Michaela Tabb

Tabb became involved in pool refereeing in the mid-1990s when she and her husband, Ross McInnes, began running amateur eight-ball and nine-ball pool tournaments.[7] McInnes subsequently encouraged her to pursue refereeing at a professional level.[6] She made her professional refereeing debut at the St. Andrew's Cup nine-ball pool tournament in September 1997, whilst being pregnant with her first son.[9][5] She refereed on television for the first time the following year, when the 1998 St. Andrew's Cup, sponsored by Barry Hearn's Matchroom Sport, was broadcast on Sky Sports.[10] She went on to become one of pool's top officials as she refereed at the WPA World Nine-ball Championship, the Mosconi Cup.[11] In 2017 Tabb became the head referee on the World Pool Series.[12]

Tabb replacing the balls into their case during the 2012 German Masters final

Stating that he wanted to change the dowdy, all-male image of snooker referees, Jim McKenzie, then chief executive of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, recruited Tabb to referee snooker events in 2001.[13] Exempted from the customary five-year refereeing apprenticeship and placed on a fast-track toward officiating at professional ranking tournaments, she qualified as a Class 3 snooker referee in September 2001.[1] She conceded that this fast-tracking generated resentment among her fellow officials and referees.[14]

On 23 January 2002, she became the first woman ever to referee at a professional ranking snooker tournament when she took charge of a first-round match between Ken Doherty and James Wattana at the 2002 Welsh Open held in Newport.[1] The following year, she made her World Snooker Championship debut at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, refereeing a first-round match between Mark King and Drew Henry.[14] Later that year in July 2003, dwindling sponsorship revenue forced the WPBSA to cut its number of tournament referees from ten to eight.[13] Tabb's contract, along with that of Dutch referee Johan Oomen, was terminated on a last in, first out basis, threatening her future in the sport.[15] However, the WPBSA soon reversed its decision to dismiss Tabb and she signed a new contract in September 2003.[13]

Tabb uses a triangle to rack the red balls.

On 18 February 2007, Tabb became the first woman to officiate at a ranking event final. She took charge as Neil Robertson defeated Andrew Higginson 9–8 in the Welsh Open.[16] On 20 January 2008, she refereed her first Triple Crown final at the 2008 Masters, which was held at the Wembley Arena in London and saw Mark Selby defeat Stephen Lee 10–3.[7][17] On 5 April 2009, she took charge of the China Open final in Beijing, where Peter Ebdon beat John Higgins 10–8.[18][19]

Tabb became the first woman to officiate a World Snooker Championship final at the 2009 event.[9][5][20] John Higgins defeated Shaun Murphy 18–9 to capture his third world title.[21][18] Three years later, Tabb also refereed the 2012 World Snooker Championship final, in which Ronnie O'Sullivan defeated Ali Carter by 18–11 to win his fourth world title.[22][23] As of 2020, she is the only female referee to officiate a world championship final.[24]

On 19 March 2015, World Snooker announced that Tabb had left the professional refereeing circuit.[25] In September 2015, appearing under her married name of McInnes, Tabb brought a Employment Tribunal against World Snooker, claiming sexual discrimination, unfair dismissal and breach of contract.[26] World Snooker made an undisclosed out-of-court financial settlement.[27] Since leaving the main professional circuit, Tabb has continued to referee Senior Tour events,[12] including the World Seniors Championship finals in 2019 and 2020.[28]