Michaela Tabb (born 11 December 1967, in Bath, Somerset, England) is a Scottish professional referee in the sports of snooker and pool. After she began refereeing professionally on the pool circuit in 1997, Tabb established significant milestones for women officials in professional cue sports. She has officiated at top pool tournaments such as the WPA World Nine-ball Championship and the Mosconi Cup. After qualifying in 2001 to referee on the World Snooker Tour, she went on to become the sport's highest profile female referee, officiating on tour for 14 years. She became the first woman to officiate at a professional ranking snooker tournament at the 2002 Welsh Open and then five years later the first woman to referee a ranking tournament final at the 2007 Welsh Open. As of 2020, she is the only woman ever to referee the World Snooker Championship final, doing so in both 2009 and 2012. Her professional snooker refereeing career came to an end when she left the tour in March 2015. She subsequently brought a court case against the sport's governing body, alleging sex discrimination, unfair dismissal, and breach of contract. An out-of-court settlement was reached in September 2015, under which Tabb was paid an undisclosed sum. In addition to refereeing, she is also a former player on the women's eight-ball pool circuit, where she won a number of titles as a solo competitor and as a member, and later captain, of the Scottish Ladies' team. Tabb started playing competitive blackball in 1991, at the age of 23. Selected the following year to play on the Scottish Ladies' Pool Team,she went on to captain the team to two consecutive Grand Slam titles in 1997 and 1998 by winning the Nations Cup, European Championships, and World Championships in the same season. She remained on the team until 2003.[4] Her sister Juliette also played on the Scottish ladies' team.As an individual competitor, Tabb won the UK women's singles title in 1997. The following year, she won the European Pool Championships held in Gibraltar. Tabb became involved in pool refereeing in the mid-1990s when she and her husband, Ross McInnes, began running amateur eight-ball and nine-ball pool tournaments.] McInnes subsequently encouraged her to pursue refereeing at a professional level.] She made her professional refereeing debut at the St. Andrew's Cup nine-ball pool tournament in September 1997, whilst being pregnant with her first son.[9][5] She refereed on television for the first time the following year, when the 1998 St. Andrew's Cup, sponsored by Barry Hearn's Matchroom Sport, was broadcast on Sky Sports.[10] She went on to become one of pool's top officials as she refereed at the WPA World Nine-ball Championship, the Mosconi Cup.[] In 2017 Tabb became the head referee on the World Pool Series. Stating that he wanted to change the dowdy, all-male image of snooker referees, Jim McKenzie, then chief executive of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, recruited Tabb to referee snooker events in 2001.[ Exempted from the customary five-year refereeing apprenticeship and placed on a fast-track toward officiating at professional ranking tournaments, she qualified as a Class 3 snooker referee in September 2001. She conceded that this fast-tracking generated resentment among her fellow officials and referees. On 23 January 2002, she became the first woman ever to referee at a professional ranking snooker tournament when she took charge of a first-round match between Ken Doherty and James Wattana at the 2002 Welsh Open held in Newport.[1] The following year, she made her World Snooker Championship debut at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, refereeing the first-round match between Mark King and Drew Henry.[14] Later that year in July 2003, dwindling sponsorship revenue forced the WPBSA to cut its number of tournament referees from ten to eight.[13] Tabb's contract, along with that of Dutch referee Johan Oomen, was terminated on a last-in, first-out basis, threatening her future in the sport.[However, the WPBSA soon reversed its decision to dismiss Tabb and she signed a new contract in September 2003. On 18 February 2007, Tabb became the first woman to officiate at a ranking event final. She took charge as Neil Robertson defeated Andrew Higginson 9–8 in the Welsh Open.[ On 20 January 2008, she refereed her first Triple Crown final at the 2008 Masters, which was held at the Wembley Arena in London and saw Mark Selby defeat Stephen Lee 10–3.] On 5 April 2009, she took charge of the China Open final in Beijing, where Peter Ebdon beat John Higgins 10–8. Tabb became the first woman to officiate a World Snooker Championship final at the 2009 event.[9][5][20] John Higgins defeated Shaun Murphy 18–9 to capture his third world title.[Three years later, Tabb also refereed the 2012 World Snooker Championship final, in which Ronnie O'Sullivan defeated Ali Carter by 18–11 to win his fourth world title. As of 2020, she is the only female referee to officiate a world championship final. On 19 March 2015, World Snooker announced that Tabb had left the professional refereeing circuit.[25] In September 2015, appearing under her married name of McInnes, Tabb brought an Employment Tribunal against World Snooker, claiming sexual discrimination, unfair dismissal , and breach of contract.[26] World Snooker made an undisclosed out-of-court financial settlement.] Since leaving the main professional circuit, Tabb has continued to referee Senior Tour events,[ including the World Seniors Championship finals in 2019 and 2020.