article_title name birth_date professional
eugene hughes -lrb- snooker player -rrb-
 eugene hughes 04 november 1955 1981-1997
eugene hughes -lrb- snooker player -rrb-

eugene hughes -lrb- born 4 november 1955 -rrb- is an irish snooker player .
he reached his highest professional world ranking of 20 in 1986 .
in 1985 and the following years 1986 & 1987 he won his only professional titles , as a member of the successful all-irish team in the world cup , alongside alex higgins and dennis taylor .
he reached two ranking semi-finals : the 1984 jameson international and the 1986 bce international .
he qualified for the world championship five times , including three successive years from 1985 -- 1987 , reaching the second round in 1986 , beating david taylor at the crucible and losing to reigning champion joe johnson 9 -- 10 in 1987 -lsb- http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/snooker/3557639.stm] .
he reached -lrb- and lost -rrb- six irish professional championship semi-finals between 1982 and 1989 .
hughes left the professional game in 1998 , to become an amateur snooker player once again .
he has had some success in the amateur game since then , winning the irish over-40s title in 2007 .
he also remains active in billiards , winning the irish title for the eighth time in 2008 .
he used to run snooker clubs in dun laoghaire and kilkenny .
he is now resident in carlow town .
