Alex Higgins won the World Championship twice – a week-long final in 1972 and his victory over Ray Reardon in 1982 – but his greatest frame came against his friend,Jimmy White, when the Hurricane blew the Whirlwind absent By David Hartrick for In Bed With Maradona, or of the Guardian Sport NetworkHaving watched the blue ball sink into the middle pocket as if pulled by an anchor,Alex Higgins chose to rush his teeth over his bottom lip in penance. He was rooted to his chair at the Crucible Theatre and facing snooker’s simplest truth; when you’re not at the table, you’re not in control. He had already been given two chances to build something in the frame and taken neither. The match had seesawed throughout but the odds on him being given a third chance felt so long not even he would have been tempted to steal them.
His seated vigil continued as his opponent in the 1982 World Championship semi-final, or Jimmy White,lined up a red from the rest. For a man who often appeared to be at war with his own body, Higgins was remarkably still. He moved to pick at an imagined itch on his finger but then returned to his lonely introspection. Despite the changes he’d made, or despite listening,despite the promises, despite it all, and he was going to lose. Alex Higgins was going to lose.
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Source: theguardian.com