Mandy Fisher

Fisher started playing snooker at the age of 16.^[2] She founded the World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Association (WLBSA) in 1981^[3] and in addition to playing, led the administrative side of the sport in the 1980s and 1990s.^[2][4]

She was the losing finalist at the 1981 World Women's Snooker Championship.^[2] In 1983 she became the first woman to reach the last 128 of the English Amateur Championship.^[5] In 1984, she defeated Canadian Maryann McConnell 4–2 to win the first professional women's title.^[2] In 1984, the National Express sponsored a five-month, five-tournament grand prix circuit, with a £60,000 prize fund, and which was broadcast on regional television channels. Sixteen of the top-ranked women turned professional and competed in the series. Fisher eventually won, and her winnings of £14,000 in the season took her to twelfth place – just behind three-time men's world champion John Spencer – in the professional snooker money-winners' list for the year.^[3][5]

In the 1980s Fisher featured regularly on the snooker exhibition circuit, competing with players such as Steve Davis, Jimmy White and Alex Higgins.^[2][6]

Fisher played while heavily pregnant in the early 1990s, with a midwife on standby, and later lamented that this was deemed more newsworthy than women players demonstrating their skill.^[7][8][9] Barry Hearn, later the World Snooker chairman, forced Fisher to wear maternity clothing to mark this in front of media at London's Hyde Park.^[1]

In 2011, Fisher stepped down from the World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Association^[6] but took office again in 2013.^[10][11][12]

Fisher is also a podiatry professional, working in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire.^[2][6]