'Completely over the moon!' Pool group hailed for banning trans competitors from female category: 'We just wanted fairness'

Welcoming the "clarity" of the judgement, the group claimed that they have been "caught in a vacuum of uncertainty surrounding the issue of eligibility to participate in its women's series".

They added: "The clear conclusion of the biological and cue sports expert who jointly authored the report was that eight-ball pool was a gender-affected sport and that in cue sports female players have unique disadvantages compared to male players and that transgender women retain male advantages."

Discussing the decision on GB News, former female pool player Lynne Pinches - who was forced to withdraw from her sport due to the ruling on trans players - hailed the ban after "15 months of hard work".

Pinches said: "It's been 15 months of cumulative hard work that's been put into this - blood, sweat and tears. It's been completely emotionally draining, and my solicitors worked extremely hard on this.

"The public have donated £27,000, which we've spent on legal fees, all publicly donated. The support has been incredible, to finally reach a result where we've achieved our aim in that we're going to get fairness for all the women in our sport."

Noting the Supreme Court ruling on gender, Pinches stated that although it was a "fabulous judgement", it hasn't yet changed the Equality Act.

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Pinches explained: "The Supreme Court judgement, as fabulous as the judgement was, it didn't change the Equality Act. It didn't change the fact that you can only lawfully exclude in gender affected sport. And therefore it didn't change our legal case for that fact.

"So without the fact that we pushed for this for 15 months and got experts to prove that pool is, in fact, gender affected, without that hard work, we would not be here because the Supreme Court ruling by itself would not change it."

Hailing the ban on trans players, Pinches told GB News that she is "completely over the moon" with the verdict by the Ultimate Pool Group, as the female players "only wanted fairness".

Pinches stated: "I honestly cannot thank the public enough for their support. Every single person that's donated or ever messaged me, I have tried to message all of them back as well, which has been really difficult at times. The support, even from the press, some of the press, we know who they are.

"It's great news. I'm completely over the moon, and we got what we wanted. We wanted fairness, that was all this whole thing was about, was fairness."

Citing the report which helped the judgement be decided by the group, Pinches concluded by expressing her optimism for other sports following suit and banning trans players from gendered categories.

Pinches told GB News: "I really hope and pray that due to the report and if it does get published, which I'm assuming it will in the future by the top experts that were used, that that will help other sports.

"Because if pool is gender affected, then so is archery and shooting and darts, and all the other ones, because it's all a similar thing, it really is."