Jack McLaughlin (born 29 January 1959) is a

Northern Irish Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...

former professional

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...

and

billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . There are three major subdivisions of ...

player from

Lurgan Lurgan () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, near the southern shore of Lough Neagh. Lurgan is about south-west of Belfast and is linked to the city by both the M1 motorway and the Belfast–Dublin railway line. It had a population ...

. McLaughlin is most notable for winning the 1988 Irish Professional Championship.

Career

McLaughlin turned professional in 1985 at the age of 26 after being Northern Ireland Amateur Champion in 1983 and 1984. McLaughlin's most notable moment came in the 1988 Irish Professional Championship in Antrim when he was the surprise winner of the tournament. After defeating Pascal Burke,

Paul Watchorn Paul Watchorn (born 19 July 1958) is an Irish folk musician and former professional snooker player. He previously played with Derek Warfield. He currently plays with the band The Dublin Legends who were members of The Dubliners, a band in which ...

and Joe O'Boye, he faced 1985 World Snooker Champion

Dennis Taylor Dennis Taylor (born 19 January 1949) is a Northern Irish retired professional snooker player and current commentator. He is best known for winning the 1985 World Snooker Championship, where he defeated the defending champion Steve Davis in a ...

in the final. Despite being a huge underdog, McLaughlin won the match 9–4 to become the first winner other than Taylor or

Alex Higgins Alexander Gordon Higgins (18 March 1949 – 24 July 2010) was a Northern Irish professional snooker player who is remembered as one of the most iconic figures in the game. Nicknamed "Hurricane Higgins" because of his fast play, he was Wor ...

in sixteen years. The following season he came close to defending his title, but lost 7–9 to Higgins. Outside of this win, McLaughlin's best ranking finish as a professional was reaching the quarter-final of the 1989 Dubai Classic where he was defeated 5-1 by

Danny Fowler Danny Fowler (born 30 July 1956 in Worksop) is an English former professional snooker player. Early life Danny Fowler was born on 30 July 1956 in Worksop. Fowler played snooker recreationally from the age of 15 to 20, but then stopped playing ...

. McLaughlin left the professional game in 1995. After continuing to play amateur snooker he took up billiards in 2011, most notably reaching the final of the UK Seniors event in 2014. Now working as a prison governor, he plays golf in his spare time as a leisure pursuit with his wife Lynne.

Performance and rankings timeline

Career finals

Non-ranking finals: 2 (1 title)

Amateur finals: 2 (2 titles)

References

Snooker players from Northern Ireland Players of English billiards from Northern Ireland 1959 births Living people {{UK-snooker-bio-stub