Well, of course, Steve Davis and Jimmy White were at the Ladbrokes' sponsored Sky TV poker tournament, which Jimmy White won. Steve's an affable bloke. I'd seen Jimmy White once before (neither time looking particularly healthy), at Catford Dogs, the night before he was due to play a morning session at Wembley.
Although Higgins was thrilling to watch, I suspect that he might not have been fun "company".
As you say, Higgins wasn't helped by the times, but he hardly sprang from nowhere. He'd been working the snooker halls for a good few years. He embraced TV and benefited enormously from it because he was a "character". I think that his problem was that, like many not-too-bright celebrities in sport, he came to believe his own myth.
George Best too was "destroyed" by the media, but he, like Higgins, welcomed the upside while it was there.
I suppose things have "improved" in that those who might have been killed by media attention are now multi-millionaires whose old age will not be blighted by poverty )for example, Wayne Rooney). Will our successors have less affection for Rooney in 50 years time as a result? Probably.
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Re: Alex
Date: 2010-07-25 06:45 pm (UTC)Although Higgins was thrilling to watch, I suspect that he might not have been fun "company".
As you say, Higgins wasn't helped by the times, but he hardly sprang from nowhere. He'd been working the snooker halls for a good few years. He embraced TV and benefited enormously from it because he was a "character". I think that his problem was that, like many not-too-bright celebrities in sport, he came to believe his own myth.
George Best too was "destroyed" by the media, but he, like Higgins, welcomed the upside while it was there.
I suppose things have "improved" in that those who might have been killed by media attention are now multi-millionaires whose old age will not be blighted by poverty )for example, Wayne Rooney). Will our successors have less affection for Rooney in 50 years time as a result? Probably.
PJ