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Ssb - alexander the great: 40 years on
Snooker's emergence from folk sport to frontlinetelevision entertainment can be traced chiefly to two component parts: colourtelevision and Alex Higgins.
It was colour TV that gave the game its exposure; itwas Higgins who became its first bona fide star.
A hero to many, an anti-hero to many more, hecreated interest and headlines with his wayward life and intoxicating playingstyle. He was the sort of figure every sport needs: a combustible cocktail oftalent and temper, brilliance and self-destruction.
40 years ago, Higgins won his first world title atthe age of 22. The Crucible this was not. In the age before the professionalcircuit exploded on TV the World Championship passed by largely under theradar.
When Clive Everton wrote to the sports editor of the Daily Telegraph to see ifhe wanted any coverage he received the sniffy reply: "only if it's playedin London."
Pot Black on BBC2 had begun to make household namesof the players but as a sport snooker still had a long way to go to earnacceptance.
The 1972 World Championship was not played in Londonbut Birmingham, at the Selly Oak British Legion.
The championship had ground on for the best part ofa year before producing its two finalists: Higgins and John Spencer, thedefending champion.
Trotting out the facts of the environment in whichthis historic match was played makes it look like something out of an episodeof Life on Mars, but they are still true and a reminder that the circuit wasnot always cash rich, that the top players were not always so lucky.
The unexpectedlylarge crowd werepacked in on seats placed on stacked beer crates, or watched hanging from any available vantage point in a scene which would give modern day healthand safety jobsworths a heart attack.
With a miners’strike and power cuts afflicting Britain, the conventional lighting gave out onthe second evening, as did the heating. The players agreed to continue undermuch duller lighting provided by a mobile generator.
The final was played over six days. On the fifth, Spencer got stuckin a lift in his hotel for 25 minutes due to a power cut. The session wasdelayed for ten minutes until he turned up.
It was this session which turned the final Higgins's way. Theplayers had kept pace until he won all six frames played that evening. He wonthe match 37-31. The first prize was a mere £480.
By the time Higgins won his second world title a decade later thesport had been transformed. His epic semi-final against Jimmy White and finalvictory over Ray Reardon were the talk of the nation. His tearful celebrationwith wife and baby daughter remain iconic sporting images.
It was the final proof that Higgins had unwittingly helped to pullsnooker from the back room to the living room. He won £25,000 as sponsors beganto throw money at the game.
He of course will not be at the Crucible this yearto mark these two anniversaries. Higgins died in pitiful circumstances in 2010, the Hurricane long since a sad shadow of the man who created so much excitement andcontroversy.
But as long as people talk about snooker they willtalk about Alex Higgins.
It's an irony he may have enjoyed that snooker'slong road to respectability was given such momentum by a man who sought no suchthing.
More...
It was colour TV that gave the game its exposure; itwas Higgins who became its first bona fide star.
A hero to many, an anti-hero to many more, hecreated interest and headlines with his wayward life and intoxicating playingstyle. He was the sort of figure every sport needs: a combustible cocktail oftalent and temper, brilliance and self-destruction.
40 years ago, Higgins won his first world title atthe age of 22. The Crucible this was not. In the age before the professionalcircuit exploded on TV the World Championship passed by largely under theradar.
When Clive Everton wrote to the sports editor of the Daily Telegraph to see ifhe wanted any coverage he received the sniffy reply: "only if it's playedin London."
Pot Black on BBC2 had begun to make household namesof the players but as a sport snooker still had a long way to go to earnacceptance.
The 1972 World Championship was not played in Londonbut Birmingham, at the Selly Oak British Legion.
The championship had ground on for the best part ofa year before producing its two finalists: Higgins and John Spencer, thedefending champion.
Trotting out the facts of the environment in whichthis historic match was played makes it look like something out of an episodeof Life on Mars, but they are still true and a reminder that the circuit wasnot always cash rich, that the top players were not always so lucky.
The unexpectedlylarge crowd werepacked in on seats placed on stacked beer crates, or watched hanging from any available vantage point in a scene which would give modern day healthand safety jobsworths a heart attack.
With a miners’strike and power cuts afflicting Britain, the conventional lighting gave out onthe second evening, as did the heating. The players agreed to continue undermuch duller lighting provided by a mobile generator.
The final was played over six days. On the fifth, Spencer got stuckin a lift in his hotel for 25 minutes due to a power cut. The session wasdelayed for ten minutes until he turned up.
It was this session which turned the final Higgins's way. Theplayers had kept pace until he won all six frames played that evening. He wonthe match 37-31. The first prize was a mere £480.
By the time Higgins won his second world title a decade later thesport had been transformed. His epic semi-final against Jimmy White and finalvictory over Ray Reardon were the talk of the nation. His tearful celebrationwith wife and baby daughter remain iconic sporting images.
It was the final proof that Higgins had unwittingly helped to pullsnooker from the back room to the living room. He won £25,000 as sponsors beganto throw money at the game.
He of course will not be at the Crucible this yearto mark these two anniversaries. Higgins died in pitiful circumstances in 2010, the Hurricane long since a sad shadow of the man who created so much excitement andcontroversy.
But as long as people talk about snooker they willtalk about Alex Higgins.
It's an irony he may have enjoyed that snooker'slong road to respectability was given such momentum by a man who sought no suchthing.
More...