Ahead of the Cue – Interview with Michaela Tabb of Blackball Tables

Michaela McInnes – better known as Michaela Tabb – is a renowned pool and snooker referee who has opened the door for professional female referees the world over. She has officiated at top tournaments in pool such as the WPA World Nine-ball Championship and the Mosconi Cup. She then qualified in 2001 to referee on the World Snooker Tour and was the sport's highest profile female referee for the next 14 years. She became the first woman to officiate at a professional ranking snooker tournament at the 2002 Welsh Open, and the first woman to referee a ranking tournament final at the 2007 Welsh Open. As of 2022, she is the only woman to have refereed the World Snooker Championship final, which she did twice, in 2009 and 2012.

Michaela is married to four times world champion pool player Ross McInnes and together they set up Blackball tables in 2018.

Amusement Network: Can you tell us exactly what drove you and your husband to create the brand?

Michaela Tabb: At the time, a previous table that had been out there was no longer available, so the market only had one brand leader. We just felt there were some things we could improve on and that it would be good to bring an alternative to the market.

And because Ross is a legend in the game of English 8-ball, he was able to put his stamp on it and his experience into our version of an English 8-ball competition pool table. We wanted to bring the best that we could for the same price to the market, but with what we felt had improved qualities to it.

AN: Tell us about your different table types and why you felt it was important

MT: We currently offer two pool tables in our range. One is a standard pool table, which we call the Club, which has got standard pocket sizes, pretty much the same as the other competition table that is out there. The other quite unique thing that we offer is what we call an Elite table, which is a tighter-pocketed table that is specifically targeted at the top amateurs, the international players and the competition level.

Because it is a tougher table, the better players should win. It is not as generous as a standard pool table and, indeed, our Club version. We very much feel—and it has been proven—that there is a market for both.

The Elite table actually improves players’ pool game because it is a harder table to play on, so naturally through using it, it improves performance. If you are at the pinnacle of your game, you want to know that the person or team that has come through and won that particular title has been the best team on the day. It eradicates a level of luck, I suppose so that the cream of the crop come through.

AN: Are you the only manufacturer out there offering an Elite table?

MT: Yes, there's no other manufacturer out there that has two options. So, it is quite unique and it has proved quite successful. On the other side of that, the majority of the tables we sell are the Club standard because that's what the majority of the market wants. But if someone buys an Elite and decides it is too tight, it’s not expensive to change it back, in fact it’s an easily interchangeable product.

AN: Who are your customers, mostly private individuals or pubs and clubs?

MT: When we started, it was pool players because that was the market that we knew and had direct access to. We did not have access to homes or families at that time. Then Covid happened. We were very fortunate during Covid as it was positive for us as a business. Because people did not have access to their pubs and clubs, they were looking to get that piece of equipment at home.

We therefore saw a huge increase in sales to a standard home market. And we also started seeing a huge transition into different colours of tables with different colours of cloths, as husband and wife compromised on their choice and décor! Because of Covid, man caves were popping up all over the country. We were lucky to be a part of that, which as I say we're very thankful for, as we know it was a particularly trying time for a lot of people.

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AM: How important is the pub and club market to the pool sector?

MT: It's the bread and butter really because it's the market that doesn't change. Especially with English pool, what we have noticed is snooker tables are being taken out of clubs because snooker is in a decline in this country. But English 8 ball isn't, it's still very popular, it's a good-sized table for a venue to have revenue from for the space that's allocated to it. And we've just constantly seen a growth in English pool in the United Kingdom.

We have seen increased brand awareness due to Covid, because we were out there siting tables and using our social media to broadcast the fact of the new installs. So, we've had a huge upturn in the number of clubs that have changed over to our tables as well, so it is a very stable part of the business which we're obviously thankful for.

AN: How do you think we can encourage more young people to take up the sport even before they start going to the pub and playing there?

MT: It's a difficult one because of licensed premises but it comes down to clubs encouraging a youth and junior sector, having some competitions or having maybe some time that the tables are on free play, that they can encourage the youngsters in, say earlier in the evening.

