Belgian Snooker Classic 1986 Alex Higgins v Dennis Taylor QF (Best of 9 Frames) 

Prize money in snooker is very good

40k was the total prize fund not the winners cheque. Griffiths got 12k for winning the event. Having said that the mid 80s was where the prize money started to advance quickly mainly due to big sponsorship. When Silvino Francisco won the 85 Brit Open he won 50k.

@@digeme69 Ah! My mishearing/misunderstanding, thanks.

@@TheMattTempest No problem 🙂

@@TheMattTempest 😂🤡

Well, Taylor didn't say anything that wasn't true really...

Everybody smoked, including the players

Dennis still beat Alex several times during their careers, 12 in fact.

Rex Williams? Are you serious?

Higgins would get thrashed every match now. The standard is massively higher. I doubt even Steve Davis would be in the top 20. Then again, the game is far more professional now. Many more tournaments, and much more prize money.

God rex was pathetic

​@@gaywest4298 bullshit, todays standard on the tour is shit

It’s called evolution! Snooker wouldn’t be as popular nowadays only for these guys. Especially Higgins who pioneered a style and shots that are popular to this day.

Stay off the drugs.

You couldn't have said it any better than that. Alex was a hated genius by the media but most importantly he was The people's champion 🏆🥇🥇🏆

Jealousy

Yeah, everyone stopped watching snooker as soon as Alex packed it in. Not.

Yes should be ashamed of himself. A silly clipboard warrior looking after the most exciting genius in snooker. Sad thing is his treatment at the hands the wpbsa ultimately contributed to the end of his life. The guy needed looking after and cherishing.

Many Rex Williams out there working in councils. Alex Higgins was once in a lifetime.

and never boring

That was his appeal.

If you look deeper into it, they had a sort of on/off friendship. Rex took him a bottle of brandy when he was 8-0 down to Davis.

He may have done but with his constant bad behaviour he would have been banned these days.

He was the kind of person the world doesn't miss - but the kind of player the snooker world couldn't have been without.

It disappeared as soon as he hit it😂 A glitch or the speed of the ball🤔😂

Yeah and noticed the second he finished his drink a hand took the empty glass away

@ian williamson i can remember a match from 1985 or 86 and at the start of the match alex asked for a drink, then 2 minutes later he stood up and was using his hands as if to say where is my drink? And it went on for at least 10 minutes. There must have been a problem with the barman or they didnt have what he wanted? So ten minutes later he finaly got a drink. But he couldnt keep his eyes off what was happening with that pint.

Not currently I'm afraid

Rex was from an old-school family of players who thought Alex was just a drunk, a ruffian and a trouble-maker who was bad for the game. In all honesty they weren't entirely wrong on the first three counts, but they were 100% wrong on the last one - Alex was great for snooker because the wider, mass audience didn't want to see the stuffy side of the game. They wanted pizzazz and excitement and Alex gave it to them in spades. Dennis acknowledged this in his pre-match interview - it's a shame that Rex' generation simply couldn't, or more likely didn't want to, see it.

@walter hammond and did the old players that were so bad to watch never get drunk? And is it lilegal. Old players that needed alex to save the game by dragging it out the gutter as it was the worse most boring game ever to watch. And wouldnt have lasted till 1975 if alex wasnt there

Don't understand why he didn't play pool after his retirement from snooker would have made some good money

Yeah you would of seen Alex about all the bookies bars in Belfast, he couldn't talk and every penny went on gambling....sad

🤣🤣🤣🤣

It was played Wed 15th Jan 1986 so it's possible there was no football. There were no FA Cup replays that night. The programme was broadcast from 10.30-11.40 so probably shared the programme with another sport that night.

Brilliant knowledge!

In that season Taylor played very well after the sudden death of his mother. He went on to win the 1984 Rothmans after almost withdrawing from the event and then the Worlds. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bJPnvYevnX8.html

Because he played brilliant consistent snooker. He beat Alex in some big matches too, like the Masters final in 87 and two or three massive Irish Championships finals.

