- Source: Jackie Rea
John Joseph Rea (6 April 1921 – 20 October 2013) was a Northern Irish snooker player. He was the leading Irish snooker player until the emergence of Alex Higgins and held the Irish Professional title almost continuously from 1952 to 1972.
Rea reached the semi-final of the 1952 World Championship, losing to Fred Davis. With interest in professional snooker in decline, he was one of four entries for the 1957 World Championships, and lost to John Pulman in the final despite being ahead in the early stages. He won the 1954/1955 News of the World Snooker Tournament, winning all his eight matches and taking the first prize of £500. He continued playing professional snooker until 1990. Outside of competition, he was known for his entertaining exhibition matches.
Early life
John Joseph "Jackie" 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 billiard 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, having not played snooker for over five years.
Snooker career before 1968–69
Rea was runner-up to Jack McNally in the 1946 Northern Ireland Amateur Championship, and defeated Jack Bates to win the title in 1947.: 126 He also won the All-Ireland championship in 1947 by defeating C. Downey.: 126 He moved to England in 1947 and got a job as a billiard marker at the East India Club in St James's Square. He played Joe Davis in an exhibition match, and Davis encouraged him to compete professionally in England.
In 1952, Bates defeated Rea in a challenge for the Irish Professional title. Bates moved to Scotland that year, and was granted eligibility for the Scottish Professional Championship from 1953. 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 Professional champion.
Rea first appeared in the World Championship in 1949, when he lost 18–17 to Conrad Stanbury in the second qualifying round. 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. He lost in his first match to John Pulman in the 1953 championship and again in the 1954 championship. The players were level at 24 frames each at the start of the final day of their match in 1954, 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 would go one better in 1954/55 and would secure that year's event by winning all his eight matches, with a tally of 174 frames won and 122 lost. Only Joe Davis had previously won all his eight matches (during the 1953 event). 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 colours, 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 1964 Conayes Professional Tournament was the first commercially sponsored professional snooker event since 1960;: 8 Rea finished last in the four-player event, which was run as a round-robin. 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.
1968–69 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.: 161
Rea was one of the eight participants in the 1969 World Championship, losing 25–17 to Gary Owen in the first round.: 161 He was also one of the eight players in the first Pot Black series which started in 1969; 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 dead frame.
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.: 118, 120 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.: 108
After his 19–11 first round defeat to Higgins in the 1972 World Championship, Rea was required to play in the qualifying competition for the Championship each year. The closest he would come to qualification after this came in 1976 when he defeated Ian Anderson 8–5 and Bernard Bennett 8–5 only to lose in the deciding frame 8–7 to David Taylor in the final qualifying round. In the qualifying round for the 1977 World Championship, Rea looked as if he might cause an upset when he led Doug Mountjoy, at the time Benson and Hedges Masters Champion, 8–6 and 9–8 notwithstanding a break of 135 by Mountjoy in the eighth frame. Despite it being a qualifying match, 400 people watched its conclusion in which Mountjoy finally triumphed 11–9.
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. In the 1985 Irish Professional Championship, Rea won the last three frames to defeat Jack McLaughlin 6–5. He then faced Dennis Taylor and despite a couple of close frames, lost 0–6.
By the late 1980s, Rea had the second-longest career of the active professionals, behind only Fred Davis. In 1987, Rea was given a special award by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association in recognition of his 40 years as a professional; it was the special award since 1984.: 149
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.
His final appearance in World Championship qualifying came in 1990. He defeated Burke 10–4 in the first qualifying round. In his next match he led Marcel Gauvreau 6–3 at the mid-session, but the match progressed to 9–9. Rea led 71 points to 17 in the deciding frame with only 43 points remaining on the table, but Gauvreau came back to win the deciding frame. 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.: 108 Rea encouraged Higgins to move to England, and Higgins would rate Rea's help so highly that he described him as "a bit of a father figure". Higgins would also later move to Cheadle, close to Rea.: 161 Rea claimed that once, after Higgins had insulted Rea's wife Betty, Rea (who had been in the Commandos) "laid [Higgins] out". Higgins later apologised profusely, and Rea said that they remained strong friends.: 24 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. Rea made his exhibitions attractive by using comedy during them; commentator Jack Karnehm described Rea "as much as comedian as a snooker player". John Virgo has acknowledged that his snooker impressions were inspired by Rea,: 24 and Dennis Taylor has said that his exhibition match routine was significantly influenced 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.": 108
In 1952, Willie Smith wrote that Rea was the best potter that he had played against, apart from Joe Davis. 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. Derek Clements of The Sunday Times wrote that Rea was "one of the most gifted players to pick up a cue, and believed the game should be fun." Clements described him as "a great storyteller".
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, and death
Rea married Rosaleen, who died when giving birth to their son Johnny in about 1952. Johnny was raised by Rosaleen's parents and became a head teacher. In 1958, Rea married Betty; they had a daughter called Jackie and a son called Paul. At the time of his death, he had nine grandchildren. His death on 20 October 2013 was preceded by 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
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= Modern era
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Career finals
= Non-ranking titles
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= Amateur finals
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Notes
References
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