A MAJOR break-through in the snooker world will take place when a 52-year-old mum becomes the first female player in the Barry & District league.

Kim James, of Barry, will play for the Market Street C second division side on Thursday, August 30 – following a 25-year battle to be accepted into the male-dominated sport.

The mum of two, who works as a nursery nurse at Rhoose’s Passport to Play, previously worked in the pub trade where she developed a love of the game.

She said: “I started to go to the Chalk & Cue Club on Broad Street where I started to mess about playing snooker with the lads.

“I joined the R.A.F.A. club, Porthkerry Rd, in 1985 and Market St Club around the same time as I worked there in those days.

“I just enjoyed being around the lads, having a good laugh, and just played.

“I really enjoyed it, never had designs of being any good, just equal to my mates, at the R.A.F.A club.

“When I had been playing for a few years the delegate said: “play in the team”.

“I thought “yes, sounds good”, knowing I wouldn't really be allowed in any of the clubs - just two or three.

“That was the deal.

“The delegate would ask on my behalf.

“Six or seven years we asked.

“Every year it was “no”.

“This was around the early 90s until about the seventh year there was a vote – 15 to 13 against.”

Mrs James hoped the next year would be her time to play, but there was no vote and the name was changed to the Barry & District Male league - meaning she was unable to try joining.

She said: “Being younger then I really didn’t think about the how’s and ways to challenge this on sexual discrimination grounds so I just let it go, carried on playing, but lost interest a little.

“Some of the men in my own club would scrub their name and drop down to play in another doubles game which I wasn’t in.

“As the years went on they changed and played on my side as they knew I was equally as good as most of them.

“When I moved to the Market St club, when the R.A.F.A. closed 12 years ago, I regained my love for playing and over the years they had said join the team.

“I had to explain I couldn't and why, but clubs were changing and the divisions in the leagues getting less and less from five to now only two.

“So, in the last year my club friends asked me to join the team again.

“I was told to put a letter in to the league asking to be allowed to play.

“I gave them a heartfelt letter expressing the anguish I had felt over the years, watching 12-year-old boys in the snooker rooms and I was not even allowed in the room.

“On this it was proposed they would have a vote at the AGM and I was granted to be able to play and the name to be changed to Barry & District United Clubs League.”

Mrs James added that she hopes other women will now get involved in the sport and now that she had been accepted she would be practicing at least once or twice a week for a few hours at a time.