'Michaela Tabb, the stunning TV referee...'

Source: http://www.eukpf.uk8ball.co.uk

We interview Michaela Tabb, the stunning TV referee and the top pool player who's also competing in the Scottish Ladies Team at the worlds this year...

The Scotland Ladies Pool Team will boast one of the most well-known faces in the world of TV cue sports at the 2002 EUKPF World Championships in the Shetlands this year.

But fans needn't run for cover! Thankfully, Stephen Hendry will not be donning a skirt and a wig to bolster the title defence of reigning Ladies World Team Champions, the Scottish Ladies team.

The stunning Michaela Tabb, however, will again be chalking up for the national team she's represented with distinction for 11 years.

Michaela is, of course, the beautiful brunette who's got pool fans the world over tuning in as she officiates at the TV stages of various world eightball and nineball pool events.

She's a regular referee at the Mosconi Cup and the World Nineball Championships, which both have worldwide audiences – and she's also a mean wielder of the cue herself, with countless titles as a key member of the all-conquering Scottish Ladies Team as well as the winner of the 1997 UK Singles title and the 1998 European Ladies Championships in her own right.

And, bizarrely, her adventures in the world of the green baize occurred by a happy accident.

I first got involved in the game at the start of the Nineties when I used to go to a local pub where everyone else played pool. So I had a choice of either joining in or sitting on my own watching – so I picked up a cue and took my chances! Fortunately, there was a Scottish Ladies international who also used the pub and I used to play with her so my game started to rapidly improve. A year later I was invited to trial for the Scottish Ladies Team and I made my debut in 1992. I've more or less been a member of the team ever since and, although I don't have the potting game that a lot of the girls have, my tactical game is very sound and I can hold my own against most players. I pride myself on the fact that I am a tough competitor and won’t lie down in any game.

A few years after she joined the Scottish Ladies Team, Michaela met the man she married earlier this year – namely eightball legend Ross McInnes.

I actually thought he was an arrogant sod when I first saw him. But we've been together for eight and a half years now and we have a little boy called Morgan, who's five.

And it was her relationship with Ross that lead to her first TV refereeing job.

'Again it was something that happened quite by accident,' admits Michaela. 'Sky were holding a one-day nineball event in Scotland which featured the likes of Steve Davis and various people. Ross was also involved and he said if they needed someone to referee it then he knew someone who refereed a lot of nineball matches – namely me!'

So I got involved and I found it absolutely nerve-wracking when I refereed at that event. Then I went home and thought no more about it – until I got a telephone call and I was asked if I'd like to officiate at the Mosconi Cup. So that's how it all started really.

Since then, Michaela has become a regular face at many snooker, eightball and nineball events.

I'm actually an employee of World Snooker now and myself and three other young referees are being fast-tracked away from the main tour and the TV games so we can learn the ropes,' reveals Michaela. 'I think World Snooker are keen to pull the game forward by not making the players dress in such a stuffy way and also by introducing some younger faces as referees.

Essentially the game still looks very similar to how it would have appeared 100 years ago and I think World Snooker is very conscious of that. Snooker's the number-two most popular viewed sport in the UK and, although audience figures have not significantly dropped off, they are looking to the future and aiming to attract new viewers.

So my involvement and the involvement of the other three referees who are being fast-tracked are all part of that move. I also think they've taken a look at the very casual image of nineball and taken a lead from there in the way players are encouraged to play without bowties and the like.

Michaela admits that eightball may not be her number-one priority in life at the moment, but it will certainly take centre stage when she puts her Scotland waistcoat on and she and the rest of the team go to defend their world title in Shetland.

I would never class myself as one of the favourites for the ladies singles event or even one of the strongest players in the team, but I intend to keep my place and I will fight tooth and nail to ensure Scotland win the ladies world crown for a few years yet!

And, the way she keeps her cool in front of the TV cameras, who would bet against her on the eightball table?

Michaela Tabb Makes Her Mark

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/snooker/2964701.stm
Michaela Tabb has created snooker history by becoming the first woman to referee at the world championships.

The Dunfermline official took charge as 11th seed Mark King unexepectedly lost to Scotland's Drew Henry 10-5 at the Crucible in Sheffield.

Tabb said: "I was nervous before I walked out. When the MC was introducing me, his words went right over my head.

"Towards the end of the first frame, I settled down and it just felt like any other match.

"It was a brilliant experience."

The 35-year-old mother-of-one moved from pool to snooker two years ago and is married to Scottish international Ross McInnes.

"Ross was playing in a pool tournament at the weekend and got as far as Carlisle to watch the first session but turned round because he needed to get back to play," Tabb added.

Tabb helps change the face of snooker (Wed 16 Apr 2003)

by Stuart Bathgate

source: http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/sport.cfm?id=439842003

THE change was overdue. While snooker’s players had become younger and more flamboyant, the referees remained middle-aged, dowdy and male. For a sport eager to present a youthful image, something had to be done.

