🔗 Share this article 'He was a joy': Reflecting on the sport's taken talent two decades on. The snooker star won The Masters thrice during a brief yet brilliant career. All the Leeds-born talent ever wanted to do was compete on the baize. A sporting bug, caught at the very young age of three with the help of a miniature snooker set on his family's living room table in the city of Leeds, would lead to a professional career that saw him secure six major trophies in half a dozen years. Now marks a score of years since the popular Hunter succumbed to cancer, mere days prior to his twenty-eighth birthday. But despite the loss of a phenomenal skill that rose above the pastime he cherished, his influence and memory on the game and those who were close to him remain as vibrant now. 'He just loved it': The Formative Years "We could not have predicted in a million years the boy would become a professional snooker player," Hunter's mum states. "But he just was passionate about it." Alan Hunter recounts how his son "showed no interest in anything else" besides snooker as a youth. "He was relentless," he adds. "He would play every night after school." Beginning young: Hunter was introduced to snooker from the toddler years. After persistently asking his dad to take him to a nearby hall to play on regulation tables at the age of eight, the aspiring talent made the jump from table top snooker with remarkable ease. His raw skill would be nurtured by the 1986 World Champion Joe Johnson, from the adjacent city, at a now former establishment in the area of Yeadon. Quick Success: From Teenager to Champion With his parents' pleas to do his homework increasingly falling on deaf ears as the game dominated, his parents took the "chance" of taking Hunter out of school at the fourteen years old to fully concentrate on building a career in the game. It proved a masterstroke. Within half a decade, their adolescent had won his initial major win, the 1998 Welsh Open. Considered one of snooker's toughest events to win because of the presence of only the top competitors, Hunter won on three occasions, in 2001, 2002 and 2004. 'Paul was fun': A Legacy of Character But for all his triumphs in the sport, away from the game Hunter's humble charm never deserted him. "He had a great temperament did Paul," Alan says. "He was liked by everybody." "Upon meeting him you'd like him," Kristina continues. "Paul was fun. He'd make you relaxed." Hunter's wife Lindsey, with whom he had a child, describes him as an "wonderful, youthful, and fun personality" who was "humorous, caring" and "typically the final guest at the party". With his easy charm, boyish good looks and honest interview style, not to mention his immense skill, Hunter quickly became snooker's leading figure for the new millennium. No wonder then, that he was dubbed 'The Snooker World's Beckham'. Courage in Crisis: His Final Years In 2005, a year that should have been the height of his career, Hunter was diagnosed with cancer and would later undergo aggressive treatment. Multiple accounts from across the professional tour attest to the man's extraordinary dedication to honor obligations to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while undergoing treatment. Despite gruelling side effects, Hunter played on through the illness and received a tumultuous reception at The World Championship arena when he played at the World Championships that year. When he died in October 2006, snooker's family-like circuit lost one of its most popular brothers. "It's awful," Kristina says. "It is a terrible thing for any mum and dad to go through that pain." A Lasting Impact: Giving Back Hunter's true legacy would be felt not in royal circles but in snooker halls and clubs across the UK. The foundation he inspired, set up before his death, would provide no-cost coaching to children all over the country. The initiative was so successful that, according to reports, anti-social behavior in some areas fell sharply. "The goal was for a platform to help get kids off the street," one coach said. The Foundation helped lay the groundwork for a major coaching programme, which has provided playing opportunities to children globally. "Paul would have loved what we've done with the sport and where it is today," a chairman in the sport stated. Forever in Memory: A Lasting Presence Archive videos of their son's matches online help his parents stay "connected to him". "I can access it and I can watch Paul whenever I wish," Kristina says. "It's wonderful!" "We like to reminisce about Paul," she adds. "Before it would be tears, but I'd rather somebody remember him than him not be recalled." Even though he never won the World Championship, the highly probable notion that Hunter would have eventually won snooker's ultimate trophy is a part of the sport's folklore. The Masters, the competition with which he is most associated, starts later this month. The winner will lift the Paul Hunter Trophy. But for all his accomplishments, a generation after his death it is Paul Hunter's character, as much his dazzling snooker ability, that will ensure he is always remembered.
