🔗 Share this article 'He was a joy': Honoring the game's departed star a score of years on. The snooker star secured The Masters three times during a compact but stellar career. Everything the Leeds-born talent ever wanted to do was play snooker. A competitive passion, developed at the tender age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his parents' coffee table in his Leeds home, would lead to a pro playing days that saw him claim six significant titles in half a dozen years. Now marks two decades since the popular Hunter succumbed to cancer, mere days prior to his 28th birthday. But in spite of the passing of a phenomenal skill that went beyond the sport he adored, his influence and memory on snooker and those who were close to him persist as vibrant now. 'He just loved it': Early Beginnings "We could not have predicted in a billion years the boy would become a pro on the circuit," Kristina Hunter says. "Yet he just was passionate about it." Hunter's father recalls how his son "wasn't bothered about anything else" other than snooker as a child. "He was relentless," he says. "He would play every night after school." Beginning young: Hunter was introduced to snooker from the age of three. After successfully badgering his dad to take him to a community venue to play on professional-standard tables at the age of eight, the aspiring talent made the jump from table top snooker with remarkable ease. His mercurial talent would be coached by the 1986 World Champion Joe Johnson, from the adjacent city, at a now former establishment in the area of Yeadon. Metoric Ascent: The Path to Glory With his mother and father's requests to do his homework often being ignored as the game dominated, his parents took the "risk" of taking Hunter out of school at the fourteen years old to fully focus on building a career in the game. It paid off in spades. Within half a decade, their still-teenage son had won his initial major win, the Welsh Open of 1998. Considered one of snooker's hardest tournaments to win because of the involvement of exclusively the best, Hunter won on three occasions, in the early 2000s. 'Paul was fun': The Man Behind the Cue But for all his achievements in competition, away from the game Hunter's humble charm never faded. "He had a great temperament did Paul," Alan says. "He got on with everybody." "If you met him you'd take to him," Kristina states. "He was enjoyable. He'd make you relaxed." Hunter's wife Lindsey, with whom he had a child, describes him as an "amazing, young cheeky beautiful soul" who was "witty, generous" and "never the first to depart from the party". With his natural likability, youthful appearance and candid way with the press, not to mention his prodigious ability, Hunter quickly became snooker's poster boy for the new 21st Century. No wonder then, that he was nicknamed 'The Beckham of the Baize'. Courage in Crisis: His Final Years In 2005, a year that should have signaled the zenith of his talent, Hunter was told he had cancer and would later undergo cancer therapy. Multiple accounts from across the snooker circuit highlight the man's extraordinary commitment to keep promises to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while undergoing treatment. Despite harsh reactions, Hunter played on through the illness and received a rapturous applause at The World Championship arena when he played at the World Championships that year. When he died in the mid-2000s, snooker's tight community lost one of its most popular brothers. "The pain is immense," Kristina says. "It is a terrible thing for any mum and dad to go through that pain." A Foundation for the Future: Inspiring Youth Hunter's true legacy would be felt not in high society but in snooker halls and clubs across the UK. The Paul Hunter Foundation, 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 plummeted. "The aim remained for a platform to help offer a constructive activity," one official said. The Foundation helped pave the way for a huge coaching programme, which has opened up playing opportunities to children internationally. "It would have thrilled him what we've done with the sport and where it is today," a leading figure in the sport stated. Forever in Memory: Two Decades On Historic matches of their son's matches online help his parents stay "close to him". "I can watch it and I can watch Paul whenever I wish," Kristina says. "It's marvellous!" "We don't mind talking about Paul," she concludes. "Initially it was painful, but I'd rather somebody remember him than him not be recalled." While he never won the World Championship, the widespread belief that Hunter would have eventually won snooker's greatest prize is etched into the sport's folklore. The Masters, the competition with which he is most synonymous, commences later this month. The winner will lift the Paul Hunter Trophy. But for all his successes, two decades after his death it is Paul Hunter's character, as much his spectacular skill with a cue, that will ensure he is never forgotten.
