BLOG UPDATE: The “Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves” Series

I want to post a blog update in the form of an ambitious project or more likely “a thing I want to have a good go at” that I want to write: a series of articles featuring Women’s Snooker.

Introduction

I’ll be honest, I have not done many articles on Women’s Snooker. It was only when an Irish lady from Facebook wanted an article about the 2017 Eden World Women’s Snooker Championship and of course I obliged. After three hours, I came up with this: PREVIEW: Eden World Women’s Championship. This was one of my most-read articles at the time and I followed it up with Ng On Yee wins her second world title after a dramatic finale! I watched the 2017 final between the victor Ng On Yee against India’s Vidya Pillai live on Youtube and enjoyed it, especially the safety-laden final frame decider.

Since then I hadn’t written much. The last related articles was a month back on PREVIEW: Paul Hunter Women’s Classic and Reanne Evans wins Paul Hunter Women’s Classic! Women’s Snooker is definitely on the up and will keep increasing in popularity and reputation. I would like to think my articles will hopefully make the slightest bit of difference by talking about it and all that nonsense. But I am enjoying this blogging lark and the feedback, hence why I want to introduce the “Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves“ series, talking about a lot of things Women’s Snooker.

You are probably wondering why I chose the title like that. It’s quite poignant, actually. When Michaela Tabb and Zhu Yi were the first women to referee two Crucible matches simultaneously in 2012, they walked out to the song “Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves” by Aretha Franklin. Nice touch really, wasn’t it?

So far I’m come up with five articles. Not that many but I’m hoping it to be informative rather than something to do for the sake of doing it. Here is what I can come up with so far (bear in mind these are ideas), each with a nice little snippet:

The Articles

The Referees

Starting from the lady who started it all, Michaela Tabb!

I’ll talk how she climbed up the ladder in a male-dominated profession in a male-dominated sport. This includes to being the first female to referee a snooker match in the 2002 Welsh Open to be the main person with two white gloves in two Crucible finals (2009 and 2012), remaining a very popular referee to this day.

Then I will talk about the legacy she left behind. Many women have so far progressed to the heady heights to follow in her footsteps. They include in the form of Zhu Ying (former Crucible referee), Tatiana Woollaston (2010 Prague Classic semi-finals), Peggy Li (2016 International Championship & 2017 Gibraltar Open finals), Desislava Bozhilova (2016 Riga Masters final) and Maike Kesseler, who last season made her Crucible debut.

The Players

From snooker domination by Kelly and Alison Fisher, to another snooker domination by Reanne Evans, to finally a more competitive playing field featuring Ng On Yee, Maria Catalano, Latvian Tatjana Vasiljeva and German Diana Schuler. Who knows – when Ng On Yee put to end to Evan’s 10-win streak in the 2015 World Championship final, was that the watershed moment that made everyone realise that they can win trophies against the juggernaut? What’s their record against the male counterparts, after seeing Reanne Evans defeating the likes of Thechaiya Un-Nooh and Robin Hull in the past few years? Will they pass the baton to the younger generation of UK Women’s Under-21 champion Katherine Daughtery, 15-year-old Aimee Benn and 14-year-old Lily Dobson?

Sexism in Snooker

Sorry people, but it is one of the major talking points that has to be brought up? Questions like: Was Steve Davis right in saying men are built to be better at snooker than women? Will the prize money gap between men and women get closer anytime soon? Why are women still barred from some snooker clubs across the UK? Top player and legend Reanne Evans is the main spokesperson to highlight these issues, such as being banned or had to have written permission to play at certain snooker clubs herself and the huge gender pay gap with women and men. I can recall one interview a couple of years ago when she mentioned that the prize for winning the Women’s World Championship was the same as scoring the highest break in the Men’s World Championship. Absolute madness.

This is the area which I definitely need a lot more insight from people, including female referees and players. Look what happened with Michaela’s mysterious court case claiming sex discrimination, unfair dismissal and breach of contract. I very much doubt she will rejoin the tour anytime soon! This is also the area I will need help with the most, so any input/experiences/stories from people are greatly appreciated!

The Women’s Circuit

How has the tour expanded? There are players from South Korea, Netherlands, Belarus and Russia that men never encountered on their professional tour before. Before there were barely any tournaments, now there are 7 in the 2017/2018 season. In fact, how do female snooker players get onto the tour in the first place? I have no idea myself but do they have a Q School equivalent at all? It would be really interesting to see how it all functions and all. Like cogs in a wheel and seeing where it needs to be oiled. I don’t know.

The Future

What’s the future of Women’s Snooker? What is the development like? Recently, we saw a number of girls under 18 years of age arriving in Germany for this first overseas tournament: http://www.wlbsl.com/single-post/2017/08/13/Next-Generation-Geared-For-German-Trip. In fact, where will the fans come from and how can they get the likes of the BBC, Eurosport, etc. interested in the game to widen coverage to other parts of the world. Where do the other professionals see the tour going? So many questions, yet I probably won’t have all the answers to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=162&v=0wcWPkKndFk

What the heck to do next?

When will I start doing this? I reckon finding all of this information and tweaking them from time to time will take a while. I hope to send out the first one out of four or five between January-February and publish all of the articles in time for the Women’s Snooker World Championship in around about March time. I will, of course, make sure these articles are top-notch quality that I try to reach in all the blogging I do. I hope to post another update to tell you how things are going and most importantly, come up with a logo and a brand to affiliate with the series. It’s a start, I suppose.

However, since this is a slightly new area for me, I love to hear any insight from any female fans, players, referees, commentators that can help me out on this. Your insight into the future of snooker, into how bad sexism was and currently is and what are the plans to stop it. Your insight can only make my stuff better. This is also because a 25-year-old man writing about discrimination towards women in sport is slightly odd and unreliable because I have never had such experiences, obviously.

Anyways, hope you are excited as I am about this – should be a good amount of fun. Anything else, let me know!

Please note of course, I do not own these photos.