Snooker Players - Where are they Now?
We all know where Jimmy White is, and if you are following snooker you can probably track Steve Davis too. But where are Alex Higgins, Kirk Stevens and Ray Reardon? Where do the snooker stars go after the cue ball has stopped motionless on the table?
Some of the names that ruled the snooker table at the time snooker ruled the world continued their dominance, struggling with the younger, more focused and highly achieving next generation of snooker while getting used to the smoking and boozing ban during official matches. Others, however, have grown apart from the snooker game and disappeared from the spotlight.
Kirk Stevens, for example. Throughout the first half of 1980s, he was a rising star in the pro snooker circuit. With his all white suite, white shoes, flaunting blond hair and inherent talent for snooker, the Canadian player was the poster boy of snooker. After semi-finalizing the World Snooker Championship for the second time at the age of 25, Stevens drop to the oblivion of snooker hasbeens has begun. Confession of cocaine addiction, accusations of substance abuse during the 1985 Dulux British Open final were the immediate catalysts for Stevens early retirement from snooker at the beginning of the next decade.
Where is he now?
Kirk Stevens returned home to Canada in the beginning of the 1990s. He worked as a car salesman for a few years and then returned to play snooker in local amateur league and won in several Canadian Snooker Championships, most recently in 2002.
Ray Reardon and Alex Higgins were huge snooker stars in the era that preceded snooker’s boom. Reardon won 6 World Snooker Championship titles throughout the 1970s. He remained ranked at number 1 at 50 and continued taking part in ranking tournaments. But not for long, in 1992, aged 60, Reardon has retired, leaving the scene to the younger generation of snooker, headed by Steve Davis and his likes.
Ray Reardon’s name has recently come up connected with Ronnie O’sullivan. Reardon serves as a mentor, advisor and supplemental father figure for the troublesome yet gifted young snooker champion.
Alex Higgins has probably the most puzzling disappearance story in snooker. Apparently, his outstanding achievements in the game (which includes winning two World Championships, one of them on his first trial) and undeniable skill were unparallel to his self distractive urge. Nicknamed "Hurricane", Higgins was involved in numberless controversies and violent incidences (which included head butting a tournament official and threatening to kill snooker opponent) that topped his excessive smoking and drinking (and womanizing and gambling). Currently, struggling with throat cancer, Alex Higgins stays out of the public eye.