Opinion: Why Jimmy White is right to demand professionalism from chuckling snooker referees

There are several timeless yarns about Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins and his endless confrontations with officialdom from the sporting vaults which, like his old mucker Jimmy White potting balls for fun on the snooker table, tend to get better with age. One, in particular, remains pure genius amid the hell-raising Hurricane's legendary Guinness guzzling of yesteryear. Ad Ireland's evergreen 1997 world champion Ken Doherty faced Higgins in what turned out to be the Hurricane's final match at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield in 1994, the scene of his totemic second world triumph in 1982 and that swashbuckling do-or-die run of 69 against White in an epic 16-15 semi-final win.

Northern Ireland OpenNorthern Ireland Open LIVE – O'Sullivan in action before Robertson2 HOURS AGO The no-nonsense figure of John Williams – the retired Welshman who officiated a record 11 world finals, including the celebrated 1985 black-ball drama between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor – was overseeing the match. He was in no mood to accept a lack of decorum from the Northern Irish sporting icon at snooker's ultimate event. «I played the late, great Alex Higgins, who was my hero, who inspired me to take up snooker and play at the World Championship,» said Doherty, recalling his 10-6 win in the first round.

«He was a little bit inebriated, as you might say. As the match wore on, he got very jittery and argumentative with the referee John Williams. At one stage, he told John Williams to stand on his left-hand side.

»Williams said: 'No Alex, I've been standing here all day. I'm not in your line of sight'. And Higgins replied: «You're not in my line of sight, John, you're in my line of thought'.