![]() ![]() A fisherman in Campbell River, British Columbia, once threatened Thorburn after getting sorely beat. ![]() Tensions can flare when money is involved, even in a game steeped in its own etiquette. Tournaments didn't offer much prize money, so players gambled, traveling from city to city looking for matches in order to earn their next meal. But unlike the UK, which had long-established pro and amateur circuits, Canada didn't have the same level of infrastructure for organized play. Up until 30 years ago, these tables dominated pool halls across Canada. Snooker, the odd, brutally challenging British cousin of American pool that we're all familiar with, uses a 6-by-12-foot velvety green monster of a table with narrow and rounded pockets (in comparison, your average bar size pool table is 3.25-by-6.5-feet). Though pool halls are a mainstay in most cities and towns, it's hard to come by people playing snooker in Canada these days. Snooker had once reigned supreme in the UK, with a peak of 18.5 million people watching the 1985 World Championship finals. Assaults on officials, beer drinking competitions, and cocaine between matches were all part of the excitement surrounding the game at a time when there were only four channels on TV. But its peak in the 1980s has been described as a soap opera with billiard balls, chock-full of partiers, gamblers and characters who brought life to the arcane cue sport. Many consider snooker a slow, plodding game. Every time I beat him, there was always an argument." "Alex was one of a kind," Thorburn, now 70 and reticent of his feelings toward Higgins, told VICE Sports. Seemingly cooled off, Thorburn and Higgins were about to shake hands when Thorburn pulled Higgins in and kicked him in the groin. Immediately, the two were restrained as people begged for them to settle down. Thorburn, sick of his guff, punched Higgins square in the jaw and knocked him off his feet. ![]()
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