modest success. Following his 19–11 first round defeat to Alex Higgins in the 1972 World Championship, Rea was forced into the qualifying competition. 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. At the start of 1976, Rea had been one of the guests who took part in Ray Reardon's This Is Your Life programme. In the qualifying round for the 1977 World Championship, Rea looked as if he might cause an upset when he led Doug Mountjoy, at the time Benson and Hedges Masters Champion, 8–6 and 9–8. Despite being a qualifying match, 400 people watched the conclusion of the match in which Mountjoy finally triumphed 11–9. Rea also took part in the first World Challenge Cup. He joined Alex Higgins and Dennis Taylor to make up the Northern Ireland team. Rea was only able to win one of his frames and the team ended up in third place. Before going out to play in the 1980 World Championship, Rea declared he would engage his all-out attacking style from the 1950s. Such a tactic overwhelmed Bernard Bennett 9–1 in his first qualifying match, but he lost to an in-form Willie Thorne 9–1 for a place at the Crucible Theatre. He defeated future world champion Joe Johnson 2–0 on his way to the quarter finals of the Bass/Golden Leisure Classic in 1982, where he lost to eventual champion Rex Williams. In the 1985 Irish Professional Championship, Rea won the last three frames to defeat Jack McLaughlin (a future winner of the event) 6–5. He then ran into Dennis Taylor (who would win the world title 20 days later) and despite a couple of close frames, lost 6–0. Rea would take £750 as a losing quarter-finalist. In 1987 Rea was given a special award by the WPBSA (the first such award since 1984). That same year in the Mercantile Credit Classic, Rea beat Billy Kelly 5–3 in the first qualifying round and then had a chance to play the man who would dominate snooker over the next decade, Stephen Hendry. Rea lost 5–1, losing two other close frames. In September 1987 Rea defeated Pascal Burke 5–1 and Geoff Foulds 5–4 in the first two qualifying rounds of the Fidelity International, but was