Fast and Aggressive Snooker in the 80s | Alex Higgins vs Steve Davis | 1985 Masters L16 

i didn;t know that......dammnn

He was a horrible vile man

Everyone plays better after a few drinks. It's like driving a car. And I bet plenty of players have a drink, before the game, and during breaks. All that's changed is they're not allowed to do it in public. Ronnie smokes weed during breaks in sessions😂

@@maipantoon7823 😆

It does make you wonder how well Alex could have played if he was teetotal?

Check out Alex clearance he did it's probably the best in Snooker history he had to clear the table to win one shot if he missed he probably loses the blue shot he did is just mind bogging in that clearance if you notice this match is on older tables the nap of the cloth was double the size as to the new cloth today witch means you only have to hit it half as hard for the same juice is why you see alot new players get so much juice I wish I could see Alex on these new cloths he would love them a ball about a foot away from the corner poket the cue ball was down pass bulk line I believe he put back spin on the ball after he attempted to pot the ball in the corner he acculy drew that cue ball back to the rail it's unbelievable the talent this man had cuz that was on the old cloth and that shot is very very difficult gl tc

He was a maverick to say the least. Joy to watch

With Higgins talent he should have worked harder on his game to have enabled him to beat Davis most or all the time.Fact is he usually just didn't have the game to do this.Davis beat him almost every time.Sorry but at his best Higgins was mesmerising but this was rare.

Higgins would not have been able to play that way in today's game. He had very little if no safety game which doesn't get you anywhere with today's air hockey tables and break building skill. One mistake and you lose the frame.

That really was amazing.

Steve Davis made it what it is, Alex was sadly always an obnoxious sore loser with the mentality of an 8 year old

So true. They were great days. remember indoor league on sundays?

Players in those days were characters you could identify with - not automatons like 90% of modern players.

he did good and won 2 world titles. the real tragedy was jimmy

Sanga Ye!!!

Yes. I agree. Steve Davis so talented. Alex playing laughingly poor here.

Watch Ronnie O'Sullivan playing as a 14 year old. I've no doubt he'd had some coaching by then but you can't teach what he had at that age.

haha, give it a rest!

to woke now

Have a look at pictures of Alex in his last years. He was only 61 when he died and looked like 91. That is what happens when you don't give a fuck, particularly about smoking. His 80 a day habit left his mouth, throat and teeth absolutely wrecked.

I will post a new video soon :)

Trump?

There are quite a few "entertainers" in today's snooker (Trump, Brecel and Ronnie are a pleasure to watch on their good days), but a truly reckless player will probably never reach the top (8) ranks again. You simply can't afford that against a Selby or a Higgins, because they will punish you just like Steve did in the two frames lost by Higgins. That's why even Trump only plays his "naughty snooker" when the frame's already won.

We have Ronnie

@@Billy.Nomates we sure do but I meant coming up after him and Judd etc

@JohnJaySnookerShorts500 got you..to be honest,when Ronnie retires,I'll find it harder to watch

Probably fake too, don't think real ones could have coped with all the fag smoke.

Love the flowers. But not as much as I used to love the big globes they decorated the arena with at the Embassy World Championships. These online gambling companies now have no class at all - just tacky and homogenous with their brand logos plastered across every inch of the arena.

correct. that point isn't made often enough. alex had a mesmeric quality that o''sullivan has never had, largely because his personality was more interesting. o'sullivan was and is a bit of a bore

@@paulhiggins1577 very well said and so true big-time ,couldn't of put it better freind and some of ,the great celebrations with Alex and fans were so intense it was like ,a football crowd celebrating ,a big goal but it was just us with the hurricane.

@@paulhiggins1577 Why do you think Ronnie O'sullivan Say's Alex Higgins was the Best, That's why he picked up a cue in the first place Mate, Alex doesn't get enough Credit though does he to be fair.

I think it's a good action too. Many people comment on the body movement he has but the way he actually delivers the cue is an excellent example of long straight follow through and excellent timing.

Yes, he obviously had a very good eye and was a naturally gifted snooker player.

It was crazy though,compared to the other players conventional techniques. All other professionals say they were surprised how good he was playing like he did

drunken master without any disrespect to the best snooker player ever.Did you ever play pool when you start to get a feeling and you feel invicible.He was the best at it sadly it had repercussions.

