Speaking Out On ‘Inequality’ In Snooker

Appearing on national television, Snooker player Rebecca Kenna spoke out on sexual inequality in the game. Kenna was filmed in Keighley for an episode of BBC’s show, The One, which aired on Monday 25th March at 7 pm. That comes at a time when Bonus Code Bets are offering the Heart Bingo code to those interested in trying their luck with bingo.

During the interview, the 30-year-old snooker player revealed that some clubs in Keighley don’t allow women to participate. As a result, she couldn’t compete in snooker games while playing for the Cross Hills and District Snooker League. Rebecca said she had to quit the league in 2018after she failed to convince the league to make the clubs stage away fixtures to allow her to play.

Today, the Keighley-native ranks third in the World Women Snooker tour. Rebecca hopes that speaking out on the issue will encourage more women to pick up the cue. That’s even thoughsnooker is highly male-dominated. 

According to Rebecca, girls will continue thinking that snooker is a male sport if they only see men playing it on television. However, the expert snooker player believes that women can also be as competitive with the cue as men or even better.

While asked to respond on the issue, Cross Hills and District Snooker League chairman David Greene said their league rules change every year. Greene revealed that these rules are voted by league delegates, with each representing his club. He further added that there’s no rule in the league that stops women from competing in the league.

In his response, David Greene admitted that while there’s no rule limiting women in the league, individual clubs have the freedom to admit or reject them. Unfortunately, the snooker league has no say in their rules despite years of trying.

Green revealed that he wrote to the two clubs to permit Rebecca to play in their clubs when her teams were due. However, his requests fell on deaf ears every single time as no one would allow Rebecca to play in their club. They wouldn’t even allow it, even when Reene suggested they let in to play her frame and leave right away.

For years, Rebecca and the Snooker league committee tried to resolve the issue to encourage women to embrace the cue without success. They even suggested various ideas like reversing fixtures and disallowing teams that don’t allow women in the league. However, the league members voted against these ideas, and they never reached the implementation stage.

Together, the two clubs which don’t allow women to contribute four teams in total. That means the small league would most likely fail without the four teams backing them. As such, it’s quite unfortunate that the clubs have chosen not to change their rules to incorporate women. 

The league chairman said the league officials are extremely proud of Rebecca’s achievement despite the challenges that have been there. He also added that the league is not to blame for individual club rules as they have always wanted to see women participate.