🔗 Share this article 'Paul was fun': Honoring the game's lost great a score of years on. The snooker star claimed The Masters thrice during a brief yet brilliant career. Everything Paul Hunter ever wanted to do was practice the game. A sporting bug, developed at the tender age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his family's living room table in the city of Leeds, would culminate in a pro playing days that saw him secure six major trophies in six years. The present year marks a score of years since the popular Hunter passed away from cancer, days short to his 28th birthday. But notwithstanding the loss of a once-in-a-generation player that went beyond the game he loved, his influence and memory on the sport and those who followed his career remain as vibrant now. 'His passion was clear': The Formative Years "We'd never have known in a billion years Paul would become a professional snooker player," Hunter's mum recalls. "However he just loved it." Alan Hunter recounts how his son "showed no interest in anything else" other than snooker as a child. "He was relentless," he says. "He would play every night after school." A prodigy: Hunter was acquainted with snooker from the toddler years. After repeatedly pleading with 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 natural ability would be nurtured by the former world title holder Joe Johnson, from nearby Bradford, at a now closed venue in the area of Yeadon. Metoric Ascent: The Path to Glory With his mother and father's requests to do his homework increasingly falling on deaf ears as training came first, 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 a short period, their adolescent had won his maior professional trophy, the Welsh Open of 1998. Considered one of snooker's most difficult competitions to win because of the involvement of exclusively the best, Hunter won on three occasions, in the early 2000s. 'A Gracious Competitor': The Man Behind the Cue But for all his success on the table, away from the game Hunter's approachable nature never faded. "He was incredibly composed did Paul," Alan says. "He connected with everybody." "If you met him you'd like him," Kristina states. "He brought joy. He'd make you comfortable." Hunter's wife Lindsey, with whom he had a child, describes him as an "incredible, lively, and kind spirit" who was "witty, generous" and "always the last to leave the party". With his effortless appeal, 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 nicknamed 'The Snooker World's Beckham'. Facing Adversity: A Fight Against Cancer In the mid-2000s, a year that should have marked the height of his career, Hunter was diagnosed with cancer and would later undergo aggressive treatment. Multiple accounts from across the professional tour speak of the man's extraordinary commitment to keep promises to charity matches, tournaments, and media duties, all while going through treatment. Despite gruelling side effects, Hunter continued to compete through the illness and received a rapturous applause at The Crucible Theatre when he competed in the World Championships that year. When he died in autumn 2006, snooker's close-knit fraternity lost one of its cherished personalities. "It is tragic," Kristina says. "No parent should experience any mum and dad to lose a child." A Lasting Impact: Inspiring Youth Hunter's true legacy would be felt not in high society but in community venues across the UK. The charity in his name, set up before his death, would provide accessible training to youths all over the country. The scheme was so successful that, according to reports, local youth crime rates in some areas plummeted. "The goal was for a platform to help offer a constructive activity," one organizer said. The Foundation helped lay the groundwork for a huge coaching programme, which has provided playing opportunities to children all over the world. "Paul would have loved what we've done with the sport and where it is today," a senior official in the sport stated. Always Remembered: 20 Years Later Classic footage of their son's matches via the internet help his parents stay "close to him". "I can bring it up and I can watch Paul anytime," Kristina says. "It's marvellous!" "We are happy to speak about Paul," she adds. "Before it would be tears, but I'd rather somebody remember him than him not be spoken of." Even though he never won the World Championship, the widespread belief that Hunter would have gone on to lift snooker's greatest prize is a part of the sport's folklore. The Masters, the competition with which he is most synonymous, begins 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 spirit, as much his spectacular skill with a cue, that will ensure he is forever celebrated.
The snooker star claimed The Masters thrice during a brief yet brilliant career. Everything Paul Hunter ever wanted to do was practice the game. A sporting bug, developed at the tender age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his family's living room table in the city of Leeds, would culminate in a pro playing days that saw him secure six major trophies in six years. The present year marks a score of years since the popular Hunter passed away from cancer, days short to his 28th birthday. But notwithstanding the loss of a once-in-a-generation player that went beyond the game he loved, his influence and memory on the sport and those who followed his career remain as vibrant now. 'His passion was clear': The Formative Years "We'd never have known in a billion years Paul would become a professional snooker player," Hunter's mum recalls. "However he just loved it." Alan Hunter recounts how his son "showed no interest in anything else" other than snooker as a child. "He was relentless," he says. "He would play every night after school." A prodigy: Hunter was acquainted with snooker from the toddler years. After repeatedly pleading with 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 natural ability would be nurtured by the former world title holder Joe Johnson, from nearby Bradford, at a now closed venue in the area of Yeadon. Metoric Ascent: The Path to Glory With his mother and father's requests to do his homework increasingly falling on deaf ears as training came first, 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 a short period, their adolescent had won his maior professional trophy, the Welsh Open of 1998. Considered one of snooker's most difficult competitions to win because of the involvement of exclusively the best, Hunter won on three occasions, in the early 2000s. 'A Gracious Competitor': The Man Behind the Cue But for all his success on the table, away from the game Hunter's approachable nature never faded. "He was incredibly composed did Paul," Alan says. "He connected with everybody." "If you met him you'd like him," Kristina states. "He brought joy. He'd make you comfortable." Hunter's wife Lindsey, with whom he had a child, describes him as an "incredible, lively, and kind spirit" who was "witty, generous" and "always the last to leave the party". With his effortless appeal, 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 nicknamed 'The Snooker World's Beckham'. Facing Adversity: A Fight Against Cancer In the mid-2000s, a year that should have marked the height of his career, Hunter was diagnosed with cancer and would later undergo aggressive treatment. Multiple accounts from across the professional tour speak of the man's extraordinary commitment to keep promises to charity matches, tournaments, and media duties, all while going through treatment. Despite gruelling side effects, Hunter continued to compete through the illness and received a rapturous applause at The Crucible Theatre when he competed in the World Championships that year. When he died in autumn 2006, snooker's close-knit fraternity lost one of its cherished personalities. "It is tragic," Kristina says. "No parent should experience any mum and dad to lose a child." A Lasting Impact: Inspiring Youth Hunter's true legacy would be felt not in high society but in community venues across the UK. The charity in his name, set up before his death, would provide accessible training to youths all over the country. The scheme was so successful that, according to reports, local youth crime rates in some areas plummeted. "The goal was for a platform to help offer a constructive activity," one organizer said. The Foundation helped lay the groundwork for a huge coaching programme, which has provided playing opportunities to children all over the world. "Paul would have loved what we've done with the sport and where it is today," a senior official in the sport stated. Always Remembered: 20 Years Later Classic footage of their son's matches via the internet help his parents stay "close to him". "I can bring it up and I can watch Paul anytime," Kristina says. "It's marvellous!" "We are happy to speak about Paul," she adds. "Before it would be tears, but I'd rather somebody remember him than him not be spoken of." Even though he never won the World Championship, the widespread belief that Hunter would have gone on to lift snooker's greatest prize is a part of the sport's folklore. The Masters, the competition with which he is most synonymous, begins 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 spirit, as much his spectacular skill with a cue, that will ensure he is forever celebrated.