Snooker star's wife gets seal of approval for Judd Trump and Mark Selby intervention - The Mirror

Mark Selby thrashed Judd Trump 10-5 in Sunday's Champion of Champions final, with the refereeing wife of snooker star Ben Woollaston praised for her intervention

Snooker star Ben Woollaston's wife, referee Tatiana, won plaudits for her decisive action during Sunday's Champion of Champions final between Mark Selby and Judd Trump. Selby triumphed in the tournament in front of his home supporters in Leicester, thrashing Trump 10-5 in the final at the Mattioli Arena to pocket £150,000 in prize money.

Selby dominated proceedings throughout the day, but during the eleventh frame, both he and Trump received a stern word from Woollaston. With the frame grinding to a halt, the referee intervened and imposed a shot limit on both competitors to inject some life back into proceedings, with Selby enjoying a 40-point advantage.

Tatiana ordered them to speed up, saying: "We need to make something happen," she declared. From the ITV commentary box, Ken Doherty applauded her intervention: "Well done, Tatiana."

The final had reached deadlock as both players continuously rolled the cue ball into the reds, prompting Woollaston to eventually order them to sort it out. Woollaston has taken charge at prestigious tournaments including the World Championship and UK Championship, although refereeing isn't her primary occupation.

She established herself as one of the sport's top officials, making her Crucible bow in 2020. Ronnie O'Sullivan previously hailed Tatiana as the best referee in the sport.

"Best ref in the world mate. By a mile. All day long for me," O'Sullivan said last year.

Following her stint officiating this year's UK Championship final between Trump and Barry Hawkins, she returned to her regular role as a merchandiser for Next the following day.

"That's a surprise for people, that I've got a full-time job," she said at the time. "Refereeing is my hobby. It's [Next] a great company to work for and they're very supportive of my refereeing career.

"They've been flexible with giving me time off when I need to go away or I sometimes work from hotel rooms rather than come into the office. They're really proud to see me on TV."

As expected, Tatiana is unable to officiate any of Ben's fixtures. "I don't spend time with Ben while he's practising to help me refereeing-wise," she added.

"He's on the circuit as a player, I'm on the circuit as a referee. We've never really mix that. I'm obviously not allowed to referee his games and I wouldn't want to, to be fair."

Meanwhile, having banked £150,000 in prize money, Selby quipped that he hopes his daughter remains unaware of his earnings. "It was her birthday the other day, so I've already just bought her an iPhone," the four-time world champion told The Sun.

"I don't know what she'll be wanting now [with Christmas on the horizon]. But hopefully she didn't hear them say how much I got for winning this!" Selby explained his careful approach to spending his snooker winnings, stating: "I mean I'll probably invest my winnings in property a bit later on.

"I've got a couple of properties at the moment," Selby added. "Obviously you don't want to just go out and splash it too much. Because when my career finishes, I don't want to get to the point where I need to be like working on the bins or something to try and get some money coming in. I need to try and spend it wisely and invest it wisely."

Selby is due to face Robbie McGuigan on December 16 in the first round of the Scottish Open, and will not participate in the event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which kicks off later this week.