JOHN HIGGINS, the four-time world champion, has spoken of his regret at the lack of big tournaments in Scotland and says it was attending such events as a child that inspired him to become a professional.
Despite producing world champions such as Higgins, Stephen Hendry and Graeme Dott, Scotland no longer hosts a ranking tournament. The sport has made inroads into Europe and the Far East, with the World Championship and the Masters providing the season’s focal points in Britain.
“We’re finding it difficult here in Scotland just now because we don’t have any big professional events any more,” said Higgins.
“I can always remember the top players coming to Glasgow when I was about nine or 10 and my dad taking me and my brother into watch people like Alex Higgins and Jimmy White play. That was the main inspiration that got me to play snooker.
“It’s a shame we don’t have any big tournaments any more.”
Higgins returns to action tomorrow in the inaugural Alex Higgins International Trophy PTC event at the Killarney Covention Centre with a €50,000 top prize. Amateur players can compete in the early stages, with the chance of winning a shot at some of the game’s biggest names.
“There could be many good young kids coming to Killarney to watch the likes of Stephen Hendry, Ronnie O’Sullivan or Ken Doherty,” added Higgins.
“It’s always a great time whenever I come to Ireland, the fans are always first class to welcome all the players.
“[World Snooker chairman] Barry Hearn has made the game more accessible to a lot of players, there’s some great times ahead for snooker.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article