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Higgins' body was discovered after concerned friends broke into his Belfast flat on Saturday having failed to contact him by phone. It is not known how long he had been dead inside the apartment.

The 61-year-old had been battling throat cancer for more than a decade. He also suffered from long-standing problems with alcohol and smoking.

Fellow snooker star Jimmy White says Alex Higgins died from a lack of nourishment after he refused to eat properly.

He told the Daily Mirror on Monday: "In the end it wasn't cancer that killed him, the cancer had gone, he died from lack of nourishment, how sickening is that?"

Known for his fiery temperament and audacious skill with a cue, the Northern Irishman was credited with revolutionising the popularity of the sport.

"To people in the game he was a constant source of argument, he was a rebel. But to the wider public he was a breath of fresh air that drew them in to the game," said former world champion and rival Steve Davis.

"He was an inspiration to my generation to take the game up. I do not think his contribution to snooker can be underestimated."

Davis continued: "To many people in the 1980s, he was the only player they came to watch.

"No one player has ever been bigger than the game. But he brought a genius quality that possibly hadn't been seen before."

A drinking pal of Hurricane Higgins clasped a hand written note from the snooker ace as he toasted his friend and hero.

Scribbled on the back of a crumpled betting docket, it was a list of shopping the ailing star had asked Noel Cairns he get for him only days before he died.

"Close to the end he couldn't speak, he had to write everything down," said his childhood friend, tears welling in his eyes.

"He signed the note 'Your pal Alex'. This will always be very special to me now."

Noel joined other locals inside the Royal Bar to raise a glass by the empty seat where Higgins spent so many nights.

The pub is in the heart of the Sandy Row area of Belfast where the mercurial legend of the game grew up and stands opposite the sheltered housing block where he was found dead.

Those inside knew the controversial Higgins through the good times and the bad.

"He will be remembered as the greatest snooker player that ever lived," said 65-year-old Noel, who used to play snooker with him in the old Jampot club off the Donegall Road before he hit the big time.

"He was a great friend of mine, a great friend."

Snooker's 'George Best'

Ravaged by cancer and faded to around seven stone, Higgins still signed autographs for young and old as he drank in the Royal on the traditional 'Twelfth of July' holiday less than two weeks ago.

Darren Betty, another local, said the troubled champ deserved to go down as an all time sporting great.

"He was George Best with a snooker cue," he said.

"I remember the only time I was allowed to stay up late as a child was to see Alex win the world championship in 1982 - I will always remember that night."

Higgins grew up half a mile down the Donegall Road on Abingdon Drive. A mural of the two-time world champion in his flamboyant pomp now adorns a gable wall at the top of the quiet street.

His solitarity death brought to a humble end the life of a former champion considered to be one of the finest snooker players of all time.

"I don't think you'll ever, ever see another player in the game of snooker like the great Alex Higgins," said former world snooker champion and commentator Dennis Taylor.

"He was a very, very exciting player to watch. He just was totally unique."

He added: "He battled right to the end, did Alex, and that's what he did throughout his whole snooker career."

Born in Belfast, Higgins discovered the game that was to dominate his life when he stumbled across a snooker hall while taking a short-cut home at the age of 11, and became a teenage "pool-shark", hustling money from older and less talented players.

He claimed the world champion's crown at the first attempt, aged 22, and took it back again ten years later from Ray Reardon at the Crucible in Sheffield.

The scenes of him then, weeping in triumph, one arm round wife Lynn and the other cradling his baby daughter, are among the most famous and moving images in snooker history.

But what many feel was his finest hour came the following year at Preston Guildhall, when he came back from 7-0 down against the seemingly unbeatable Steve Davis to win the 1983 United Kingdom championship final 16-15.

Fall from grace

His fall from grace began in the same hall three years later, when he head-butted an official and was fined £12,000 and banned for the next five major tournaments.

He raised his game one more time, to outplay up-and-coming Stephen Hendry and win the Irish Benson & Hedges Masters in 1989, hobbling round the table with his leg in plaster due to a broken ankle suffered when he fell from a first-floor window.

The following year, he was in trouble again, and was banned for 12 months after thumping an official and telling Northern Ireland team-mate Dennis Taylor that he would have him shot.

But despite his numerous fights and rows with referees, he continued to play the game regularly and appeared at the Irish Professional Championship in 2005 and 2006.

Though Higgins' descent from stardom saw him suffer the indignity of being pitched against unknowns in back-street halls in the pre-qualifying rounds for ranking tournaments, instead of playing in the finals by right, he never lost his passion for the game.

"I think I was the most natural, charismatic player who ever lifted a cue," he said in a recent newspaper interview.

"I think my presence around the table was mesmerising at times. It captured people. I'm not telling you this to bolster my own ego. It's what people tell me.

"People stop me in the street every day and say 'when you coming back, Alex - when you going to show these so-and-sos who claim to be snooker players how to play the game?'"

Higgins inspired a generation of players to take up the game, with his influence seen in the style of later crowd favourites such as Jimmy White and Ronnie O'Sullivan.

In a statement on his website, the three-time world champion O'Sullivan said: "Alex was one of the real inspirations behind me getting into snooker. He is a true legend and should be forever remembered as being the finest-ever snooker player."

John Higgins echoed O'Sullivan in citing the 'Hurricane' as an inspiration.

In a statement, he said: "As a youngster it was the magical play of players like Hurricane Higgins that inspired me and many of my generation to fall in love with snooker.

"During one tournament I remember my father and Hurricane sitting in our hotel talking about snooker into the early hours. The next morning the concierge knocked on my door with a present from Hurricane; it was a beautiful blue snooker suit made by a top Irish tailor. It was a lovely gesture that meant so much to me and my dad."

'People's champion'

Snooker promoter Barry Hearn said Higgins would be remembered as the "original people's champion" and deeply missed.

"I have known him for nearly 40 years. He was the major reason for snooker's popularity in the early days," he said.

"He was controversial at times, but he always played the game in the right spirit."

Sean Boru, who ghosted Higgins' autobiography, said his death was an "inevitability" to those who knew him, but still came as a shock.

"The problem with Alex was that he knew he was a great talent but he didn't quite know how to work it," he said.

"Alex was a frustrated genius. He had so much talent but he had very little outreach for it. He believed in himself a lot, but he also doubted himself a lot as well."

In the last months of his life, Higgins had desperately tried to raise the £20,000 that he needed for teeth implants.

In March, he spent six days in Belfast City hospital suffering from pneumonia but signed himself out to play against his fellow former world champion, Cliff Thorburn, in the Snooker Legends Tour in Sheffield.

The money already raised for Higgins' medical treatment prior to his death will now go towards his funeral, his friend and former personal assistant Will Robinson has confirmed.

He said the remaining money from an auction and Manchester fundraising dinner will be used to give the snooker star a "great send-off".

Funeral details have not yet been finalised as the family has agreed to wait until Jimmy White can return from Thailand.

Mr Robinson, who worked as Higgins' PA for five years from the age of 18, described him as one of the greatest sportsmen ever.

"A genius. There's two things that made snooker what it is today," he said.

"One is colour television and the second thing is Alex Higgins."

© Press Association