Women’s pool champion Lynne Pinches made headlines this week when she refused to play against a transgender opponent in the finals of a recent tournament.
Professional pool player Lynne Pinches clinched a spot in the finals of the English Pool Association’s 2023 Champion of Champions Ladies on Sunday where she was set to face off against transgender woman Harriet Haynes. But Pinches refused to compete against Haynes in the final, instead withdrawing from the tournament.
“Walking out was the toughest thing I’ve ever had to do in the game in my life,” Pinches said according to The Telegraph. “I have played 30 years and I’ve never even conceded so much as a frame, never mind a match. This was only my fourth final ever but the trophy or money meant nothing to me without fairness, and that’s what I said to the tournament director afterwards.”
Pinches claims that she “didn’t eat or sleep properly” for two days after she decided to withdraw from the competition and that she felt “devastation” like she “can’t even explain” after deciding not to compete.
“The devastation I have felt, I can’t even explain,” Pinches said. “I didn’t eat or sleep properly for two days. I was crying until 3am. I was devastated. My son Tommy, who plays on the Ultimate Pool Challenger Series, messaged me and said, ‘I know you must be absolutely devastated mum, because I know that you’ve hated this since the beginning’. He really wanted to write it on his Facebook but he was worried he’d get banned. And that’s what pushed me over the edge to be honest. I thought, ‘You’ve silenced me for years. You’re not silencing my child as well.’ I’m not putting up with that…
“I don’t care about the money or the title or the trophy. I care about fairness. If they hadn’t done that U-turn, we wouldn’t be here now. We were all so elated when they originally said they were going to have a strict category for biological females.”
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