By Elliott West
Introduction
Jack McLaughlin is one of a number of talented snooker players that have come out of Northern Ireland. Jack, who played snooker professionally, had a professional career that ran between 1984-1995 and was a surprise champion in the 1988 Irish Professional Championship, a non-ranking event, where he defeated Dennis Taylor 9-4 in the final. His best ranking performance came in 1989 when McLaughlin reached the quarter-finals of the Dubai Classic, eventually losing to the former dustman, Danny Fowler 5-1. A tournament that was won by Stephen Hendry, defeating Doug Mountjoy in the final.
Career
Born 1959 in Northern Ireland, Jack McLaughlin had a very successful early snooker career as an amateur, winning the Northern Ireland Amateur Championship in 1983, beating John McIntyre 10-4 and again in 1984, defeating Harry Morgan 10-3. In 1985 at the age of 26, Harry turned professional and had a career that could be described as consistent with his best major results being that of reaching the last 48 of the World Championship in 1992, the last 32 of the UK Championship in 1984, the last 16 of the 1988 Grand Prix and the last 64 of the 1993 Welsh Open.
Jack made a total career earnings of £95,433 and £5,000 of that was from becoming the champion at the Irish Professional Championship, a tournament where he defeated Pascal Burke, Paul Watchorn, and Joe O’Boye before overcoming Dennis Taylor in the final. A huge underdog in the tournament, Jack broke the winning grasp of Alex Higgins and Dennis Taylor who had shared the title for sixteen years. He came close to defending and retaining the title in 1989 but lost narrowly 7-9 to Alex Higgins in the final.
McLaughlin’s good run in the 1989 Dubai Classic was only of many in 1989 with a substantial number of last 64 finishes in tournaments this year, including the Hong Kong Open, European Open and the Mercantile Credit Classic. By the end of the 1990s, Jack could only manage to reach the last 128 of events and so decided to call it a day and retire as a professional player in 1995 after playing in the Welsh Open.
After quitting as a professional, McLaughlin continued to play snooker as an amateur and also took up billiards, most notably reaching the final of the UK Seniors event in 2014. He also decided to have a career change and now works as a prison governor whilst playing golf with his wife, Lynne in their leisure time.
