By Elliott West
“I was about five or six and I remember having a snooker table cake for my birthday”.
Maria Catalano
Introduction
As a great champion of women being represented in sport, I am always enthused when I hear a new announcement, especially in snooker. So I was very happy to find out that this year with the start of the World Seniors Snooker being held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield that Jason Francis has made the bold decision to include a female player in the lineup. The player in question is Maria Catalano, the cousin of Ronnie O’Sullivan.
Maria will play the talented Egyptian snooker player, Wael Talaat in her first match on 05/05/2022, a man who has already made headway on the African snooker scene and was briefly on the main tour in 2016, thanks to winning the African Snooker Championship and has won the ABSF Snooker Championship on three occasions in 2007, 2009 and 2011.
The Female Touch
Maria Catalano was born in 1982 and is now 40 years old and used to play snooker on the local circuit in the Stourbridge League and Woodfield in the West Midlands League and started at the Brierley Hill Snooker Club. A former player on the Women’s Tour, Maria has previously been number one in the rankings in the 2014-14 season and has a string of snooker titles to her name. These include the Northern Championship in 2005, 2006 and 2011, Connie Gough National in 2006, 2007 2008, 2013 and 2017, Regal Ladies Championship in 2006, British Championship in 2007, British Open in 2007, East Anglian Championship in 2011 and the UK Ladies Championship in 2012. She has also been a runner-up in these and other tournaments.
A player who described her ambition in 2016 to win the Women’s World Snooker Championship, she has reached the final on numerous occasions, most recently in 2018, losing to Hong Kong’s Ng On Yee. A lady who is clearly an extremely talented player, Catalano made her highest break of 116 during her semi-final World Championship win against Tatiana Vasiljeva in 2012, before losing 5-3 to Reanne Evans.
A lady who has also had some success in pool as well, playing in America and winning the Florida State Championships and one beat Steve Davis in a snooker exhibition and recently quite a few tips from her cousin Ronnie O’Sullivan and often practised with him when she was younger. A family member who she considers to be a genius.
Rather like her cousin in his past, Maria often plays with a hairband and away from the snooker table, she works full-time within a family-owned ice cream business in Dudley. An 11-time ranking event winner, Catalano is an accomplished snooker player and it would be a delight to see her lift the trophy at his year’s World Seniors at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
