Alex "Hurricane" Higgins has died at the age of 61. Even the best of the newspapers consider his dying, when it was his living that utterly changed the game of Snooker. The history of Snooker is interesting, for it was always a tension between the hierarchy of its control at the top level and the firebrand sleaze of the working class snooker hall feeding it.
From a poor Belfast home, Higgins struggled up the hard way to transform Snooker from a laborious game of strategy to a fast, dynamic pursuit close to art. The "Hurricane" forged a way forward for the aspirations of kids who had nothing. Unlike running round a track or kicking a ball, Snooker is the balance of the body in response to the sponteniety of the mind based on hour upon hour of practice around a grand table built for hotels and grand homes. Higgins made that table look small and exciting with the spin of the cue ball, exact positioning, restless and frantic speed, and lightning responses.
He was a Hurricane.
0 comments:
Post a Comment