The snooker star won The Masters thrice during a brief yet brilliant career. All the Leeds-born talent ever wanted to do was compete on the baize. A sporting bug, caught at the very young age of three with the help of a miniature snooker set on his family's living room table in the city of Leeds, would lead to a professional career that saw him secure six major trophies in half a dozen years. Now marks a score of years since the popular Hunter succumbed to cancer, mere days prior to his twenty-eighth birthday. But despite the loss of a phenomenal skill that rose above the pastime he cherished, his influence and memory on the game and those who were close to him remain as vibrant now. 'He just loved it': The Formative Years "We could not have predicted in a million years the boy would become a professional snooker player," Hunter's mum states. "But he just was passionate about it." Alan Hunter recounts how his son "showed no interest in anything else" besides snooker as a youth. "He was relentless," he adds. "He would play every night after school." Beginning young: Hunter was introduced to snooker from the toddler years. After persistently asking his dad to take him to a nearby hall to play on regulation tables at the age of eight, the aspiring talent made the jump from table top snooker with remarkable ease. His raw skill would be nurtured by the 1986 World Champion Joe Johnson, from the adjacent city, at a now former establishment in the area of Yeadon. Quick Success: From Teenager to Champion With his parents' pleas to do his homework increasingly falling on deaf ears as the game dominated, his parents took the "chance" of taking Hunter out of school at the fourteen years old to fully concentrate on building a career in the game. It proved a masterstroke. Within half a decade, their adolescent had won his initial major win, the 1998 Welsh Open. Considered one of snooker's toughest events to win because of the presence of only the top competitors, Hunter won on three occasions, in 2001, 2002 and 2004. 'Paul was fun': A Legacy of Character But for all his triumphs in the sport, away from the game Hunter's humble charm never deserted him. "He had a great temperament did Paul," Alan says. "He was liked by everybody." "Upon meeting him you'd like him," Kristina continues. "Paul was fun. He'd make you relaxed." Hunter's wife Lindsey, with whom he had a child, describes him as an "wonderful, youthful, and fun personality" who was "humorous, caring" and "typically the final guest at the party". With his easy charm, boyish good looks and honest interview style, not to mention his immense skill, Hunter quickly became snooker's leading figure for the new millennium. No wonder then, that he was dubbed 'The Snooker World's Beckham'. Courage in Crisis: His Final Years In 2005, a year that should have been the height of his career, Hunter was diagnosed with cancer and would later undergo aggressive treatment. Multiple accounts from across the professional tour attest to the man's extraordinary dedication to honor obligations to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while undergoing treatment. Despite gruelling side effects, Hunter played on through the illness and received a tumultuous reception at The World Championship arena when he played at the World Championships that year. When he died in October 2006, snooker's family-like circuit lost one of its most popular brothers. "It's awful," Kristina says. "It is a terrible thing for any mum and dad to go through that pain." A Lasting Impact: Giving Back Hunter's true legacy would be felt not in royal circles but in snooker halls and clubs across the UK. The foundation he inspired, set up before his death, would provide no-cost coaching to children all over the country. The initiative was so successful that, according to reports, anti-social behavior in some areas fell sharply. "The goal was for a platform to help get kids off the street," one coach said. The Foundation helped lay the groundwork for a major coaching programme, which has provided playing opportunities to children globally. "Paul would have loved what we've done with the sport and where it is today," a chairman in the sport stated. Forever in Memory: A Lasting Presence Archive videos of their son's matches online help his parents stay "connected to him". "I can access it and I can watch Paul whenever I wish," Kristina says. "It's wonderful!" "We like to reminisce about Paul," she adds. "Before it would be tears, but I'd rather somebody remember him than him not be recalled." Even though he never won the World Championship, the highly probable notion that Hunter would have eventually won snooker's ultimate trophy is a part of the sport's folklore. The Masters, the competition with which he is most associated, starts later this month. The winner will lift the Paul Hunter Trophy. But for all his accomplishments, a generation after his death it is Paul Hunter's character, as much his dazzling snooker ability, that will ensure he is always remembered.