A professional women’s pool tournament has been hit by protests after the final was contested by two transgender players.
Harriet Haynes and Lucy Smith faced off in the Ultimate Pool Women’s Pro Series Event 2 at Robin Park Leisure Centre in Wigan on Sunday, having each beaten four female-born opponents.
Broadcaster Piers Morgan labelled the event “preposterous” before accusing the sport of “cheating bulls---” on social media. Former Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies called it “bloody ridiculous and grossly wrong in every way”.
Protesters inside the venue shouted: “He’s a man and we stand stand with Lynne Pinches” and held up banners saying “Save women’s sport” and “He’s a man” as Haynes walked past.
Pinches is the player who famously forfeited a 2023 final in protest at the participation of Haynes and claimed on Monday she was told to leave Sunday’s event by Ultimate Pool.
One of the protesters, Jean Hatchet, wrote on social media: “A man beside us today watching the pool when we stood up to support [Lynne Pinches] shouted, ‘can’t someone throw them out?’ as though we were the misguided pr---s.
“I challenged him and said: ‘Why are you OK with a man playing in the women’s comp?’
“He said: ‘Well she’s earned it, no one’s bothered, they’ve accepted it.’
“I said “women haven’t bloody accepted it!” Ffs men. You KNOW this is wrong. Any decent man would have a word with the lying t--t and tell him to do one.
“Meanwhile women had to console Lynne for being thrown out of watching the sport she loves. If this pic doesn’t break your heart...”
Pinches explained on social media: “After a complaint by Harriet Haynes’s partner, I was told to leave the Ultimate Pool [UP] event yesterday. I was wearing my bodycam for my own protection. I removed it upon request after being told no filming in the rooms. To then be told by UP I wasn’t allowed in with or without it.”
Replying to a post by Reduxx Magazine on X, which claimed “two men” were facing each other for a championship title, Morgan wrote: “Why anyone supports this cheating bulls--- is utterly beyond me.”
Haynes won the competition, her path to the title including victories over Megan Proctor and Mary Talbot, while Smith reached the final by knocking out Kirsty-Lee Davies and Danielle Randle along the way.
The latest controversy comes almost a year-and-a-half after Pinches pulled out of the Women’s Champion of Champions final against Haynes, who was awarded the ...