​@@Billy.Nomateshe only moved after hed hit the ball. Aslong as you line up properly and hit the cue ball at the intended spot you will make the pot.

It’s a twitch because there’s no pause

Higgins beat Davis again in the Irish Masters a few weeks after this match 6-2 but overall Davis gave Higgins some heavy beatings. 25-5 in career matches to Davis. After the 6-2 Irish Masters defeat they played 12 more matches with Davis winning 11 in a row before the last was a 4-4 draw. This match was played on Wed 30th January at 7.30pm. I was at Wembley for the afternoon match between Big Bill and Griffiths. I saw Higgins inside the venue at the interval and asked him politely if he'd sign my programme. There was no crowd of people around him, I was the only person who asked him. He said "later, later" and walked off. Davis was a far better player and was also very approachable, he had time for everyone.

@@digeme69 They were completely different personalities. If Davis had all the problems Alex did, I doubt he would've been so approachable.

​@sharpvidtube Alex's problems were mostly self-inflicted though, so he had nobody to blame but himself.

@@castleanthrax1833 Spot on!

Alex got cancer & it ended any hopes of a serious come back he may have had.

Geet was billiards?

@@johndean8295 Geet was primarily a billiards player, but he did play snooker too. Yasin Merchant, Sonic Multani were the better snooker players those days.

What about ohbi agrawal who sadly passed away ?

@@johndean8295 Om Agarwal...fantastic player.

Not heard of these players before

Tell Everyone he's wrong.

was wondering the same. Would be great if any expert can explain his technique.

He died in 2010 he was still fit and playing mosconi cup.pool through the late 90's so couldve went to oasis concerts no problem for 10 years if he wanted

@@thomas-fq1wi -- Just the quote made it sound like he died and years later started going to concerts.

It wasn't that Alex couldn't play great position at all. He could and had incredible cue ball control. He often ran out of position for various reasons.one was that in taking on certain shots, getting initial position on the first colour was often very tricky and once already not quite right it can be very difficult to recover position, sometimes he did sometimes as in the famous 82 semi final break he had to keep pulling out ridiculous pots, making the pot and having to rely on a bit of luck on pace on very slow cloths etc. Another factor was his preference for almost perversely attempting to get position using deep screw or and loads of side when there were easier options. This was at times baffling, particularly given the context of the match. Psychologically Alex just seemed unable to do the boring but necessary thing. Adrenaline was a factor that also affected his position at times. I saw Alex play close up , not on TV(Alex suffered terrible nerves and would often throw up before going out in front of the cameras) and his cue ball control was exceptional. If people think he was good, watching him on TV, then I can assure you that in his prime when not in front of the cameras he was something else. I've never seen anyone play snooker(even the great Ronnie O'Sullivan) at that level. I once saw him make total clearances in consecutive frames(146+142 I think) in which he played at least 4 or 5 shots that I've never seen anyone even attempt. Sometimes you would see him play on TV and think he was not the same guy or not even trying.

They did seem to play with more freedom than you see in today's snooker and the pockets look more generous.

The cloths were thicker, the slates weren't as well heated and the balls were made of different material and heavier, called "Crystalate" snooker balls.

I remember he had to hop for a while after that, then a few months later, he beat Stephen Hendry 9-8 in the 1989 Irish Masters.

Was he drunk?

I think that that quote is wrong in wikipedia. The ankle doesn’t contain 30 bones at all. The entire foot does, but you’d have to break every single bone in it, and that seems rather unlikely. I think someone added a zero in that quote, because breaking 3 bones in the ankle is perfectly reasonable. (I am aware that I used the terms “perfectly reasonable” in the context of a man like Alex Higgins, so I’m not 100% sure.)

@@castleanthrax1833 Was he ever sober?

Only Alex Higgins could break more bones than there are in the human ankle.

Luck?

If Higgins had been born with the temperament of Davis, Hendry or Reardon he would have won 10 world titles.

I think it's shown in the Description. It's called "Searching For Time" from Telecasted, available on the YT audio library.

Steve didn't have charisma lol

The contrast makes for exciting matches though (c.f. Borg-McEnroe).

A young Alex Higgins was brilliant and well above all but the best of today's players. He was legend.