The snooker star secured The Masters three times during a compact but stellar career. Everything the Leeds-born talent ever wanted to do was play snooker. A competitive passion, developed at the tender age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his parents' coffee table in his Leeds home, would lead to a pro playing days that saw him claim six significant titles in half a dozen years. Now marks two decades since the popular Hunter succumbed to cancer, mere days prior to his 28th birthday. But in spite of the passing of a phenomenal skill that went beyond the sport he adored, his influence and memory on snooker and those who were close to him persist as vibrant now. 'He just loved it': Early Beginnings "We could not have predicted in a billion years the boy would become a pro on the circuit," Kristina Hunter says. "Yet he just was passionate about it." Hunter's father recalls how his son "wasn't bothered about anything else" other than snooker as a child. "He was relentless," he says. "He would play every night after school." Beginning young: Hunter was introduced to snooker from the age of three. After successfully badgering his dad to take him to a community venue to play on professional-standard tables at the age of eight, the aspiring talent made the jump from table top snooker with remarkable ease. His mercurial talent would be coached by the 1986 World Champion Joe Johnson, from the adjacent city, at a now former establishment in the area of Yeadon. Metoric Ascent: The Path to Glory With his mother and father's requests to do his homework often being ignored as the game dominated, his parents took the "risk" of taking Hunter out of school at the fourteen years old to fully focus on building a career in the game. It paid off in spades. Within half a decade, their still-teenage son had won his initial major win, the Welsh Open of 1998. Considered one of snooker's hardest tournaments to win because of the involvement of exclusively the best, Hunter won on three occasions, in the early 2000s. 'Paul was fun': The Man Behind the Cue But for all his achievements in competition, away from the game Hunter's humble charm never faded. "He had a great temperament did Paul," Alan says. "He got on with everybody." "If you met him you'd take to him," Kristina states. "He was enjoyable. He'd make you relaxed." Hunter's wife Lindsey, with whom he had a child, describes him as an "amazing, young cheeky beautiful soul" who was "witty, generous" and "never the first to depart from the party". With his natural likability, youthful appearance and candid way with the press, not to mention his prodigious ability, Hunter quickly became snooker's poster boy for the new 21st Century. No wonder then, that he was nicknamed 'The Beckham of the Baize'. Courage in Crisis: His Final Years In 2005, a year that should have signaled the zenith of his talent, Hunter was told he had cancer and would later undergo cancer therapy. Multiple accounts from across the snooker circuit highlight the man's extraordinary commitment to keep promises to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while undergoing treatment. Despite harsh reactions, Hunter played on through the illness and received a rapturous applause at The World Championship arena when he played at the World Championships that year. When he died in the mid-2000s, snooker's tight community lost one of its most popular brothers. "The pain is immense," Kristina says. "It is a terrible thing for any mum and dad to go through that pain." A Foundation for the Future: Inspiring Youth Hunter's true legacy would be felt not in high society but in snooker halls and clubs across the UK. The Paul Hunter Foundation, 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 plummeted. "The aim remained for a platform to help offer a constructive activity," one official said. The Foundation helped pave the way for a huge coaching programme, which has opened up playing opportunities to children internationally. "It would have thrilled him what we've done with the sport and where it is today," a leading figure in the sport stated. Forever in Memory: Two Decades On Historic matches of their son's matches online help his parents stay "close to him". "I can watch it and I can watch Paul whenever I wish," Kristina says. "It's marvellous!" "We don't mind talking about Paul," she concludes. "Initially it was painful, but I'd rather somebody remember him than him not be recalled." While he never won the World Championship, the widespread belief that Hunter would have eventually won snooker's greatest prize is etched into the sport's folklore. The Masters, the competition with which he is most synonymous, commences later this month. The winner will lift the Paul Hunter Trophy. But for all his successes, two decades after his death it is Paul Hunter's character, as much his spectacular skill with a cue, that will ensure he is never forgotten.