The English Blackball Pool Federation have won!

This result makes me so happy.

RMW is really clueless about male physical advantage, isn't he? And with no concept of the disadvantages women face in having periods, childbirth and more of the childcare.

Plus, the social side of getting in pool practice in a masculine, often misogynist environment. This case keeps reminding me of "The Accused", with Jodie Foster, which I remember as having her gang-raped against a snooker table. I have obviously misremembered though, as I looked it up and it seems the rape was shown against a pinball machine. It turns out though, that it was based on a true story where the victim was indeed gang-raped against a pool table. This article, if you can stomach it, describes not only the crime but support for the perpetrators and harrassment of the victim.

"Over 16,000 people signed petitions requesting leniency for the convicted men. After the trial, both Araujo [the victim] and her sister moved to Miami due to the harassment they received. Even the O’Neills, who helped Araujo in the aftermath of the assault, received death threats for aiding the victim and testifying for the prosecution."

On a practical note, I see that when the EBPF ran an anonymous suggestion-box consultation, overwhelmingly the comments were about toilets and, as the judge rightly said, this would be an issue if TW were only spectating rather than playing. So if we ever find ourselves in this position (please God none of us have to go through what these good people did) - phrase your questions very carefully and do not throw the resulting bits of paper away. You never know now when you might end up in court.

That’s really interesting about how the court came to the conclusion of a gender affected sport. That there is no threshold for the magnitude of male advantage, just that it exists.

Interesting comment from a barrister, Barbara Rich on X

This judgment about sex/gender discrimination and participation in a specific sport also contains a cold water dousing of the wider argument that the FWS judgment is incompatible with the ECHR. Crowdfunding promoters in other cases arguing this should alert their supporters to it

This is of course a county court judgement, but it is good to see the reasoning the judge has used as to why FWS isn't incompatible with the ECHR. There is a screenshot of the relevant section of the judgement in Barbara's tweet

https://x.com/BarbaraRich_law/status/1951258555979301005

I'd have loved to be a fly on the wall when RMW and JR read the judgement. 🤭

My quote came from the publisher’s blurb on that very piece of legal fiction explanation.

I wonder how it’s holding up in light of FWS?

I liked this.

https://x.com/fondofbeetles/status/1951220248125784513?s=46

Don’t forget White’s book! The one that was going to explain it all! The definitive guide.

Plus always a bonus to see RMW the ‘Go to’ lawyer for trans matters and has an extensive practice in heavyweight discrimination finding that one’s arse does indeed get handed to one.

So much winning!😁

Mr Champ is a lawyer that seems to mostly specialise in property disputes, with a bit of dallying in human rights and employment law.

i think he might have been a bit out of his depth.

It’s a very odd newspaper.

ISWYDT 🤣

Yes, that wasn’t how I read it, even though I rolled my eyes at the wording about it not being proportional in the absence of FWS if there was no fairness issue. He’s reaching a bit there!

But, a query... we hear a lot about ECHR wading in and following Goodwin - does the Judge's reasoning give a dampner to that? Am not au fait with the detail (Hey Mr Champ, wanna give me a job?!) so would welcome other's expert views!

It's a bold take from Mr Champ, as the judgement seemed to spend a lot of time saying in legalese 'am a bit baffled by the argument they tried to prosecute'

'Darn, if it weren't for those meddling laws, I'd have got away with it'

It's almost like saying they only lost at a deeply technical level. 🤭

The account/analysis of the testimony of the nuclear physicist and the pool-playing mechanical engineer (complete with asides) is terrific, reminiscent of the heyday of the Big Bang Theory.

That’s exactly how I read it. If only the law didn’t make theft illegal you would totally have been absolutely fine to knock over that shop.

Sad times.

So basically Mr Champ seems to be saying that if only the law had been different and the rules about legal precedent did not require a first-instance tribunal judge to follow the rulings in a SC judgement <insert sad face emoji>, they would totally have won!

Anyone else read it like that?

Reporter ex Guardian and Manchester Evening News, the paper that lives up to its acronym.

The whole article is an exercise in damage limitation, I think. Sad film of Haynes talking about his mother. Ridiculous and inaccurate headline. Careful omission of any views to the contrary, mention of Lynn Pinches, women affected, no quotes from anyone other than Haynes and his lawyer. Why is the Independent so weirdly anti women?

Indeed. That, plus the rest of the quote above, makes me think that Mr Champ was reading a different decision than the rest of the planet.