World Women's Snooker, founded as the World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Association (WLBSA) in 1981, and known as World Ladies Billiards and Snooker (WLBS) from 2015 to 2018, is a subsidiary company of the

World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) is the governing body of professional snooker and English billiards based in Bristol, England. It owns and publishes the official rules of the two sports and engages in promotion ...

concerned with governing and promoting

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...

and

billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . There are three major subdivisions of ...

for women.

Precursors

Women's Snooker and Billiards had been governed by the

Women's Billiards Association The Women's Billiards Association (WBA), founded in 1931 and based in London, United Kingdom, was the governing body for women's English billiards and snooker, and organised the Women's Professional Billiards Championship and Women's Professi ...

(WBA), formed in 1931. However, the last professional billiards and snooker championships organised by the WBA were those held in 1950, and by the early 1970s the organisation had "fallen on hard times" according to leading snooker journalist and author

Clive Everton Clive Harold Everton (born 7 September 1937) is a sports commentator, journalist, author and former professional snooker and English billiards player. He founded ''Snooker Scene'' magazine, which was first published (as ''World Snooker'') in ...

. A Women's Billiards & Snooker Association (WBSA) was formed in 1976, and in 1978 appointed Wally West, snooker club owner, and holder of the world record break of 151, as Secretary. The Association organised the 1976 Women's World Open snooker championship and further

championships In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

in 1980 and 1981.

World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Association (WLBSA), 1981–2015

Mandy Fisher Mandy Fisher (born in April 1962) is an English former professional snooker player and a World Women's Snooker Championship winner in 1984. Fisher founded the World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Association (now known as World Women's Snooker) i ...

, a leading woman player, founded the World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Association (WLBSA) in 1981. The WLBSA held its first open snooker competition in Leeds in March 1982, and within a couple of years, the WBSA lost control of snooker to the WLBSA. In 1997, the

(WPBS) started providing support and prize money for WLBSA tournaments, but the WPBSA's support for the women's circuit stopped in 2002 following the loss of income due to the UK government's restrictions on tobacco sponsorship of sport.

World Ladies Billiards and Snooker (WLBS), 2015–2018

The WLBSA was restructured as a subsidiary of the

in 2015, and became a full member of the World Snooker Federation in 2017. It was known as World Ladies Billiards and Snooker from July 2015 to November 2018.

World Women’s Snooker, 2018–present

In November 2018 the WLBSA was renamed as World Women's Snooker, and is responsible for women's snooker and billiards and the women's ranking list.

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:World Women's Snooker Snooker governing bodies Organisations based in Bristol Sports organizations established in 1981 Snooker in the United Kingdom