John Higgins, MBE (Scotland)

John Higgins burst onto the snooker scene in the 1994/95 season, becoming the first teenager to win three ranking events in one season. For this he earned an amazing £283,970. 12 times more than he earned the previous season.

In the 1997/98 season he won the 1998 Embassy World Championship. At the end of the season he received WPBSA's Player of the Year award.

The following season he captured the 1998 Liverpool Victoria UK Championship, the 1999 Benson & Hedges Masters, 1999 Charity Challenge, 1999 China International and the 1999 Premier Snooker League.

John's career record is 49 wins.

He reached the top of the rankings after winning the 1998 Embassy World Championship.

In the same tournament he also became the first to make three consecutive century breaks in a World Championship match, and the first to make 14 centuries in a professional tournament.

He became the first player to compile four consecutive century breaks in a major tournament: 103, 104, 138 and 128, in Preston, England on Sun 16th October 2005. He achieved the feat in the final of the 2005 Grand Prix, against Ronnie O'Sullivan.

With 12 maximums he is second on the all-time list. Ronnie O'Sullivan leads with 15.

In 2007 he won the 888.Com World Championship for a second time and also regained the number one spot in the rankings. He added another world trophy in 2009.

Higgins is one of only five players to win both the World Championship and the UK Championship in the same year. Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry, John Parrott and Ronnie O'Sullivan are the others.

Together with Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry he is also the only one to hold the World, UK and Masters titles at the same time.

He was a member of Scottish teams that won the 1996 Castrol-Honda World Cup and the 2001 Coalite Nations Cup.

In the 2004 British Open he made three (or four?) breaks over 140; one 141 and two 144s.

In September 2010, Higgins was cleared of match-fixing allegations made against him by UK newspaper News of the World. He admitted to bringing the game into disrepute though, by not reporting an approach to throw games. Because of this he was banned for six months, backdated to May 2010 when he was originally suspended. In addition he was fined £75,000.

In his very first competition after the suspension he won the 2010 Euro PTC 5. He also won the first major event he entered, the 2010 12BET.com UK Championship and then the 2011 Betfred.com World Championship.

John had never made a 147 until he finally got one while practicing for the 1998 Liverpool Victoria UK Championship!