Ronnie O’Sullivan

Just watched it all again as if it were the first time.

Great stuff. Ol enemy John Spencer rooting for Alex in the commentary box also. Glory days of snooker. Hell of an opener from Jimmy on the balk cushion too.

I wonder if young Jimmy had of got past Alex would he have beaten ol codger dracula Ray Reardon in the final?

Great days, great characters.
The wonder of coloured TV bringing Snooker into the big time.

For those watching in black and white, the green ball is the one behind the yellow.
 


Great days, great characters.
The wonder of coloured TV bringing Snooker into the big time.

For those watching in black and white, the green ball is the one behind the yellow.

Coloured TV provided the opportunity.

Alex Hurricane Higgins delivered the sport as an entertainment to an audience.

All smart young pros sipping orange juice owe it all to him.
 
Coloured TV provided the opportunity.

Alex Hurricane Higgins delivered the sport as an entertainment to an audience.

All smart young pros sipping orange juice owe it all to him.

Not entirely true.
Reardon, Spencer and co had already made it big before Higgins.
There was also a N.E. Competition on Tyne Tees TV.
 
If you have BBC iPlayer, there is a 1983 edition of Pot Black featuring Alex Higgins and Jimmy White

Just search for snooker in the All section and it comes up

Snooker; Pot Black
 
Reardon and Spencer???

If it was down to those two snooker would never have caught on at all.

Try to keep up here.

Bollox. It had already caught on and couldn’t have failed to catch on further with players like White and O Sullivan on the circuit.
 
One of the best matches of the 1980s was in the masters between Jimmy White and Kirk Stevens. Stevens made a max, then Jimmy scored a ton break in the next frame, which included a screw shot, that swung like a banana around the table.

I think it's on youtube
 
you dont really have a clue.

young White was a decade later-.

Ronnie 20+ years later, or more

So are you saying it would have died out without Higgins, despite the fact it’s continued from strength to strength since his demise ?
 
So are you saying it would have died out without Higgins, despite the fact it’s continued from strength to strength since his demise ?

not died out. it would never even have got started

Higgins created the sport as we know it.

Even Steve Davis his arch enemy admits this, and all the other pros.
 
Coloured TV provided the opportunity.

Alex Hurricane Higgins delivered the sport as an entertainment to an audience.

All smart young pros sipping orange juice owe it all to him.

You do remember what Hurricane Higgins was like don’t you? He wasn’t sipping orange juice.
 
not died out. it would never even have got started

Higgins created the sport as we know it.

Even Steve Davis his arch enemy admits this, and all the other pros.

It already had taken off, Higgins did his bit, but it would have continued from strength to strength regardless, especially as a result of colour TV coverage and it’s inevitable spread to more international appeal and other players every bit as entertaining as Higgins.

Oh please don’t mention Steve Boring Davies and Hendry, great players no doubt but boring farts,
despite all of which Snooker continued to be big time throughout all their years of domination.
 
You do remember what Hurricane Higgins was like don’t you? He wasn’t sipping orange juice.

indeed. vodka mixed in.

It already had taken off, Higgins did his bit, but it would have continued from strength to strength regardless, especially as a result of colour TV coverage and it’s inevitable spread to more international appeal and other players every bit as entertaining as Higgins.

Oh please don’t mention Steve Boring Davies and Hendry, great players no doubt but boring farts,
despite all of which Snooker continued to be big time throughout all their years of domination.

No - it was Alex Hurricane Higgins who made the sport viable for a tv audience. Dont try to rewrite history.
 
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Anyone remember the Higgins v Thorburn final, when it was interrupted by the SAS, finishing the Iran embassy siege?
 
Does it not cross your mind that maybe a great player isn’t a great player at all, if he has to be partly under the influence to do his stuff ?

Balls of Steel my arse.
 
Alex was winning and the ol Cliff caught him up at the end as I recall.

was Thorburn fond of a drink? guessing not.
He liked a drink but not in match I think. In that rack pack drama, he has a canny fight with Higgins. The hatred was real
 

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