting and close match 16-15. In the final which was against Reardon it was 2-1 to Reardon to begin with. It eventually went to 10-7 for Higgins and then 10-8. When it got to 15-14 to Higgins the nervous Irishman was more agitated than ever. Then it went to 17-15 until Higgins put ‘the count’ to rest with a break of 135. His wife and daughter joined him in his celebrations.

It is estimated that Higgins earned and blew a £3 million fortune over twenty years. Higgins’s career covers decades but the rewards from snooker were not enough and he now plays people for a fiver now and again.

At 51 he survived a throat cancer operation in 1998. The long legal battle for cash compensation from the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association after allegedly being ‘ripped off’ by his manager has since subsided.

Ann Yates, the most powerful women in British sport as professional snooker tournament director cannot raise a smile when talking about Alex Higgins. “He tormented me for ten years at every opportunity and I was forced to batten down the hatches whenever he came looking for an argument, which was pretty often.”

Despite all this, his fans are still as adoring as ever and his career is best summed up by someone who knew the real Alex Higgins, Jimmy White, “Alex is the greatest player who has ever lived, I’m supposed to have influenced a generation of youngsters but Alex influenced me, everyone. There has never been anyone to touch him and there never will be.”

Above: Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higgins at the height of his success.