Billiards is considered a men's game, so the appearance of charming women in the professional sphere is always associated with increased interest from the audience. That was the invitation of the Scottish woman Michaela Tabb in 2001 to work as a referee at the official tournaments of the World Snooker Association .
Michaela is a professional player
Such an interest of the world community in Michael Tabb was shown not in vain. Born in England on December 11, 1967, at the age of 23 she already appeared in the professional arena of billiards, taking part in the eight tournament. The following year, 1992, Michaela Tabb appeared in the women's national team of her native Scotland in billiards and played in her composition as a captain until 2003. Later in 1996, her sister Juliet Tabb joined her in the national team. In addition to playing for the national team, singles also brought Tabb success. Michaela won first place in the UK Championship in 1997 and the European Women's Tournament in 1998. It is believed that Michaela Tabb was the best female referee in snooker and pool competitions and was one of the best in the general refereeing environment.
Career and personal life
Michaela herself claims that one of her boyfriends attracted her to billiards, and the pool entered her life so much that she decided to associate her future career with him. At that time, she studied natural sciences and sociology at the University of Glasgow, but did not finish her studies, preferring to devote all her energy to playing the pool. It is no wonder that Mikael’s husband also plays billiards professionally and is known among the world pool. It was with his support that she began her career as a judge of tournaments, shone on television and even fought for her rights in court. The family plays an important role in the life of the billiard star, she has two sons: Morgan and Preston, born in 1997 and 2007, respectively.
First Steps in Judging
As a referee, Michaela began appearing at her own tournaments, organized together with her husband to popularize billiards in the 90s. These were amateur tournaments of eight and nine (varieties of pool) under the auspices of the World Billiards Association. In 1997, Michaela began to judge professional matches at the tournament of St. Andrew the First-Called, and in 1998 she first appeared on television during the broadcast. Thanks to the professionalism and good knowledge of the game, she won the respect of the players, she began to be invited to judge world tournaments by pool among professionals.
Snooker work
Spectacular appearance played into the hands of Mikael: she was noticed by the then head of the World Snooker Association, Jim Mackenzie. The halo of a dry and nondescript person in the midst of a snooker referee required dilution and a little glamor to attract the attention of the audience, and it was Tabb who was suitable for this role. Michaela bypassed the traditional training rule for 5 years by completing the crash course for the snooker referee. According to the results of training in 2001, Michaela Tabb received the status of a professional snooker referee of the 3rd class. Of course, such a quick introduction of Mikael to the circle of favorites did not leave indifferent colleagues and the leadership of the World Snooker Association. This did not stop Mikael, and in early 2002, she first acted as a professional snooker referee at the Wells Open Cardiff Championship. The career of the snooker referee Mikaela cannot be called cloudless, the contract with her was suspended in the summer of 2003. Management attributed this decision to a lack of funding, and later, in the early fall of that year, Tabb received a new contract. Billiards has always been considered a club game for close and closed communities, so you can only guess what happened in the world of snooker these years and how hard it was given to one of the first women in an environment that had previously been purely male. Nevertheless, Michaela Tabb gained popularity among players and the public and her career was gradually striving for development. In 2008, she became the first female referee to be assigned to judge the final of a world tournament. In that match, Andrew Higginson was slightly inferior to Neil Robertson.
Retirement
Quite scandalously, Tabb completed her 14-year career. A lot of rumors hovered around her departure, not for nothing that she was considered a fairly authoritative judge and was popular with the audience. According to the official version of Michael Tabb, the disqualification of which was discussed as one of the options, she herself resigned due to the unfair distribution of bonuses among the judicial staff, and also sued the World Snooker Association, accusing the former employer of bias and sexism. Of course, the Association could not allow the details of the case to be publicized, and a confidential agreement was concluded at the second of eight hearings. This does not detract from Mikael’s contribution to world snooker, which is officially gratefully written on the Association’s website.
Michaela Tabb, a professional snooker referee, rather painfully survived her departure from snooker. At the moment, she is engaged in a family and judges matches of regional competitions by the pool.