Overview

• Canterbury County Court dismissed Harriet Haynes’s discrimination claim against the EBPF under the Equality Act after the Supreme Court defined a woman as biologically female
• His Honour Judge Parker ruled that pool is a gender-affected sport in which average male players hold a consistent advantage on the break, making exclusion by birth sex the only effective way to ensure fair competition
• The judgment marked the first application of the UK’s new legal definition of “woman” to sports eligibility rules, underscoring the impact of the April Supreme Court decision
• Haynes has been ordered to pay the EBPF’s legal costs in full, a ruling the federation said reflected its resolve as the only UK pool body to maintain the ban
• Ms Haynes’s legal team has announced it is weighing an appeal, setting the stage for further challenges to transgender inclusion policies across British sports