The solution, or at least a part of it, was Michaela Tabb. Already well known on the pool circuit as both player and referee, the Dunfermline woman was as far removed as possible from the snooker stereotype. She was not middle-aged, she was far from dowdy and she was certainly not male.

The decision was made by Jim McKenzie, then the chief executive of World Snooker, now the holder of the equivalent post at Edinburgh Rugby. Dispensing with the customary five- year apprenticeship, McKenzie decreed that Tabb and three others should be fast-tracked on to the professional refereeing circuit.

That was two years ago. Now, the rapid rise is almost complete, and on Saturday Tabb will become the first woman to referee at the world championship in Sheffield, when she takes charge of the first-round match between Mark King and Drew Henry.

"Jim wanted to change the profile of the referees and bring in some younger ones, including women," recalls Tabb, who is now 35. "I was asked if I’d be interested. Obviously I knew the refereeing side of things, and I knew the rules, but I didn’t know the intricacies of snooker.

"To begin with there was a bit of opposition to me, but it was never held against me personally. There were a few who said they didn’t agree with what had happened, but they wouldn’t take it out on me. And they haven’t. They’ve all been very good."

Calm and articulate when in the confines of a Fife snooker club, she is, she says, usually just as much at ease taking charge of a match. She admits, however, that the feeling will be different in three days’ time, as she prepares to enter the Crucible. "When you’re out there you’re fine normally. In the build-up, when the players are tense, you might feel it a bit, but on the whole it’s all right, because no matter where you are it’s the same thing.

"But Sheffield’s different. There’s such a presence at the Crucible, and I think that’s what’s making me nervous now. That and the fact it’s my debut, and it’s such a huge tournament. I’ve followed it since I was about 12 years old, and now I’m going there."

It took some time, however, for Tabb to go from TV spectator to actual player. She was in her early 20s by the time she took up pool, in a local pub.

"It was a hobby at first. I started going with my then boyfriend to a pub with two pool tables, and you could either join in or sit on your own. Then within a year I was playing for Scotland, so it became more serious. Then I met my husband through that, and things just went on from there."

When she and the said spouse, Ross McInnes, moved from British eight-ball pool to the American nine-ball game, they found out there was no-one to referee the tournaments they were trying to organise. As McInnes was the professional player, it made sense for Tabb to turn to refereeing herself.

That was in 1997, and although she became European women’s champion the following year, she knew her playing was unlikely to remain at such a high level. The refereeing made it more difficult to find enough practice time, as did the arrival of a son, Morgan.

"My standard isn’t as high as it was, and I don’t think I’ll ever get that back - unless we move and get a pool room again. We’ve got a little boy, and the problem now is getting the time to practise. When I won the European Championships in 1998, that was probably the highest standard I’ve had."

As a player, that is. As a referee, she may just be starting out, even if she is at present content to have just a part-time contract. "I’m quite happy with what I’m doing, because I’ve got pool as well, that takes up a lot of time too. So between that and Ross being a professional, we just juggle everything really.

"It would be more stressful if I did more days on the snooker circuit, because it’s longer away from home. Last year I was away in Blackpool doing qualifying and that was for four weeks: Ross and Morgan came down twice, but it’s still hard to be away for so long."

It can also be hard to find oneself the centre of antipathetic attention, as Tabb did last month at the Irish Masters in Dublin. When Peter Ebdon, the defending world champion, was called for a push by her, he did not agree; his opponent, Quinten Hann, concurred with Ebdon, and played a safety with his next shot so as to gain no advantage from the ruling.

But Tabb is not easily awed, either by players or TV commentators. She is, she insists, on the spot, the best-placed to see what is going on. Rather than backing down in the face of excitable players, she is, she explains, a touch more likely to take pre-emptive action.

"There’s a few temperamental people out there, and, though it doesn’t make any difference to your preparation, you are on edge a little bit more, ready for something. Like at the Regal Scottish Masters last week, when I refereed Quinten and Ken Doherty: Ken’s great, but Quinten can be a bit temperamental, and there were a few toys that came out.

"I was getting ready to say something to him, but as it happened I didn’t have to. There’s no difference to what you do as a referee, you just have to be aware of the situation."

And Tabb is very aware. Aware that her progress has not exactly been impeded by her glamorous image - yet aware, too, that she is every bit as competent as any of the old boys who used to rule snooker’s refereeing roost.

Michaela is looking forward to refereeing the Masters for the first time (30 January, 2004)

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/snooker/3445541.stm

...The tournament will also see Michaela Tabb become the first female referee to take charge at the Masters.

Tabb will add another chapter to her refereeing CV
Tabb, who caused a stir at last year's World Championship, will referee two matches, including the meeting between Steve Davis and Ken Doherty on Tuesday.

"I'm really looking forward to refereeing at the Masters for the first time," said Tabb.

"I know the atmosphere at Wembley is electric and it will be great to experience that."