Sport was rocked on Sunday, April 6th when the final of a women’s professional pool tournament was fought out by two male-born players. Transgender duo Harriet Haynes and Lucy Smith each defeated four female contestants before facing off in the Ultimate Pool Women’s Pro Series Event 2 at Robin Park Leisure Centre in Wigan, England.
A 2023 contrast saw then-national women’s champion Lynne Pinches, born female, forfeit her title to Haynes. This led the Ultimate Pool Group, the World Blackball Pool Federation, and the English Blackball Pool Federation (EBPF) to define the women’s category as one for ‘naturally born women’—but only the EBPF managed to maintain its ban on male entrants. This surrender resulted in what TV presenter Piers Morgan called the “preposterous” all-male Ultimate final.
While pool does not carry the physical risks seen in contact sports—such as women’s boxing featuring transgender women—male-born players like Haynes and Smith still retain physical advantages due to male puberty, including greater height and wingspan. Their farcical involvement in the sport deprived women of the opportunities they have been training for.
