Snooker: Grace but no genius in Higgins' comeback

Former world champion returns to professional game after absence of five and a half years but 'Hurricane' looks all blown out

At precisely 2.32pm yesterday, a thin 53-year-old man, smartly dressed in a red shirt, red bow tie and black waistcoat, stepped out from behind the giant curtain at the Millennium Forum theatre here. He walked slowly across the stage of the modern, spacious 809-seat arena, raised a hand in acknowledgement to the light applause of the 56 people present, and said, very quietly: "We're here at last, eh?" After five and a half years – and one last-minute hiccup, not of his making – Alex Higgins was about to make his professional snooker comeback.

The tournament was the Irish Open championship, an event being revived after a nine-year hiatus. Higgins had been a winner on several occasions in the days when it meant something. This year it was supposed to pit the highest-ranked Irish players against the best amateurs from north and south of the border. The publicity posters feature the world No 5, Ken Doherty, but he decided not to enter after a disagreement with the promoter. That left Joe Swail, the world No 16, as the highest-ranked player. Six other ranked players plus Higgins – appropriately the wild card – thus went into the draw against eight amateur qualifiers.

One of the latter was a 16-year-old, Darren Dornan, playing the first major tournament of his life. He ended Higgins's comeback in less than three hours. The score in the best-of-nine match was 5-1 to the youngster. It was not flattering to either player.

The good news, as far as Higgins was concerned, was that he played at all. At various times in his turbulent life, he has been hailed as a hero, a genius and the single most influential figure in the popularisation of his game. On the way to his two world snooker titles, in 1972 and 1982, he battled against the establishment, against his enemies and against most of his friends. Since then his battles have become rather more serious; with alcohol; with cancer of the throat, from which he is in remission; with more personal demons than you could shake a cue at. And with a dubious public perception of him.

To say that he has a reputation for being unreliable would be an understatement. Twice last year he was due to make comebacks and failed to show up. As one senior observer of the Irish snooker scene said before yesterday's match: "We've lived with Alex Higgins like we've lived with the Troubles. They've always been there and you have no idea what's going to happen next."

There were some positives yesterday. One was the touch of grace about Higgins's entrance and more than a touch about the way he took the time and trouble to make sure Dornan had his big moment captured by the assembled photographers. During the match there were no tantrums, no violent outbursts, and no swearing.

The bad news was that there was no spark to Higgins's game. There was no hint of the genius that propelled him from being a precocious Belfast teenager to being a double world champion. He missed shots, failed to build a break of note and became increasingly annoyed with the presence of the media. At one point he approached a photographer near the front of the arena and said, with an edge of menace: "If you do that once more ..."

In the middle of the fourth frame, he wandered over to someone he assumed to be a journalist and asked: "Which one's The Independent?" A post-match interview had been requested and he clearly wanted to see who had asked for it. At the end of the frame he left the stage and climbed the stairs. Crouching behind a seat, he said: "I've heard you want to talk to me. How much are you paying?" On being informed that there was no money on offer, he walked away. "I can't afford to talk for nothing these days." On returning after the interval, he lost the next two frames and departed without giving any post-match interviews.

The day had not had the best of starts, either. Play had been due to begin at 2pm but at 2.15pm there were no signs of movement. The Tannoy then cranked into life. "Ladies and gentlemen, we apologise for the delay," said the announcer. "This is because the referees have got stuck in traffic."

The crowd – if 56 people, many of them friends and relatives of the players can be called a crowd – waited. Eventually two spectators with experience of officiating were called into action. So to 2.32pm and Higgins's entrance.

He walked over to the empty table where he would sit between frames. He said: "Surely my Guinness could've come by now?" It arrived within seconds, the first of three pints he would drink at the table.

He was in a good mood before play started. "The referee they got off the street said to me 'No fighting and no head-butting'," he told the audience. By the end of the first frame, which he lost, he was in a less jovial mood. The stand-in referee, he said, could not count. Would it be possible to get someone else to do the scoring? The press officer for the tournament stepped in. The second frame went the same way as the first. In the third, the bow tie came off, Higgins seemed to relax slightly and he clawed back to 2-1.

After losing the fourth frame the interval, longer than scheduled, followed and the last two frames took less than 50 minutes. Higgins's first appearance in a tournament since a qualifier in Plymouth in August 1997 was over.

There were few complaints about the afternoon's action, although there was obviously a sense of anticlimax. "It was a bit disappointing. He had his chances," said Wayne Lomas, a 34-year-old debt collector from Manchester who had travelled here via Liverpool and Belfast by car, plane and coach especially to see Higgins play.

"I first got into snooker watching Alex Higgins play. Since his decline I haven't watched as much. But I used to travel up and down the country to watch him play. He was a genius, unbelievable." Lomas added, however, that even Higgins's brief appearance was something worth seeing.

"I'm proud of the fact that he's come back. I think it takes a lot of courage and guts to do what he's doing."

What happens next for Higgins is uncertain. He has been involved in some recent exhibition matches against the likes of Jimmy White and the reigning world champion, Peter Ebdon, and more are likely to follow. He also plans to play on the seniors tour in the near future. And no doubt he will continue to play for money in bars and pubs as he always has done.

But a return to the main tour is an unlikely if not unattainable ambition. All the qualifying events for the rest of this season's major events have been and gone. Higgins was supposed to play in some of them but did not. Which means his next shot at a return to the big time will have to wait at least eight months. On yesterday's evidence, do not expect it to happen.