Snooker star’s wife is Crucible referee but it’s not her full-time job | Other | Sport

The wife of a snooker star is refereeing at the World Championship – but it isn’t her full-time job. Tatiana Woollaston is married to Ben Woollaston, who begins his first Crucible campaign in 12 years on Wednesday night when he takes on fellow Leicester cueman and four-time world champion Mark Selby.

Tatiana is firmly established as one of the top officials in the game, having first refereed at the Crucible in 2020. At last year’s World Championship, she oversaw the semi-final between Kyren Wilson and David Gilbert. Earlier this season, she took charge of the UK Championship final between Judd Trump and Barry Hawkins. A day after that York showpiece, she was back at her day job as a merchandiser for Next, whose head office is in Leicester. 

“That’s a surprise for people, that I’ve got a full-time job,” she said. “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, not that she would want to. She said: “I don’t spend time with Ben while he’s practising to help me refereeing-wise. 

“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.”

The Woollastons, who have two sons together, support each other in their respective careers. The Belarusian, 38, explained: “Ben’s career is immensely important but he would never say no to me going to any snooker events because he knows how much I love it.

“If he’s out of the event, he’ll take over doing school pick-ups and homework. We work around each other while Ben’s mum plays a big role helping us with the kids.”

Tatiana fell in love with snooker after watching it with her father on Russian-language Eurosport back in her homeland. However, as a non-player, she never thought a career in the game would be possible until she spotted an advert for a local competition.

“I was on the underground and there was an advertisement board saying, ‘Belarus Snooker Championship’,” she recalled. “I thought, ‘Surely there’s no snooker in Belarus’.

“But I went to the local club, which was mainly a Russian billiards club. There were only three snooker tables in there. I saw some people refereeing and they had their name badges. 

“I found one of the guys on social media and asked if I could try and referee. They invited me to one of their refereeing meetings and that’s where it all started.”

Back during the days of Michaela Tabb, the sight of a female referee in a male-dominated sport was newsworthy. Refreshingly, that is no longer the case thanks to a burgeoning number of female officials.

“There are quite a few from different areas of the world, including China and Eastern Europe,” said Tatiana. “It maybe was a thing back in the day, ‘Oh, there’s a female referee’. But we’re not being seen as female referees and male referees, we’re just being seen as officials. It’s not news anymore. As long as you’re good at your job, it doesn’t matter.”