Tatiana Woollaston can hardly believe her luck as she steps out to officiate at major snooker events.
Now based in Leicester but originally from Belarus, the 37-year-old has built her reputation as a top-notch referee and was even selected to take charge of a World Championship semi-final earlier this year at the prestigious Crucible Theatre.
“I still don’t believe it,” Tatiana confessed. “From watching on the sofa with my dad to walking out at the Crucible with one table, which luckily for me happened this year, it still gives me goosebumps.” She added, thrilled about her unbelievable journey: “I can’t believe it’s happened and I feel very privileged and grateful to World Snooker and my colleagues who have supported me over the years. It’s a dream and I love it.”
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The snooker aficionado caught the bug early, glued to Russian-language broadcasts of Eurosport in Belarus during her teenage years with her father. “It was back when there were just five or six events a year,” she reminisced, reports the Mirror.
“Every time an event finished, it was like, ‘Oh my god, it’s three or four months until the next one!’ Me and my dad never missed a match.
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“Because it was a new sport in Eastern Europe, the Russian Eurosport commentator would regularly explain the rules. I was fascinated by it. It was like chess, I loved it.
“One of my favourite players from back in the day was Peter Ebdon because I enjoyed the safety play rather than just breaks and potting. Even now, I ask Ben how he knows where cue ball is going to go. It still fascinates me to this day because the skill is so unbelievable.”
Despite snooker being less popular in Eastern Europe, she didn’t consider pursuing a career in the sport until her final year at university when she unexpectedly saw an advert for a tournament.
“One day, I was on the underground and there was an advertisement board saying, ‘Belarus Snooker Championship’,” she recalls. “I thought, ‘Surely there’s no snooker in Belarus’ because I thought it was only based in the UK, where it’s mainly played.
“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.”
Referee Woollaston spoke about her love for the game, despite not playing: “I went to the 2009 European Amateur Championship for under-21s and under-19s in St Petersburg. It was a new sport in Russia as well and they didn’t have enough local referees so they asked us to come and help.
“I don’t play at all. I’ve probably held a cue 10 times in all those years. I’ve never actually wanted to play. It’s the refereeing part that I enjoy.” Her skills have not gone unnoticed, with snooker legend Ronnie O’Sullivan declaring her the “best ref in the world by a mile” during the last World Championship.
Echoing the sentiment, Women’s snooker chart-topper Reanne Evans said: “She’s a top ref. I really rate her, she’s a great girl as well. She deserves the final. She’s top class and I hope she does get the final next year.”
So, what’s the secret sauce to top-tier refereeing? Woollaston revealed: “It requires a lot of concentration because, at any given time, something can happen and you need to know where the balls were,” before adding, “The safety part is the one that requires the most concentration.
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“Especially for a referee who, like me, doesn’t play. You have to learn the way it’s played. You need to anticipate what’s going to happen. You have to be able to read the game and not to be noticed. When people say, ‘I don’t remember who refereed that match’, that’s a good thing. You need to do things quickly and efficiently.
“You have to adjust to the players that you referee, where they prefer you to stand, whether they play at a slower pace. A player might prefer me to stand a certain side depending on if he’s a left-hander or a right-hander. You learn with experience. Concentration is the big part, there’s not a second you can relax. You have to be on the ball all the time.”
Woollaston, obviously, cannot referee any of Ben’s matches. While the couple are avid snooker watchers, they keep their respective careers as separate as possible.
“I don’t spend time with Ben while he’s practising to help me refereeing-wise,” she adds. “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.”
Back during the days of Michaela Tabb, the sight of a female referee in a male-dominated sport was a newsworthy point of interest. Refreshingly, that isn’t the case now thanks to a burgeoning number of female officials.
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“There are quite a few from different areas of the world, including China and Eastern Europe,” Woollaston points out. “It maybe was a thing back in the day, ‘Oh, there’s a female referee’. Now we are just referees, we’ve all established ourselves.”
Woollaston is breaking boundaries in the snooker world, and she’s loving every second of it: “We’re not being seen as female referees and male referees, we’re just being seen as officials. It’s not news anymore. It’s great for growing the game. As long as you’re good at your job, it doesn’t matter.”
As surprising as it may seem to many, officiating snooker isn’t Woollaston’s day job. Despite being a regular face on the snooker circuit, she also juggles her work with Next as a merchandiser.
Speaking about balancing both roles, she said: “That’s a surprise for people, that I’ve got a full-time job,” and elaborated, “Refereeing is my hobby. It’s [Next] a great company to work for and they’re very supportive of my refereeing career.
The support doesn’t end with her employer; she shared how Next helps accommodate her busy schedule: “They’ve been flexible with giving me time off when I need to go away or I sometimes work from hotel rooms rather than come into the office. They’re really proud to see me on TV.”
At home, it’s all about teamwork between Sara and her snooker-pro spouse Ben Woollaston. They make sure to support their careers while managing family life with their two sons.
Woollaston discussed their mutual support, saying, “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.”
She then shed light on how they manage parenting duties around their hectic professional lives: “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.”