John Higgins reveals his cue was destroyed by freak incident - 'I've never seen anything like it'
Wizard of Wishaw John Higgins has revealed that his cue was ruined by a freak storm.
The snooker hero, who is preparing to face old rival Ronnie O'Sullivan at The Masters on January 12, has almost seen it all in his 30 year professional career - but was left shocked after his cue was destroyed during an intense rain shower as he travelled home from a tournament in Saudi Arabia via Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. Since 9/11, snooker pros have been forced to put their prized cues in the hold of aircraft, with Higgins suffering every player's nightmare as he discovered his had been ruined.
Speaking to Finnish broadcaster YLE, Higgins said: "I was travelling back from Saudi and I was going through Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. The rain was like nothing I'd ever seen before in my life. I was sitting having a coffee and looking out the window thinking, my God I know Scotland gets really bad rain but I'd never seen anything like that.
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"Two days later, as I was getting ready to leave the house to go to the airport again, I decided I'd get my cue case out of the ski tube. When I got it out I saw that it had been ruined. The water had seeped into the ski tube, seeped into the case and had basically seeped into the wood and it had ruined the cue."
It was the first time in Higgins' 33 year professional career that he had broken a cue, but the story has a positive ending - with Higgins revealing at the Scottish Open in Edinburgh that he had made a change to his tip size on his replacement cue, saying: "I’ve gone back to a smaller tip and that’s why I’m getting a bit more bite on the white.
"In the last few years I’ve been getting a 9.7mm or 9.8mm diameter tip. And it’s not good enough for these tables. It’s massive. It doesn’t sound much but I’m down to 9.4mm or 9.5mm. Which is pretty similar to what a lot of the tours are on. I’m really happy with it."
Looking ahead to his meeting with O'Sullivan, the 49-year-old added: "I’m looking forward to it because you don’t know many more times that you’re going to play there. I’ve not played Ronnie in a while, it should be a good occasion. I’ll try and have good occasions in this tournament first. But it’s one in the memory bank to look forward to."
