died today from throat cancer. very sad
he made an incredibly dull game exciting to watch.
SNOOKER star Alex Higgins has died today after a long battle with throat cancer.
The 61-year-old former world champion was known as the Hurricane by his many fans.
Higgins was diagnosed with throat cancer more than 10 years ago.
Snooker promoter Barry Hearn paid tribute to Higgins, saying he would be remembered as the "original people's champion" and the man who transformed the popularity of the sport.
Hearn said: "I have known him for nearly 40 years. He was the major reason for snooker's popularity in the early days.
"He was controversial at times, but he always played the game in the right spirit.
"We will miss him - he was the original people's champion."
Higgins was discovered at a block of flats in the centre of Belfast. He had been unwell for some time.
The player had not been answering his mobile phone and the flat had to be broken into, sources close to him said.
Steve Davis played a number of classic matches against Higgins in the 1980s.
Tonight he described his former rival as one of the few "geniuses" around the table.
Davis said: "To people in the game he was a constant source of argument, he was a rebel. But to the wider public he was a breath of fresh air that drew them
in to the game.
"He was an inspiration to my generation to take the game up. I do not think his contribution to snooker can be underestimated."
As to his own encounters with Higgins around the table, Davis said: "He was quite a fierce competitor, he lived and breathed the game, very much a fighter on the table.
"It was a love/hate relationship with Alex Higgins. The thrill of playing him was fantastic, but the crowd that came along were not your usual crowd. They were much more noisy and you had to play the crowd as well. To many people in the 1980s he was the only player they came to watch."
"I used to be quite frightened of him as an individual, he could be quite vexatious. But on the snooker table, my admiration was immense."
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Davis added: "No one player has ever been bigger than the game. But he brought a genius quality that possibly hadn't been seen before.
"He was one of two or three people I would put the word 'genius' to when it came to the table."
Sean Boru, who ghosted Higgins' autobiography, described the snooker star as a troubled soul.
"Everybody who knew Alex knew that this was an inevitability, but it's still a shock when it happens," he said.
Mr Boru leased a flat in Dublin during 2006 and Alex would visit him to work on the book.
"The problem with Alex was that he knew he was a great talent but he didn't quite know how to work it," Mr Boru said.
