Snooker Chalk
Snooker legend Alex Higgins has died aged 61 after fighting a long battle against throat cancer.
During his professional career he became renowned for his fast action play around the snooker table which gave rise to his nickname of “The Hurricane” and his individual style quickly made him a favourite amongst viewers of the game.
Higgins had been a heavy smoker and suffering from throat cancer for over 10 years for which he had been receiving treatment however as a consequence this in turn had caused him to lose all his teeth.
He had hoped to be able to get surgery to get new teeth but because of his general state of health this would have been too much of a risk and was not possible.
Higgins topped his playing career by winning the World Championships twice in 1972 and 1982.
Always in the headlines Higgins lived a controversial life as a professional snooker player and on one occasion head-butted a tournament director and at a later date was banned entirely from playing professional snooker for a complete season after allegedly making a threat to have his fellow Irish player Dennis Taylor shot in 1990.
