The lady in the pool. Mikaela Tubb

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. . This was also the invitation of the plaid Mikaela Tubb in 2001 to work as a referee in the official tournaments of the World Snooker Association .

Michaela is a professional player

Such interest of the world community towards Mikaela Tubb was not for nothing. Born in England on December 11, 1967, at the age of 23, she already performed in the professional arena of billiards, taking part in the tournament of the eight. In the following year, 1992, Mikaela Tubb acted as a member of the Scotland native billiard team and played in her composition as captain until 2003. Later in 1996, her sister Juliette Tubb joined the team. In addition to performances for the national team, single competitions also brought success Tubb. Mikaela took first place in the championship of Great Britain in 1997 and the European tournament among women in 1998. It is believed that Mikaela Tubb was the best female referee in the snooker and pool contests and was one of the best in the overall refereeing environment.

Career and personal life

Mikaela herself claims that she was attracted to her billiards by one of her boyfriends, and the pool entered so strongly into her life that she decided to associate her future career with him. At that time, she studied natural science and sociology at the University of Glasgow, but did not finish her studies, preferring to give all her strength to the pool game. No wonder that the husband of Mikayely also professionally plays billiards and is known among the world pool. It was with his support that she began the career of tournament judges, shone on television and even fought for her rights in court. The family occupies an important role in the life of the billiard star, she has two sons: Morgan and Preston, 1997 and 2007 respectively.

The first steps in judging

As a referee, Mikaela began to appear on her own tournaments organized jointly with her husband to popularize billiards in the 90s. It was an amateur tournament of eight and nine (a variety of pool) under the auspices of the World Association of Billiards. In 1997, Michaela began to judge professional matches at the tournament of Andrew the First-Called, and in 1998 first appeared on television during the broadcast. Thanks to the professionalism and good knowledge of the game, she won the respect of players, she was invited to judge the world tournaments in the pool among professionals.

Work in snooker

Джим МакКензи. The spectacular appearance played into Mikaela's hand: she was noticed by the then head of the World Snooker Association, Jim McKenzie. The halo of a dry and unattractive person in the midst of a snooker referee required dilution and a bit of glamor to attract the attention of the audience, and it was Tubb who approached this role. Mikaela has bypassed the traditional rule of training for 5 years, having passed the accelerated course for the snooker referee. 3 класса. Following the results of training in 2001 M Icaela Tubb received the status of a professional snooker referee of the 3rd class. Needless to say, such a quick introduction of Mikaela into the circle of the elected did not leave indifferent colleagues and the leadership of the World Snooker Association. This did not stop Mikaela, and in the beginning of 2002 she was the first to act as a professional snooker referee at the Welsh Open Championship in Cardiff. Career referee snooker Mikaely can not be called cloudless, the contract with her suspended in the summer of 2003. The management explained this decision by the lack of funding, and later, in the early autumn of the same year, Tubb received a new contract. Billiards has always been considered a club game for close and closed communities, so you can only guess what was happening in the snooker world these years and how hard it was given to one of the first women in an environment formerly purely male. Nevertheless, Mikaela Tubb won the popularity of players and the public and her career gradually sought to develop. In 2008, she became the first woman referee, who was instructed to judge the finals of the world tournament. In that match, Andrew Higginson slightly ceded Neil Robertson.

Completion of career

Quite scandalously, Tubb completed her 14-year career. Around her departure, there were a lot of rumors, for good reason she was considered to be quite an authoritative judge and was popular with the audience. According to the official version of Mikael Tubb, whose disqualification was discussed as one of the options, she herself resigned because of an unjust distribution of awards among the judges, and sued the World Snooker Association, accusing the former employer of being biased and sexist. Of course, the Association could not admit the details of the case, and at the second of eight hearings a confidential agreement was concluded. This does not detract from Mikaela's contribution to the world snooker, which is officially written with gratitude on the Association's website.

Mikaela Tubb, a professional snooker referee, rather painfully survived her departure from snooker. At the moment she is engaged in a family and judges the matches of the regional contests in the pool.