Lynne Pinches has been a pool player for the past 30 years and was successful: in 2023, she earned a professional spot and won a place in the final of the Women’s Champions of Champions.
In November 2023 Lynne walked away from the final rather than pretend it was fair to have a trans identified male competing against women in the female category.
Lynne along with several other women’s pool players, sought legal assistance to force Ultimate Pool – the organisation that runs the main pool competitions – to change their rules to permit women’s-only pool. Earlier this year, they succeeded: Ultimate Pool changed their rules to protect women-only competition as reported by the BBC.
Lynne says “As a consequence of taking a stand, I became the target of hostility from trans-rights activists. I reported incidents to the police, who said they lacked evidence. They suggested I wear a bodycam to future events in case similar acts of aggression occurred.”
On 6 April 2025, I attended an Ultimate Pool competition in Wigan with my son, who is a junior player. I saw the partner of a trans-identifying player notice me and immediately go to speak to security.
Security told me I was not allowed to wear a bodycam in the competition hall due to a filming ban. I explained why I was wearing it, and they said they understood — but insisted that if I wanted to remain in the hall, I had to remove it.
I complied and removed the bodycam. As soon as they believed the camera was off, they informed me that I was being expelled from the event. I was escorted out of the venue, leaving my partner and son inside.
Ultimate Pool produced an “incident report” which I believed contained inaccurate information and which was contradicted by my recording. When I challenged the report, Ultimate Pool told me that unless I agreed it was accurate, I would be banned from all their competition venues. They then carried out their threat: I was banned entirely — not only from competing, but even from attending events as a spectator.
This means I cannot accompany my son to his competitions or watch him play.”
Lynne is now taking legal action, and you can help here:
Click here to get involved, find out more and donate through Crowdjustice
