UK Pool Organization Bans Trans Women After Court Ruling and Tournament Controversy

The UK pool scene just chalked up a major policy shift after a recent women's championship saw two transgender athletes, Harriet Haynes and Lucy Smith, dominate their way to the finals, besting four female opponents each at the Ultimate Pool Women's Pro Series Event 2 in Wigan.

But after the dust settled, Ultimate Pool has officially changed its rules: as of April 23, 2025, trans women are no longer eligible to compete in the women’s series or represent women in international events. The organization cited a commissioned "experts report" that concluded eightball pool is, in fact, a "gender affected sport." According to the report, female players face unique disadvantages compared to males, and transgender women retain certain advantages from male physiology.

The stats back up just how dominant the two competitors were: Lucy Smith had racked up wins in 85 of 113 matches and conquered 62% of nearly 850 frames since 2021, while Haynes boasted a .750 winning percentage in 241 matches. They even met in the semifinals of the U.K. Mini Series pool championships last October, where Haynes triumphed but ultimately lost the final to a biological woman.

This isn’t the first time the pool world has wrestled with gender policy. Back in August 2023, the World Eightball Pool Federation (WEPF) announced that only those "born female" could play in women’s tournaments. Fast-forward a few months, and they loosened the rules, allowing trans competitors if they identified as female for at least four years and showed proof of lowered testosterone levels. The back-and-forth must have been dizzying for anyone trying to keep score.

Ultimate Pool’s latest move comes on the heels of a U.K. Supreme Court decision that defined "woman" in strictly biological terms under the Equality Act 2010. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) applauded the legal clarity, with chairwoman Baroness Kishwer Falkner confirming that trans women can’t compete in women’s sport under these new guidelines—and promising to go after organizations that don’t update their policies.

Ultimate Pool insists their commitment to sportsmanship, inclusivity, and fairness remains "unwavering," even as the debate over how those values are balanced continues to rack up more controversy than a tie-breaker in the final frame.