Davis was not prime during the final after the first session, he didn't make a century break during the whole 2 days of the final.

All the best for 2022, I don't have that 82 final available for upload although I have watched it myself in the the last year. (It is encrypted)

They all had Omicron.

Most of the venues were really stuffy with no air conditioning

Basically, yes that was the issue. Lots of people smoking, that smoke swirling around the place - that's what it was like in those days. I'm surprised I haven't got lung cancer, despite the fact I've never smoked a cigarette in my life, given the smoke I must have inhaled in pubs, bars, snooker halls and nightclubs when I was growing up before the ban.

I went to live snooker a lot from 84 onwards and as others have already alluded to people could smoke in the venue. I'm a non smoker but always came out of the venues with my clothes smelling of smoke. It really was a case of like it or lump it!

He was actually a pretty good player in 1986 when he reached the final of the 86 Grand Prix (Ranking event). He beat Higgins 5-1, Davis 5-1, Foulds 9-8 in the Semi, before succumbing to Jimmy White in the final 10-6 after leading 5-2. Also had a 50/50 record with matches played against Higgins, they played 10 times and won 5 each. In 1972 Higgins beat Williams 31-30 in the semi final of the World Championships.

Yes he did well.john was out of sorts though .

Yeah good to see the bent jock get shafted ,one of luckyest men around still being allowed to play after agreeing to chuck a match for half a mill ✌️

@@mickharrison9004 no he thought it wasmafia .johndident need the money you see .he's got mullions already

@@ianwilliamson2980 that happened years ago and funny your the only one that ever mentioned mafia ,and anyway you can tell he s a greedy fkr with a bad attitude .

@@mickharrison9004 And one of the 3 greatest players in history, move on and make a more educated comment next time, he served his punishment and came back.

Ye-.

@mark lawrence brilliantly put mark. I said nearly the same earlier on. Rex was a hanger on, a ponce that made alot of money by not playing and just watching but commentating and he was useless even at that. He would just throw in two words every 20 minutes and it was always primary stuff that we already knew. He won nothing playing the game plus no one wanted to watch him as he was that boring. Then he became a director on the board. I was told by a friend if you listen to stephen hendry hes brilliant at it becouse he is a brilliant player and rex williams is not? And its so true, its just about how good a player you are that makes you a great commentator. I didnt dislike rex. But how do they old codgers that win nothing and do nothing for the game as a whole get these great jobs? In school the next day when say taylor or williams got beaten we would say they must put there cue away then just jump up into the commentary box as they even knew they were coming up to join them and kept there seat warm. It was bad for that in the 1980s and 90s. Taylor lost a match during the day about 1987 and was commentating an hour later lol it became a joke to us, i said you must be joking. But steve davis and hendry who are great at commentery didnt really do it till they were well past there best and won 6 titles each, so they just wanted to be part of the game still. But rex and taylor and john virgo were commemtators while they had won nothing really. I just remember thinking one day ?how do they do it is it a case of who you know and not what you know? In the 1980s it was like the worse players that only did it. As they knew they had to find another job off the table. Ted lowe just spoke as if we were all watching a horror film in the dark winter nights with the house lights off. And if a player missesd a pot he would say he missesd it as if the player was going to die next "and this could be really costly as higgins comes to the table needing all the balls to win? While steve sits and cant do a thing about it" am pml. It was like if the player didnt win he would die. But tbh ted was a bit better than the players at it in the 80s. Some one said ted lowe didnt like alex higgins? And watching old matches ted disnt say as much when alex potted crazy pots? I thought it does seem like it. I watched snooker becouse of alex higgins then when alex stopped playing i stopped watching it. It just wasnt the same anymore and hadnt been for a few years, i could see it coming. And hundreds of thousands maybe millions of fans stopped watching snooker going into the 1990s to mid 90s when alex stopped playing? He saved snooker mark. And even top guys on the board even admitted they as in the top men did pick on alex more than other players. That took courage to admitt that, they must have had huge respect for alex, one was the old guy with grey hair and dark heavy glasses and over weight and must be in his late 80s age wise now or even 90s. A think its clive everton? Or jack carnmam? He said in a documentary about alex called "the peoples champion" "about 1972 when alex beat spencer they were all square going into the last session and alex ran over spencer by winning 6 frames in a row to win it, and its such a shame that its not on film becouse that was the best display of snooker that i have ever seen and it will never be beaten in my view, it was just incredibile and amazing to watch and i really couldnt believe what i was seeing. It was in an old social club with beer crates turn over as seats and every one smoked then after 5 days there was no electricity as the miners were on strike so they got a generator to restore the lights and its just something that you would never see today as in the whole set up, as the game was going nowhere i didnt think it would last another 3 or 4 years tbh, well if that world title wasnt even filmend what does that tell you alone. There was no money in it, no one wanted to watch it, alex was paid £300 pound for winning it and spencer got £200 pounds as runner up. The bbc didnt know what to do as it was seen as an edwardian folklore sport. But when so many big money men that watched that final started to ask about alex as it was his first year as proffesional and the way he won it and played, to cut it short they said we need this boy, this is different to what we are used to. He could change the game for ever. And they kept it going for 3 years but by then alex was big news and packing out halls every where he played. Then the halls werent big enough by 1975,76 they had to use arenas that could hold a big crowd and the money poured in and the bbc's money poured in, so by 1978,79 snooker was big news and better players had come in and the old players were finished, and by 1980 and alex was in his third final having lost to ray reardon in 76. He threw it away and would have won it if he didnt play to the crowd against cliff thorburn. But by then snooker was here to stay forever, and no wonder, it just got better going into the 80s. Alex won it again in 82 and its the best snooker he ever played that i saw as in every match he was brilliant. He beat reardon 18-15 in the final with a clearance of 135 that was a joy to watch in his last frame to win it. Sorry mark if i went on to long, but i couldnt help it as we wont see the likes again!!!!