We've got a very healthy pool community in the world, that has a youth and junior section, which is good. So, we do see a lot of that coming through. There's an Under 15s category, Under 18s and Under 23s. They partake in the European and the World Championships. But we need more on the ground focus on that.

How are we in the UK compared to, say, other countries?

Oh, we're the leaders for the juniors. I think England took all the titles at the last Nations Cup that was held. The Europeans come up next month, so it'll be interesting to see.

AN: Do you feel there's enough focus on encouraging women to play pool, at a professional level?

MT: It's difficult with the women's game because it's not a natural progression for a lot of people. It comes down to money, if you want to dedicate your time to the women's game, you need money, and effectively the financial reward is in snooker. There are not huge rewards in pool. But how many women can go out there and get sponsorship and get funding to be able to dedicate themselves full time? It is much easier for a gentleman because that is the traditional form of the game.

China and Asia are definitely helping, because they encourage any sporting activity, it's backed by the government, they have money and resources given to them. We just don't have that in this country and to be fair, I think the rest of the world would be chasing to catch up with China with that.

It’s always going to be a slow process, women have different priorities generally in life. Some leave the game to have a family and it's very, very difficult then to come back in. You have to have a very big support network to be able to sustain that.

AN: There is the old adage that to be good a cue sports you must have had a misspent youth. Would you say that the image around the sports has changed over the years?

MT: Definitely! I remember when I first used to watch the snooker with my family. One of my earliest memories in 82 was watching Alex Higgins winning the World Snooker Championships. And in those days, they would be sitting in their chair drinking pints and smoking cigarettes! Well, Alex never drank pints - his was always a vodka and coke. That was how it was perceived in those days. Of course, they had all the tobacco sponsorship as well, so they were actively encouraging it. That's all changed now. There's no tobacco sponsorship. There's no alcohol allowed in the matches. Even in the pool world, we had to progress and remove alcohol from the venue or from the arena when the youth and juniors are playing, because that's not the way it should be going forward.

AN: I see Blackball Tables are investing back into the pool sector by sponsoring tournaments. How is that going?

MT: When we launched the table, one of the ways to increase the brand awareness was to have a competition annually and to have it on Blackball tables. In the very first year, we only allowed people to enter or buy a spot effectively as a Blackball Table customer. So, we were cutting out the competition in that respect. Then venues had to have our tables to join in. We also only allowed amateurs to enter. There are so many events out there for professionals and there's so much prize money available for professionals but the amateur scene is the bigger scene so it made sense to target it. We had our second event earlier this year we offered a total of £67600 prize money with the winner walking away with £10k. Pool is so successful that we struggled to secure our date for next year. Just this week I booked our next tournament in for February 2025, when we plan to sustain if not increase prize money and the number of people participating.

 AN: You have had an amazing career as a snooker referee and TV personality – what is your proudest achievement?

The one that stands out the most and is something I will never forget is walking out for the very first session of the final at the Crucible. It was like everything had aligned and all come together at once. It was such an amazing feeling and I still feel quite emotional about it now. We used to have to stand behind a pink curtain – that somebody pulled a little string to open, I was standing behind that and the MC at the time Alan Hughes was saying “We are making history here today – she …”  and you could hear the excitement and buzz. I have been very lucky in my career – I have always had support; also from women who have always lifted me up and never knocked me down, which I know can be unusual. But at that moment I walked out into a room of maybe 1000 people and I knew they all had my back, which was something really special.

AN: When you and your husband relax – do you still play pool?

MT: No! I did for a while but I kind of moved on from that! We had a pool table in the house for 17 years – my boys are both avid players and both play for Scotland. They nearly killed me because we took the table out just before Covid – not realising of course. So, we are locked down and all of a sudden we have no pool table. By the time we had come out of the first lockdown we very quickly got one back in! For those 17 years, I would occasionally have a little wine with friends and we would go down and have a knock but generally that was not my space – I had walked away from that. By the time I come back from a week away, or even 17 days at the Crucible the last thing I want to do was look at a cue!

You can check out the Blackball pool tables and accessories on the brand-new website www.oncueworld.com which will also soon feature a wider range of related products, launching on Thursday 5th October!

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4 October 2023

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