THE only female referee on snooker's world ranking tournament circuit has been busy at the Barbican Centre this week.

Michaela Tabb was an official on snooker's Main Tour last season and, as well as refereeing at Harrogate's Manhattan Club, she was on duty at the Benson & Hedges Championship in Mansfield.

She was seen on television earlier this season in the LG Cup at Preston, but won't be officiating in the UK Championship televised stages, which started today.

Tabb, 34, who was born in England, lives in Dunfermline, Fife, and has spent most of her life in Scotland.

A pool referee for five years, she moved over to snooker last season. She refereed last year's UK Ladies Championship final at the Barbican.

She is not the first female referee, following in the footsteps of several others.

In York in the late 1980s and early 1990s Joyce French, wife of the now late Alex French, became a qualified referee along with her husband and often officiated at pro-am tournaments at the big snooker centre which flourished in Fishergate.

Updated: 12:47 Saturday, December 07, 2002