Snooker referee Tatiana Woollaston was banned from officiating one player's matches at the recent UK Championship. Another Woollaston was in action at York Barbican last month, Tatiana's husband Ben, who clinched his spot in the 32-player field after getting through the qualifying rounds.

Woollaston faced John Higgins in the first round, where he suffered a 6-2 defeat to the three-time UK champion. Ben went 5-0 down but responded well by winning the sixth and seventh frames, though Higgins eventually sealed the victory. Tatiana did not oversee the encounter despite serving as one of the officials at the opening Triple Crown tournament of the season.

That's because she is not allowed to officiate her husband, nor would she have wanted to. Tatiana revealed before last year's UK Championship that they try to keep their snooker careers completely separated.

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

No further limitations existed on Tatiana's tournament responsibilities while Ben remained in the event. Given the two-table arrangement remains until the semi-final stage, she could have theoretically refereed while Ben competed, though she was unlikely to find herself in such a position. Tatiana was also permitted to oversee matches in her husband's section of the draw.

Last year, she had the honour of refereeing the UK final between Judd Trump and Barry Hawkins. That's owing to her becoming one of the highest regarded officials in the game, having first taken charge of her first World Championship matches at the Covid-affected 2020 tournament.

At the 2024 World Championship, the 39-year-old oversaw a single-table Crucible match for the first time - the semi-final between Kyren Wilson and David Gilbert. She was also once hailed by Ronnie O'Sullivan as the "best ref in the world by a mile".

Such career highlights have been pinch-yourself moments for the Leicester-based, Belarus-born official, who fell in love with the sport as a youngster while watching Russian language Eurosport with her father.