Pascal Burke (19 June 1932 – 2001) was an Irish professional

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets, one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. First played by British Army officers stationed in Ind ...

player. He played professionally from 1982 to 1991.

Career

As an amateur, Burke was the Republic of Ireland snooker champion in 1974 and 1976, and the

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 ...

champion in 1980 and 1981. He reached the semi-finals of the

1974 World Amateur Snooker Championship The 1974 World Amateur Snooker Championship was the sixth edition of the tournament that later became known as the IBSF World Snooker Championship. The 1974 tournament was played in Dublin from 1 to 16 December 1974. Defending champion Ray Edmo ...

, and was invited to participate in the

1974 Norwich Union Open The 1974 Norwich Union Open was the second edition of the invitational snooker tournament, which took place between 18 and 22 November 1974 at the Piccadilly Hotel in London. It was open to both professionals and amateurs and featured 16 players. R ...

, where he lost 2-5 to

Ray Reardon Ray may refer to: Fish * Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea * Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin Science and mathematics * Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point * Ray ...

, the reigning professional

World Snooker Champion The World Snooker Championship is an annual snooker tournament founded in 1927, and played at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England since 1977. The tournament is now played over seventeen days in late April and early May, and is chronologi ...

. Burke was accepted as a member by the

World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) is the governing body of professional snooker and English billiards based in Bristol, England. It owns and publishes the official rules of the two sports and engages in promotion ...

(WPBSA) in 1982. His first professional tournament was the 1983 Irish Professional Championship, where he lost 2–6 to Eugene Hughes. Invited to the 1983 Irish Masters, he lost 0–5 to

Tony Meo Anthony Christian Meo (born 4 October 1959) is a retired English snooker player. He won the 1989 British Open by defeating Dean Reynolds 13–6 in the final, and was runner-up to Steve Davis at the 1984 Classic. He won four World Doubles Cha ...

. He also lost in the first match of his third and final tournament of his first season, defeated 9–10 by

Paddy Morgan Paddy Morgan (born 7 January 1943) is an Australian former professional snooker and English billiards player. He was born in Belfast, and moved to Coventry in 1960. Following an amateur career in which he won junior and national titles in b ...

in the qualifying round of the

1983 World Snooker Championship The 1983 World Snooker Championship (also known as the 1983 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place between 16 April and 2 May 1983 at the Crucible Thea ...

. He started the

1983–84 snooker season The 1983–84 snooker season was a series of snooker tournaments played between 4 July 1983 and 19 May 1984. The following table outlines the results for the ranking and the invitational events. __TOC__ Calendar Official ranking ...

with a 2–5 loss to Geoff Foulds in the qualifying for the

1983 International Open The 1983 International Open (officially the 1983 Jameson International Open) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 1 and 9 October 1983 at the Eldon Square Recreation Centre in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England. Steve D ...

, but then defeated Foulds 5-4 in qualifying for the

1983 Professional Players Tournament The 1983 Professional Players Tournament was a professional ranking snooker tournament which took place between 3 September and 21 October 1983. In a change from the previous year, the event was hosted at one venue, the 600-seater Redwood Lodge ...

, before losing 3–5 to Joe Johnson. In the qualifying rounds of the

1984 World Snooker Championship The 1984 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 1984 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purpose of sponsorship) was a ranking professional snooker tournament that took place between 21 April and 7 May 1984 at the C ...

he eliminated Billy Kelly 10-7 and Bob Harris 10-4 but was then knocked out 10–5 by

Mike Hallett Mike Hallett (born 6 July 1959) is an English former professional snooker player and commentator. Career Hallett was born in Grimsby on 6 July 1959. Having won the national under-16 title in 1975, he turned professional in 1979. His world ran ...

. This remained Burke's best progression at the World Championship. After several further seasons where he did not achieve any significant tournament success, Burke finished the 1990–91 snooker season

ranked A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of ...

149, and did not compete professionally again. His highest ranking achieved as a professional was 63. He died in 2001 aged 68, in hospital in Dublin, after a short illness.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burke, Pascal Irish snooker players 1932 births 2001 deaths