Karen Corr (born 10 November 1969) 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 ...

professional

pool Pool may refer to: Water pool * Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming * Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings * Tide pool, a rocky po ...

and former snooker and

English billiards English billiards, called simply billiards in the United Kingdom and in many former British colonies, is a cue sport that combines the aspects of carom billiards and pool. Two (one white and one yellow) and a red are used. Each player or team ...

player. She was inducted in the BCA Hall of Fame in 2012.

Early life

Corr was born on 10 November 1969 in

Ballymoney Ballymoney ( ga, Baile Monaidh , meaning 'townland of the moor') is a small town and civil parish in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is within the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council area. The civil parish of Ballymoney is situated i ...

, Northern Ireland and spent her early childhood near

Maghera Maghera (pronounced , ) is a small town at the foot of the Glenshane Pass in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Its population was 4,220 in the 2011 Census, increasing from 3,711 in the 2001 Census. It is situated within Mid-Ulster Distri ...

. When she was 8 years old, her family moved to England. She loved watching snooker matches on television and joined a snooker club at the age of 14 with her dad and her brother. Her friends in Bourne saw that she had exceptional snooker skills and encouraged her to play in tournaments.

Snooker and pool career

At the age of 15, she entered into her first tournament in Leicester and never looked back. Bolstered with confidence, she continued to play in tournaments and rapidly became a top–notch snooker player supported by her family. On the day after her 21st birthday, Corr won her first Women's World Snooker Championship. She would go on to repeat that feat in 1995 and 1997. She also won the

World Women's Billiards Championship The World Women's Billiards Championship is an English billiards tournament, first held in 1931 when organised by the cue sports company Burroughes Hall, Burroughes and Watts then run from 1932 by the Women's Billiards Association (WBA). It is c ...

in 1998 and 1999. A recession in the mid 1990s and increased restrictions on tobacco sponsorship caused prize funds to rapidly decrease for snooker events outside the World Championship. This forced Corr to look elsewhere for profitable tournament play. Fellow snooker player Julie Kelly told her about the

WPBA Tour The Women's Professional Billiard Association Tour (known as the WPBA Tour) is a series of professional women's pool tournaments first held in 1992. Events on the tour are operated by the Women's Professional Billiard Association The Women's Pro ...

in the United States. Corr moved to America in 1998 to see how well she could play pool. After winning ten consecutive qualifying events, she was able to compete in the professional WPBA events. By the end of 1998, Corr was ranked #24. At the end of 1999, she was ranked # 4. By the end of 2000, she was ranked 2nd in the world. Corr won her first WPBA Classic Tour title, "The 2000 Cuetec Cues Players Championship" in

Valley Forge, Pennsylvania The Village of Valley Forge is an unincorporated settlement located on the west side of Valley Forge National Historical Park at the confluence of Valley Creek and the Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania. The remaining village is in Schuylkill Tow ...

. She completed that year with two more Classic tour titles. She also won the "All Japan Championship" held in Osaka, Japan. She placed second in the "WPA Women's World Championship" and in the "UCC World Ladies Championship" held in

Tokyo, Japan Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. In 2001, she became the first person to win every WPBA Classic tour event in the same season since they began. She won the silver medal at the World Games and placed 2nd at the World Championships. Before 2001 ended, Corr found herself at the top, the No. 1 ranked player in the World and remained there for 2 years. Since then, she has been a leading player in women's pool. The crowning achievement of her career came on 26 October 2012, when Corr was formally inducted into the Greatest Player wing of the BCA Hall of Fame. Her Hall of Fame induction announcement stated "her quick rise to the top and her consistent dominance on American soil has earned her the only spot in this year's BCA Hall of Fame class." She has been runner-up at the World 9-ball Championship four times.

Titles and achievements

Pool

* 2001 Billiards Digest Player of the Year * 2012 Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame

Snooker

English billiards

References

External links

Karen Corr's Official websiteKaren Corr image galleryBCA website - Hall of Fame section
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Corr, Karen Pool players from Northern Ireland Snooker players from Northern Ireland Players of English billiards from Northern Ireland 1969 births Living people Female players of English billiards Female pool players Female snooker players People from Ballymoney World Games silver medalists Competitors at the 2001 World Games World champions in English billiards