Socrates said some odd hundred years before Christ: “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.” and “If the whole world depends on today's youth, I can't see the world lasting another 100 years.” Get off your high horse fellas. We can only go forward.
I,m 52,so i was lucky enough to be able to experience the Good old 80s. I started watching snooker as from 1982/83,i can`t remember this match,but i can clearly remember watchin other matches with Alex and Bill involved,2 crackin players to watch. :-)
I love watching these guys working so hard, such skills, both masters of the sport, top of their game and they even have time to take a break and play snooker, amazing.
.... as I was watching this some 40 odd yrs after I first watched it .... it dawned on me they're all gone now .... Bill, Alex, John Williams, Jim Meadowcroft, John Spencer, Ted Lowe, and Rex Williams.... see u on the other side.
Big Bill was really playing some excellent stuff back in 83.Pity he didn't win this one,would've given Davis a much better match in the Semis then Higgins who got destroyed 16-5.
After a certain time whenever you see Alex playing ,it's always the same sad ref he had numerous goes with ,I forgot his name but he was certainly a cold bstd .
I think they used to deliberately wind him up by giving him John Williams as the referee. He was always a nasty piece of work and loved the sound of his own authoritarian voice. Just a shame Alex didn't chin him at the time.
Friend of mine was in an Indian restaurant in Manchester when Alex started throwing food around. Almost got into a fight with him. Higgins was an alcoholic nutcase.
Tavy@ when alex was on form he was the greatest player in the world to watch. A pure delight. Those were great days in the 1980s, especialy the early 80s, what has gone wrong? Why cant we go back to those days, a great time to grow up and am lucky a had it all. Boys i know today who were born in 1990, say to me "i wish i was born in 1973 so i could get to grow up in the 1980s, honestly the music was brilliant the fashion, the whole lot, i really enviey you alan" thats what he told me lol and he was right. Steve davis said alex higgins had the greatest snooker brain he had ever played against. And he was more worried about alex's safety play than anything else, becouse alex was probably the best safety player ever in the game. Steve said "when i played alex 1 time i snookerd him about 4 times in a row, then alex got out of the snooker and snookerd me back 4 times in a row, i couldnt believe it, he was in a leauge of his own when he played like that. He beat me that year to win the uk championship and i was winning 7-0 at one time. Then he just came out and before i knew it, it was 8-7 to alex, he had won 8 frames in a row, he just couldnt be stopped and came out after the break a totally diffirent player. And when you snooker alex 4 times in a row and then not only does he get out of it but he also snookers you thats when you know your in trouble. No other player has ever did that to me ever in all my years in the game through the 1980s, 90s, 2000s
Yes, the 80s were a great time for snooker. Lot of other things were cool, there weren't surveillance cameras watching your every move, there were fewer people and more space and people didnt blast loud music out of cars. A lot was wrong with politics but people protested and took action. You could study at university without a lifetime of debt.
That's wrong. Higgins pulled back to 7-3 before Davis flukes a yellow to go 8-3 up. The first day of that 1983 UK final ended with Davis leading 8-7. Higgins won 16-15 the following evening
that first break by Alex, if you didn't know him, after a few shots, you would bet your life he cant and never has scored 80+ and you lose mate. I know alignment and delivery, ive studied it for years, everyday, nothing else i think of really, 24\7.. What alex does, is virtually impossible at a world class level. Its incredible sophistication and understanding. For certain shots he does "this" and so on and so on "that". It takes incredible confidence and memory to go down such a list of options and what this set up means and that feel means.....it has to be that way because I know his sheer grit alone could not get it done like that consistently at the highest level. His concentration and self confidence is incredible. Alex is not the type who feels sorry for himself to any normal level. I doubt its extreme belief either. I think he just looks at it as a objective and if it means I simply have to walk a tightrope while juggling and I can smoke and drink at the same time, ok I'll do it. Like, there is no "i can do it" with him. You know? Hes more of a "will do it", because thats what is supposed to be done. There is ego too, im sure he thinks very very highly of himself and does not give a damn if you think differently of him. The best can mean that no one else can do it, and in certain regards, hes the best for sure. His style is what you would see on the low end of amateurs in a practical sense. Hes very incredible. A hero.
Alex in his prime 😊 He could have been like Ronnie O’Sullivan if he hadn’t got in with the wrong crowd and all the drinking and drugs. How he wasn’t world champion several times between 1972-1982 is amazing against the opposition in those days is amazing.
That terrible shot on the green at 4.30 was an example of why big Bill never won much and the brilliant clearance by Alex was an example of why he was champion
Unfortunately Bill played like that. He could pot the most difficult of balls and miss the easiest. Bill beat Alex 3 times in 4 meetings in 1983 (5-4 in the Lada Classic were he got to the final, 5-4 in The Masters and 4-0 in the Winfield Masters were he also reached the final before losing to Thorburn) but lost this very close World Championship game and the crowd were quite hostile towards him.
Alex ended up giving the cue he was using here to Jimmy who went on to use it for quite a few years. Great footage from the most exciting player I've ever seen.
