UK Championship snooker referee was banned from officiating player at tournament

Snooker referee Tatiana Woollaston has been on duty at the UK Championship, but wasn’t allowed to officiate one player.

That’s because she is married to him.

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The 38-year-old is one of the top referees in the game and is a regular on the World Snooker Tour.

She officiated at the World Championship at the Crucible in 2020 for the first time and took charge of the 2023 British Open final.

She also had the honour of refereeing last year’s UK final between Judd Trump and Barry Hawkins.

Woollaston has been on duty at the 2025 UK Championship – the first Triple Crown event of the season – which began on Saturday.

Her husband Ben Woollaston was also in the field at the York Barbican, who booked his place in the 32-player field by coming through qualifying.

In an interview with The Mirror in 2024, she revealed that she is not allowed to referee Ben’s matches for obvious reasons.

She said: “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.”

Woollaston could conceivably referee at the same time as her husband is playing at the Crucible, thanks to the two-table set up in the early rounds.

It will not be an issue for the rest of the UK Championship, however, as Ben Woollaston lost in his first round match.

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He was beaten by John Higgins 6-2 in their round one encounter.

Job outside snooker

Days after officiating the 2024 UK Championship final, she returned to her day job at retail giant Next.

“I’ve been with the company for over 10 years now,” Woollaston told Eurosport. “They’re really excited about me refereeing and really supportive. They let me have the time off, but I’ll be back at my desk tomorrow.”

“My third job is a mum to two beautiful boys,” she added. “They’re here supporting me. They’re not too much into snooker, but they’re here for me.”

2025 UK Championship

The final round of 32 matches will take place on Tuesday, with Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Selby, Kyren Wilson and Barry Hawkins all in action.

John Higgins, Shaun Murphy, Judd Trump, Mark Williams and Neil Robertson have all already made the last 16.

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An emotional Scott Donaldson also caused a shock by beating eighth seed Mark Allen 6-1.

He is playing just weeks after his father passed away and needed an epic comeback to get through qualifying.

“Snooker is a game at the end of the day, it’s not life or death,” said Donaldson after the match.

“With what I have been through, I can tell you what’s important and what’s not important. When the pressure is coming on, I just tell myself ‘it’s a game of snooker’ and get on with it.

“I was fine until I got to the top of the stairs – and the last time I was in this venue was with my dad. It was good emotion though. Tough to go through but once I got the first frame, after that I was all right.”