Let Me Tell You About Alex by John Virgo

Author:John Virgo
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781843584407
Publisher: John Blake Publishing
Published: 2011-04-03T21:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

ALEX AND …

For all the fuss that rightly surrounded Alex’s 1982 World Championship victory, and for all the entertainment he brought to the game, the fact remains that his two World Championship wins do not compare well with the records of other top players. Steve Davis and Ray Reardon both won it six times. Stephen Hendry has won it seven times. Why Alex didn’t do better than he did in his career also brings into focus why Jimmy White, for instance, never won the World Championship. I remember April 1979, when Jimmy first won the English Amateur. He was only 16 and I had first seen him play two years earlier. The thing I noticed first was his natural way of playing and his tremendous temperament. If he was 60 points behind and there were 61 left, you could bet your life he would clear up, such was his poise under pressure. Couple that with his amazing cue power and cue-ball control and it became quickly obvious that here was a young man who would go right to the top.

In Jimmy’s case there were a few obvious, specific reasons. Missing a crucial black against Stephen Hendry was one of them. But the main reason is that 17 days is a long time for a tournament. Alex had played snooker for two solid weeks. As I said, he was on the whisky and milk. He had this roller-coaster experience of highs full of adrenalin followed by the comedown. Then he would need to get up again for the next match. Reardon, for instance, would not have approached a tournament in that style if you paid him to. He was sauntering through the other half of the draw in Middlesbrough and arrived for the final fresh. Alex arrived absolutely exhausted. When Jimmy White made his maximum break at the Crucible, I was commentating on that match. I went down to Jimmy’s dressing room afterwards and his manager told me that Jimmy had already returned to his hotel. I phoned the hotel and they would not put me through. ‘No calls for Mr White,’ the receptionist told me. I explained who I was but they said it didn’t matter who I was. They had been told not to put any calls through to Jimmy and that was the end of the matter.

So I went back to the hotel, went straight to my room and ordered a bit of room service. I was settling in for a quiet night alone. Then at around 11 pm the phone rang. It was Jimmy. He said, ‘I can’t sleep. I’ve just won £147,000. Do you want to go out for a drink?’ I said, ‘Go on, then.’ It was understandable he couldn’t sleep: he was on a natural high after an incredible achievement. I couldn’t have slept in his shoes, either. So we met up and went to a nightclub we were familiar with. We sat and had a drink and that was that. We didn’t overdo it and we weren’t out late.

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