There have been numerous stupendous clearances over the years but for drama, panache and occasion, none quite match that conjured up by Alex Higgins on the verge of defeat in the semi-finals of the 1982 World Championship.

Ten years after shaking the sport’s establishment by winning the event in 1972, Higgins was the self-styled ‘People’s Champion’, an entertainer, whose level of tournament success, given his talent, was a disappointment.

By this time Steve Davis had arrived on the scene but his shock 10-1 first round defeat by Tony Knowles had thrown the championship wide open and Higgins, as flamboyant as Davis was staid, knew he could be the prime beneficiary.

Those plans looked in tatters when he trailed Jimmy White 15-14 and 59-0 in the thirtieth frame. White was within a handful of pots of reaching his first final but, in a sign of things to come, could not apply the killer blow.

Clinical it was not. Time and again Higgins surrendered position and was forced to pull off a series of pots that, had they gone astray, would surely have spelled the end.

His bodily contortions and tortured facial expressions as a ball headed towards a pocket with borderline accuracy cranked up the already stifling tension but Higgins did not crack.

He delivered a 69 clearance for 15-15 and quickly added the decider to leave White with what would become a familiar sinking feeling.

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