John Joseph Rea (6 April 1921 – 20 October 2013) was a Northern Irish snooker player.

Rea reached the semi-final of the 1952 World Professional Match-play Championship, losing to Fred Davis.

John Joseph "Jackie" Rea was born on 6 April 1921 in Dungannon, County Tyrone,[1] and was the only child of Catherine and greyhound track manager Thomas.

[2] When World War II started, he joined the Navy, where he was promoted to Chief petty officer and was a communications instructor.

[4]: 126 [5]: 109  He moved to England and got a job as a billiard marker at the East India Club in St James's Square.

[11] 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.

[14] He lost to Pulman again in 1956, separated by a loss to Fred Davis in a 1955 semi-final after defeating Harry Stokes.

[22][23] On the concluding day, Pulman won five of the seven frames in the afternoon session to take a winning lead of 37–29.

[27] 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%.

[32] 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.

[5]: 161  He was also one of the eight players in the first Pot Black series which started in 1969;[35] the programme which played a crucial role in popularizing the game.

[37] 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.

[41] 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.

[12] 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.

[43] In 1979, Rea took part in the first World Challenge Cup, joining Higgins and Dennis Taylor to make up the Northern Ireland team.

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.

[45] 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.

[59]: 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.

[63] 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.

[64] 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.

[66] 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.

Having seen the pair, he drove to a nearby holiday camp where he obtained a tug of war rope which he then used to descend 100 feet (30 m) down the cliff face to rescue them.