SNOOKER: Alex Higgins will play his first professional match for five years on October 23rd, just after publication of a compelling, unauthorised biography and before a one-man play with songs, based on his turbulent life, is staged at the Millennium Point Theatre, Derry.

Higgins has entered the Benson and Hedges Championship at the Towers Club, Mansfield. The winner will qualify for the Masters at Wembley in February, an event the 53-year-old has twice won.

His last tournament appearance was in Plymouth in August 1997. He was escorted from the venue by police and discovered at 4.0 a.m. sprawled outside a nightclub, victim of an assault with an iron bar. Discharging himself from hospital, he pitched up at the house of Holly Hayse, a girlfriend who was allowing him to live in a caravan in her garden.

The last of a series of incidents ended with Hayse - as she confirmed - stabbing him several times with a knife. "I still love him deeply. I want to marry him and put his life back on the rails," she said on being acquitted, after Higgins declined to give evidence.

But this was not a task which lay within either her or anyone else's capacities, as Bill Borrows, in The Hurricane (Atlantic Books, published on October 10th) demonstrates. Higgins repeatedly wore out his welcome, treating strangers like lackeys and friends like slaves.

He has had two brushes with cancer - of the throat and of the palate - and three years ago was lining up a Dublin law firm in a mass action suit against tobacco companies, including the sponsors of his comeback tournament.

Now, looking better than when his waist was a mere 26 inches, he is again flirting characteristically with self-destruction in his resumption of his drinking and smoking habits.

He has often been seen since hustling pool or snooker for £10 a game in Ireland and Manchester, and was seen in the Red Lion, Gatley, topping up his glass with leftover beer.

One regular told a familiar story: "Everyone round here has tried to help Alex at some point and you just get it all thrown back in your face. We've all felt sorry for him, bought him beers, given him a few bob, even given him somewhere to get his head down. But he always ends up abusing your good deeds and we've all given up on him."

He blames the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association for his troubles.

His solicitor also filed 17 complaints against the WPBSA which the governing body has declined to deal with, but a backlog of complaints against him from referees appears to have been written off.

The 10 a.m. session at Mansfield (admission £3) will be well attended. The opponent is Lee Spick, 22.

"I'm not really looking forward to it," said Spick. "He used to be a great player and someone I really respected but I don't think it will be a nice atmosphere - if he turns up at all."

Those who remember him at his peak may hope he does not, preferring to replay memories - and videotapes - of Higgins at his best.