Jackie Rea

Rea was born on 6 April 1921, in Dungannon, County Tyrone, and was the only child of Catherine and greyhound track manager Thomas. He began playing snooker at the age of 9 in the billiards room of the pub his father managed in Dungannon, but usually then played in boys' clubs until he was 21, as people under that age were not allowed in public bars. He left school aged 14 and became an apprentice boilermaker. When World War II started, he joined the Navy, where he was promoted to Chief petty officer and was a communications instructor. He was demobbed in 1946, and at the time had not played snooker for over five years. ==Early career (19461967)==

Rea was runner-up to Jack McNally in the 1946 Northern Ireland Amateur Championship, and defeated Jack Bates to win the title in 1947. In late 1952, Rea was declared as the Irish Professional Champion. He retained the title in a December 1956 match where he was challenged by Bates, who at the time was the Scottish champion. He didn't enter again until 1952, when he eliminated Jim Lees and Kingsley Kennerley before losing 23–38 to Fred Davis in the semi-final. then Rea won four of the six frames on the final afternoon before Pulman took five of the first six frames in the evening to win 31–29. He lost to Pulman again in 1956, separated by a loss to Fred Davis in a 1955 semi-final after defeating Harry Stokes. By 1957 interest in snooker was ebbing and there just four entries for the World Title. Rea defeated Kennerley 25–12 in the semi-final. He faced Pulman in the best-of-73 frames final, and finished the first day of the match 8–5 ahead. At the end of day two, he led 14–12 in front. Rea increased his advantage to four frames at 18–14 after the third morning session, but Pulman won five of the evening's seven frames, including the last four of the day, to move to one frame behind at 19–20. Pulman took five of the seven frames played on day four and was 24–22 up at the close. Pulman extended his lead to 32–27 on day five. On the concluding day, Pulman won five of the seven frames in the afternoon session to take a winning lead of 37–29. Rea claimed five of the seven frames in the evening session to give a final score of 39–34 to Pulman. Rea won the qualifying tournament, which included five players, for the 1952/53 News of the World Tournament. In the main event, he finished as runner up. With a variety of starts, Rea won 5 of his 8 matches with a frames tally of 173 won to 123 lost. Rea received a cheque for £300. Rea won the 1954/55 by winning all his eight matches, with a tally of 174 frames won and 122 lost. Only Joe Davis, during the 1953 event, had previously won all of their eight matches. Rea's win earnt him a cheque for £500 and allowed his share of the gate at the Leicester Square Hall venue to rise from 15% to 20%. A variation of snooker called snooker plus which had two additional , orange (8 points) and purple (10 points) was devised by Joe Davis and first played at the 1959 News of the World Snooker Plus Tournament. Rea achieved the highest ever break at snooker plus, 156. The 1968 Willie Smith Trophy was also a four-player round-robin. Rea lost two of his three matches. Due to the decline in the popularity of professional snooker making the world championship tournament unviable, it was not contested again after 1957 until a challenge system was introduced in 1964. ==Later career (1968 to retirement)==

In the 1968–69 snooker season, the World Snooker Championship was restored to being a knockout competition for the first time since 1957. Rea was one of the eight participants in the 1969 World Championship, losing 25–17 to Gary Owen in the first round. the programme which played a crucial role in popularizing the game. Rea defeated reigning world champion John Spencer in the final of the four-player 1969 Chester Professional Tournament, achieving a winning margin at 4–2 before Spencer won the . In the 1970 World Snooker Championship, Rea faced defending champion Spencer, who achieved a winning lead at 31–15, which he extended to 37–17 as the dead frames were played out. Rea responded by winning all seven of the frames of the last session, making the final score 24–37. Rea prevailed over Spencer at 4–1 in the final of the 1970 Chester Professional Tournament, before Spencer took the two dead frames. Rea retained the Irish Professional Championship title until he was defeated by Alex Higgins in January 1972, the championship not having been contested for some years. Rea held Higgins to 5–4 after the first session after losing the first four frames, but Higgins pulled away to win 28–12; the last scheduled session was not required and was played as an exhibition match. Rea entered the World Championship for most of the next 20 years, but his appearances became more sporadic from the late 1970s and he did not progress into the main event. In 1979, Rea took part in the first World Challenge Cup, joining Higgins and Dennis Taylor to make up the Northern Ireland team. Rea was only able to win one of the 13 frames he played, and team ended up in third place from six teams. Before going out to play in the 1980 World Championship, Rea declared he would engage his all-out attacking style from the 1950s. Such a tactic overcame [Bennett 9–1 in his first qualifying match, but he lost to Willie Thorne 1–9 for a place in the main draw. He defeated Joe Johnson 2–0 on his way to the quarter finals of the 1982 Bass and Golden Leisure Classic, where he lost to eventual champion Rex Williams. He was placed 48th in the 1983–84 snooker world rankings, which was the highest ranking he attained after rankings were introduced in 1976. By the late 1980s, Rea had the second-longest career of the active professionals, behind only Fred Davis. it was the special award since 1984. In September 1987 Rea defeated Pascal Burke 5–1 and Geoff Foulds 5–4 in the first two qualifying rounds of the Fidelity International Open, but was eliminated 0–5 by John Spencer in the third round. One month later Rea defeated Mike Watterson 9–6 in the first round of the UK Championship and held Bob Chaperon to 7–6 in the following round, before losing 6–9. At the end of the season, his ranking improved from 11th to 99th. After the tournament, Rea was 131st in the ranking list, which meant that he was relegated to being a "non-tournament" professional, meaning that the only ranking tournament he was eligible to enter was the World Championship. He subsequently retired as a professional. ==Influence and reputation==

Rea was the leading Irish snooker player until the emergence of Higgins. Higgins would also later move to Cheadle, close to Rea. When Higgins married Lynn Hough in January 1980, Rea was one of six people who held an arch of cues under which the couple walked as they left the Church. From the mid-1950s and through the 1960s, snooker players had to rely on exhibition bookings for their income. John Virgo has acknowledged that his snooker impressions were inspired by Rea, In 2024, Snooker Scene editor Marcus Stead recalled Rea as someone whose "sense of fun and overall likeability transferred easily from the exhibition circuit to the TV cameras. The sports statistician and author Ian Morrison felt that the main reason that Rea had not been more successful in tournaments was "his lack of dedication–he always treated the game as fun." Fred Davis, as well as recognising Rea's appeal as an entertainer, regarded Rea as "a tremendous potter, capable of winning sessions against anyone on his day." However, Davis added that he never envisaged Rea becoming world champion. In retirement he coached young players at his local club, Hazel Grove Snooker Club. After hearing of Rea's death, Steve Davis described him as "One of the game's great entertainers and a great cueist!" ==Personal life, illness and death==

Rea married Rosaleen, who died when giving birth to their son in the early 1950s. He died aged 92, on 20 October 2013, following a lengthy illness. His funeral mass was held at St Ann's Roman Catholic Church in Cheadle Hulme, on 30 October 2013 and a funeral committal took place at Stockport Crematorium. ==Performance and rankings timeline==

Post-war Modern era ==Career finals==

Non-ranking titles Amateur finals ==Notes==