Snooker body fines Higgins $33,000

Press, 8 April 1987, Page 41

Snooker body fines Higgins $33,000

NZPA-Reuter London Alex “Hurricane” Higgins, the volatile Irish snooker star, was fined a record £12,000 ($33,800) yesterday and banned from competing in five tournaments after a disciplinary tribunal hearing. The penalties resulted from a series of charges against Higgins — including one that he used his head to strike the tournament director during the British Open in Preston last November — and were imposed by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association after its hearing

conducted by an independent arbitrator. The fine against the former world champion, aged 38, is the biggest handed out by snooker’s ruling body, but Higgins remains eligible for the final stages of this year’s world championship, to start in Sheffield, England, later this month. The association's secretary, Mr Martyn Blake, said that the arbitrator, Mr Gavin Lightman, had taken into account the seriousness of the three offences Higgins was charged with.

The butting offence was one to which Higgins had earlier pleaded guilty in a Preston court He was subsequently fined $705. The other offences Higgins had been reported for involved newspaper criticisms Of the Canadian player. Cliff Thorburn, and physical and verbal assaults on three snooker referees. Higgins appeared on television half an hour after the penalties were announced and said: ’T”ve decided to accept the punishment and come back fighting.”