White pays tribute to 'Hurricane' Higgins

Jimmy White has paid tribute to Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins, the snooker legend who died of throat cancer at the age of 61 earlier this month.

The I'm A Celebrity star was one of many men who carried the coffin of two-times World Champion Higgins to his funeral at St Anne's Cathedral in Belfast today, the Belfast Telegraph reports.

In statement read by Dean Houston McKelvey, White said: "I loved him. It angers me that he never listened to anyone, close friends or family but that was Alex - he was an individual, his own man. He was the 'Hurricane'. I will miss him to the end.

"When I was 12 I knew I was going to play snooker for the rest of my life. When I was 13 I saw Alex Higgins on Pot Black. He was mind-blowing, he did things I'd never seen before."

He added: "I used to copy him doing the flare shots and Tony Meo used to impersonate him. Then we met him and became very close.

"I loved him. I often had big rows with him and I didn't speak to him for months, but he always knew I had a soft spot for him."

White and Higgins won the third of the briefly-contested World Doubles Championship together in 1985.