Snooker star’s referee wife praised for calling out Trump and Selby | Other | Sport
Snooker star Ben Woollaston’s wife, referee Tatiana, earned praise for her initiative during Sunday’s Champion of Champions final between Mark Selby and Judd Trump. Selby went on to win the tournament in front of his hometown crowd in Leicester, defeating Trump 10–5 in the final at the Mattioli Arena, securing £150,000 in prize money.
Selby was the far superior player on the day, but during the eleventh frame, he and Trump found themselves on the receiving end of a little telling off from Woollaston. With the frame hitting an impasse, the referee stepped in and imposed a shot limit on both players to spark it back into life, with Selby holding a 40-point lead. “We need to make something happen,” she urged. From the ITV commentary box, Ken Doherty praised her intervention: “Well done, Tatiana.” The final had reached a stalemate as both players repeatedly rolled the cue ball into the reds, and Woollaston eventually instructed them to resolve it.
Woollaston, who is not shy when it comes to making big calls and has been branded snooker’s ‘best ref’ by Ronnie O’Sullivan in the past, has officiated at major tournaments such as the World Championship and UK Championship, though refereeing is not her full‑time job. She cemented her reputation as one of the sport’s leading referees, making her Crucible debut in 2020. After refereeing earlier this year at the UK Championship final between Trump and Barry Hawkins, she was back at her day job the next day as a merchandiser for Next.
“That’s a surprise for people, that I’ve got a full-time job,” she said at the time.”Refereeing is my hobby. It’s [Next] a great company to work for and they’re very supportive of my refereeing career. They’ve been flexible with giving me time off when I need to go away or I sometimes work from hotels rooms rather than come into the office. They’re really proud to see me on TV.”
As you would expect, Tatiana cannot referee any of Ben’s matches. “I don’t spend time with Ben while he’s practising to help me refereeing-wise,” she added. “He’s on the circuit as a player, I’m on the circuit as a referee. We’ve never really mix that. I’m obviously not allowed to referee his games and I wouldn’t want to, to be fair.”
Meanwhile, after pocketing £150,000 in prize money, Selby joked that he hopes his daughter doesn’t find out how much he earned.“It was her birthday the other day, so I’ve already just bought her an iPhone,” the four-time world champion told The Sun. “I don’t know what she’ll be wanting now [with Christmas on the horizon]. But hopefully she didn’t hear them say how much I got for winning this!”
Selby went on to outline why he is always cautious about how he spends his snooker prize money. “I mean I’ll probably invest my winnings in property a bit later on. I’ve got a couple of properties at the moment,” Selby added.”Obviously you don’t want to just go out and splash it too much.Because when my career finishes, I don’t want to get to the point where I need to be like working on the bins or something to try and get some money coming in. I need to try and spend it wisely and invest it wisely.”
Selby is set to take on Robbie McGuigan on December 16 in the opening round of the Scottish Open and will miss the event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which gets underway later this week.
