Mandy Fisher#Career Highlights
{{short description|English snooker and billiards player (born 1962)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2019}}
{{Infobox snooker player
| name = Mandy Fisher
| image =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1962|4}}[http://www.womensportreport.com/the-woman-who-has-run/wn/13070 The woman who has run ladies snooker for 30 years has retired] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180118213949/http://www.womensportreport.com/the-woman-who-has-run/wn/13070 |date=18 January 2018 }} Women Sport Report, 17 April 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
| birth_place = England
| Sport country = {{ENG}}
| Professional =
| High ranking =
| Official maximums =
| Best finish = 1984 Women's Grand Prix (snooker)
| medals-expand =
| medals =
}}
Mandy Fisher (born in April 1962) is an English former professional snooker player and a World Women's Snooker Championship winner in 1984.{{efn|The event was known as the World Professional Championship at the time.}} Fisher founded the World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Association (now known as World Women's Snooker) in 1981 and currently serves as the president.
Career
Fisher started playing snooker at the age of 16.[https://www.womenssnooker.com/board-member/mandy-fisher/ Board Members – Mandy Fisher] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190422184456/https://www.womenssnooker.com/board-member/mandy-fisher/ |date=22 April 2019 }} Women's World Snooker. Retrieved 20 July 2019 She founded the World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Association (WLBSA) in 1981{{cite news |last=McNee |first=Sandy |date=7 November 1989 |title=In search of the big break – Snooker |work=The Times |via=NewsBank }} and in addition to playing, led the administrative side of the sport in the 1980s and 1990s.[https://www.wpbsa.com/restructure-for-world-ladies-snooker/ Restructure For World Ladies Snooker] World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, 5 December 2015. Retrieved 20 July 2019
She was the losing finalist at the 1981 World Women's Snooker Championship. In 1983 she became the first woman to reach the last 128 of the English Amateur Championship.{{cite book |last=Morrison |first=Ian |date=1987 |title=The Hamlyn Encyclopedia of Snooker |location=Twickenham |publisher=Hamlyn Publishing Group |page=42 |isbn=0600556042 }} In 1984, she defeated Canadian Maryann McConnell 4–2 to win the first professional women's title. 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.
In the 1980s Fisher featured regularly on the snooker exhibition circuit, competing with players such as Steve Davis, Jimmy White and Alex Higgins.
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.{{cite news |author= |title=Mum-to-be Mandy's on cue for a really special delivery |work=Newcastle Journal |location=p.3 |date=30 October 1991 |via=The British Newspaper Archive. Retrieved 1 September 2019.|quote=Although eight-and-a-half months pregnant, she is set to play in the quarter-finals of the Forte Hotels Ladies World Championship on November 7}}{{cite news |last=Everton |first=Clive |date=8 November 1991 |title=Sport in Brief – Snooker |work=The Guardian |location=p.21 |via=ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Guardian and The Observer. Retrieved 1 September 2019.|quote=Allison Fisher beat ... Mandy Fisher 5–0 to reach the semi-finals ... yesterday. Mandy, who had a baby on Sunday...}}{{cite news |last=Briggs |first=Gemma |date=17 February 2008 |title=Girl power that's just as driven: Even the men believe that a woman's touch can raise the profile of a sport |work=The Observer |via=NewsBank |quote=In snooker, some players have found that pregnancy can work to their advantage. Mandy Fisher, chair and founder of World Ladies Billiards and Snooker, played while heavily pregnant in the early 1990s. 'I had a maternity dress and my slippers on and there was a midwife on standby,' she says. 'The shame was, it was the most publicity we had. It was not because of the skill.' }} 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.
In 2011, Fisher stepped down from the World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Association{{cite news |last=Caney |first=Gavin |date=11 April 2011 |title=Fenland's Mandy Fisher steps down after 30 years of running ladies' snooker |url=https://www.cambstimes.co.uk/sport/fenland-s-mandy-fisher-steps-down-after-30-years-of-running-ladies-snooker-1-872905 |work=CambsTimes |access-date=20 July 2019 |archive-date=20 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190720135735/https://www.cambstimes.co.uk/sport/fenland-s-mandy-fisher-steps-down-after-30-years-of-running-ladies-snooker-1-872905 |url-status=dead }} but took office again in 2013.{{Cite web |title=Thailand to Host 2019 World Women's Championship |work=World Women's Snooker |access-date=8 August 2019 |url=https://www.womenssnooker.com/thailand-to-host-2019-world-womens-championship/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190808152655/https://www.womenssnooker.com/thailand-to-host-2019-world-womens-championship/ |archive-date=8 August 2019 }}{{Cite web |title='You're a girl, you can't play snooker at the Crucible' |publisher=BBC News |access-date=8 August 2019 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-47732213 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190808224656/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-47732213 |archive-date=8 August 2019}}{{cite web |url=http://snookerscene.blogspot.com/2013/12/2013-in-snooker-hits-and-misses.html |title=2013 in Snooker: The Hits and Misses |last=Hendon |first=Dave |website=Snooker Scene Blog |date=18 December 2013 |access-date=13 September 2019}}
Personal life
Career highlights
| class="wikitable"
! Outcome !! No. !! Year !! Championship !! Opponent !! Score !! Ref. |
| scope="row" style="background:#98FB98"| Winner
|| 1 || 1980 || Pontins Women's Champion || Sian Newbury || 3–2 || |
|---|
| scope="row" style="background:#ffa07a;"|Runner-up
|| 2 || 1981 || Women's World Open || Vera Selby || 0–3 || |
| scope="row" style="background:#98FB98"| Winner
|| 3 || 1984 || National Express Grand Prix || round-robin || || |
Notes
{{notelist}}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{World Women's Snooker champions|state=expanded}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fisher, Mandy}}
Category:English snooker players
Category:Female snooker players