by Rose Conrad

Created on: July 25, 2010   Last Updated: July 26, 2010

When he walked through the long sun-lounge of the Norbreck Castle on his way to play his match, everyone stopped and stared. There were snooker players walking along there all the time of course - after all this was the venue for some of the biggest UK tournaments back in the snooker golden era of the 1980's........ but this was different - after all this was the famous "Hurricane" himself - the one and only Alex Higgins, and fans and fellow players alike were in awe of him.  

Now he is dead, leaving this life at the age of 61 after a long battle against throat cancer, and after a turbulent life where he was more often known for his drinking, brawling, womanising and "bad behaviour" than his snooker.   But never forget it was his snooker that made him a legend, and made him the undisputed "Peoples'Champion". Coming into a sport made up mainly of staid older men wearing waistcoats and ties, the boy from Belfast brought a breath of fresh air to the snooker world, just as the sport was entering it's halcyon days with sold-out venues throughout the country, and record TV audiences. His fast style of play and the way he rushed around the table earned him the "Hurricane" nickname, and when he won the World Championships in both 1972 and 1982, a legend was truly born.  

Using Alex Higgins as their muse and hero, young snooker players like Jimmy "Whirlwind" White, Joe O'Boye and later Ronnie O'Sullivan, came into the game which had suddenly become more glamourous and less a game of old men in smoky backstreet Bars. For a time, snooker was THE sport in the UK. The players stayed in luxury 5-star Hotels, complete with champagne and the ubiquitous sports' groupies, there were songs about snooker in the music charts, their private lives made the front pages of all the newspapers, and it was Alex Higgins that started the ball rolling.  

But with a mercurial figure like Higgins, it's not surprising that the bad times went with the good. Hard-drinking and smoking around 80 cigarettes a day, Alex enjoyed the women and the good life, and for every £ he earned, he lost double that amount through drinking and gambling. Married twice, both his wives Cara and Lynn attempted to keep him on the "straight and narrow", but both marriages ended in acrimonious divorce, and he eventually lost contact with his two children by Lynn, Jordan and Lauren. It was Lauren (then only a toddler), that he called for when he won the 1982 World Championships,

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