This is not the same cue that Jimmy was using Matt. The one Alex is using here is one he used on and off since 1973. He had the butt completely re-spliced with new ebony in the summer of 1980. In January 1982 he had it converted from a one piece to a 3/4 but with a black collar at the joint (I think by bristol coin cues). In December 1982 he had further work done to the cue which - for whatever reason - the collar was changed to a white one. He abandoned this cue somewhere between July and November 1983. The cue Jimmy used from about October 1983 to December 1985 was purchased off Alex for £150 - but although looking virtually identical - was a different cue (Jimmy's cue had less ash chevrons and had a thicker shaft). At the end of 1983 Jimmy gave an interview in a newspaper about cue problems he had been having and that problem being sorted now because he had just bought a cue off Alex for £150 that felt just right. The journalist said to Jimmy "150 quid for a cue? - I thought you two were mates!" The article ended quoting Jimmy as saying"It's a cheap price if It gets my game together" In the next 5 months, Jimmy had won over 70 grand in prize money with it.
instead of just talking about the beer and smoking i wanna just point out how attacking bill was for the time! any time he got out of position on the black he would always go whole hearted for a blue in the corner or a bulk corner to bring him back down for the reds,kudos! especially back then when people only think alex and jimmy played like that
@Wayne Anthony Holmes yeah I guess so .I drank far too much in my younger days and smoked a bit too.i don't regret it really as I had some great fun but if I could live my life again I would try to live a more moderate life .I went a bit over the top with my drinking to say the least.
23:30 - That guy to the left of Alex was a regular for a good few years wasn't he? Anyone know his name? I think he was mentioned on one of the broadcasts at some point.
@@ukbloke5740 I don't recall his name but you're right in that the BBC once interviewed him. He was a regular for many years. Going Forward there was another guy who wore an Australian tie who always sat in the front row until about 2018 when I didn't see him anymore but he was probably into his 80s and time caught up with him. The BBC also interviewed him
See at twenty mins Higgins is sitting up on the side there .yet he complained if ref was in his view .the folk wouldn't be able to see with him sitting there.
When Bill ran out of position at 18:44, Alex stood up and then sat on the edge of the hoardings in anticipation of getting back to the table, presumably because he thought Bill would play a safety shot rather than pot the long blue. It was a decent pot though but did not leave him on an easy red and again I would imagine Alex thought there was a good chance of being back at the table if Bill either played safe on a red or missed the difficult pot. The same again for the following blue, yet once Bill potted it and was back nicely in position for the next red then Alex sat back in his seat, so he was only there for three shots in total. I don't think there was anything in it bar maybe an eagerness to get back to the table and a little inadvertent thoughtlessness that he might have been in Bill's eyeline (although he still would if sitting in his chair) and that he was blocking some of the crowd's view. I just think he tended to be quite intense when concentrating on what the other player at the table was doing and that's where his focus was.
i think if it was a best out of 1000 and the loser dies, im serious, I don't see how i don't take Alex to win. but my question and scenario listed below is not life or death, just ability vs ability. Alex is a enigma, a freak, a blip on the screen where the statistical mean says its noise, its not real. Back in the day, our old anglo saxon father types, like the ones who tried to climb mount everest with leather and wool technology and not much else, either made it or got close, some died, but always considered it "ungentlemanly" to plan. A stiff upper lip and some gentlemanly standards, a deluded wasp arrogance and which way to Everest ol'chap? We've got to get back by spring for the running of the shire stable in Wellington, the Stewarts are expecting us. Thats Alex, an aristocrat of the green felt. Just go to whatever neighboring town rumored to have the best player there, no second thoughts, no scouting report, just a way to get there and enough money in his pocket to make a game of it where someone that night is either winning or losing and it wont be cheap either. Thats what Alex did. In the Philippines, they call it fighting. Ernesto dominguez after i came back from the phillipines told me, him and his son oscar took shane Van boning there a while back. Then a long pause. Then he said shane didnt win....and neither did we. Some how, I think a guy like alex would come back ahead. He doesn't really know much else other than getting the job done eventually no matter what.
Alex is a legend and all things being equal, forget about drunk and high factors etc etc and just ability and averages, steve davis is a better player than Alex in the long run, yes or no? I assume its Davis, but I don't really have a good idea other than it seems obvious. Ok, so how about Thornburg? Better than Alex in the long run? Seems to me that alex would have a tough time in the long run with maybe the top ten in his day, like if lets say they play a race to best out of 1000. I think its a interesting question, because it would help prove that building a ultra sophisticated more radical style can get you a world title because you have developed enough firepower, but not consistent. But at that right point of time etc etc, you hit on all cylinders and get it done.. I would say Alex would not beat the top players in a long run proposition, because even when he did win a world title, each time it involved heroics. I don't know, maybe a best of match to 1000 would be right up his alley. If someone has a opinion, lets here it. I seem to forget one of my own golden rules....never doubt a world champion.
@@londonlady1966 ELLO' LOVE, noice day for 'uh love....glove the love. GLAMOROUS DOVE. HANNND'SUM. GORRRR'JUSSSS. Birds coo'dunt geh' enuff. Used tuh av a great BOD'Ay....GRATE phys'IQUE. SHE AW'ROIGHT? NO? Out ov awl thuh birds yuh cuh'ov had you had to pick her.....dirty DEEDEE. SHES AY STAIN ON YOR LOIF SHEEES disGUSTING.
Steve Davis always salts this era off now. It was a lot better than he gave it credit for and he got beat by plenty of them. I used to like Davis but his attitude to the old days has really put me off him. He has become a BBC shill trying to convince the viewer they are watching the best snooker ever. They aren’t. In the UK the game is in its knees.