@@alanmctavish4802 yes, you did go on too long. one comment though; you don't have to be a great player to be a great commentator. you just have to love the game.

F f sake. The sh1t people give out above.

@mat mells l used to play, many pros in Portsmouth area, in the 80s, and used to win a third of my matches, the standard now is much higher, then it was 30. To🤔😁🇫🇷 45,play safe......

roger federer would thrash bjorn borg

@mat mells on clay ,on grass, on the moon 6-0 6-0 6-0

What about kirks 147 in 84 masters ? Poor standard ?

@@damienspurs147 kirk was high on coke at the time.... 🙄🇫🇷

Wow. Like Usain Boot running against a guy from the 80’s.

Stay off the drugs

Sponsored by Embassy cigarettes.

i applaud you marc.😂

@@samca4472 Actually pockets were larger back then

Id say your a lazy count!

@@AngrierGorilla The balls were bigger though.

@@tullmonkey true, and I think it was the correct size. Now they are too small. And btw it's harder to aim a smaller ball.

Sorry I don't, I'm not entirely sure the whole event was shown on tv in the UK. Griffiths did as you say win the event beating Kirk Stevens in the final

@@digeme69 No probs, figured it was a long shot. Thank you for answering ... appreciate it and also appreciate all your uploads ! Cheers, Ian

Griffiths was so mega boring to watch, it was like watching a clock with no battery in it. But there seemend something funny about the way terry walked around the table like a tiger in wait, he never blinked. But was such a gent and looked the same way every time. He even smiled. Those were the days. Ray reardon would miss a shot then stare at the pocket for 5 minutes and his cue, and even touch the cloth and pocket, am pml. A think he even looked at the light bulbs. Alex higgins was the jeanie that escaped from the bottle. He was the greatest player ever. you only have to watch him at his best to see that. But he took shots for granted, and he didnt play to just win he played to entertain. A huge difference. But if alex played like steve davis and was great but boring he would easily have 7 world titles and much more. But then he wouldnt have been my hero?