The life and legacy of snooker champion and Masters champion Paul Hunter

All Paul Hunter wanted to do was play snooker.

An athletic quirk was discovered when he was three years old with the help of a small snooker game sitting on his parents’ coffee table in their Leeds home, culminating in a professional career that saw him win six major titles in six years.

This year marks 20 years since the beloved fisherman died of cancer, days before his 28th birthday.

But despite the loss of a generational talent beyond the game he loved, his legacy and influence on snooker and those who knew him remains as strong as ever.

“We never knew in a billion years that Paul would become a professional snooker player,” says Hunter’s mother, Christina.

“But he liked it.”

Hunter’s father Alan recalls how his son “wasn’t bothered by anything else” apart from snooker when he was a child.

“It never stopped,” he says. “He played every night after school.”

After successfully convincing his father to take him to a local club to play on full-sized tables at the age of eight, the young angler took the leap from table top snooker with aplomb.

His mercurial talent would be nurtured by 1986 world champion Joe Johnson, from neighboring Bradford, at a now-defunct club in the north Leeds suburb of Yeadon, a few miles from their home.

“He had to stand on a box and use the rest most of the time,” recalls David Lamb, who watched the young Hunter play at Yeadon and then at nearby Conservative club Guiseley.

“It showed what can be achieved if you put a lot of effort into it, because snooker is hard work. It takes hours and hours of practice to get your cues right.”

Lamb’s friend Michael Spence says his first impression of seeing teenage Hunter play at Guiseley was that it was “unbelievable”.

“I would watch him train, often with his best friend Matthew Stevens,” he says.

“He was a great player.”

With his parents’ pleas to do his homework increasingly falling on deaf ears as practice took priority, Alan and Christina took the ‘gamble’ of taking Hunter out of school at the age of 14 to focus fully on forging a career in the game.

It has paid off in spades. Within five years, their then-teenage son won his first rankings title, the 1998 Welsh Open. A year later, he entered the top 16 in the world and as a result qualified to play in the prestigious Masters tournament.

It is considered one of the most difficult snooker tournaments to win due to the presence of only elite players, and Hunter has won three times in 2001, 2002 and 2004.

But for all his success at the table, away from the game, Hunter’s real-life charisma never left him. Many of those interviewed remember his “cheeky” sense of humor and a man who was always gracious in defeat.

“He had a great temperament, as did Paul,” Alan says. “He reached out to everyone.

“A referee once told me that Paul was the only player who said ‘please’ when he asked for the rest. When he gave it back he said ‘thank you’.”

“If you meet him you will love him,” Christina adds. “Paul was fun. He would make you feel comfortable.”

Hunter’s widow Lindsay, with whom he had daughter Evie, describes him as a “beautiful, amazing, cheeky young soul” who was “funny and kind” and “always the last one to leave the party”.

With his easy charm, boyish good looks and honest interviewing style, not to mention his sheer talent, Hunter quickly became the snooker star of the new 21st century.

No wonder then that he was christened the ‘Beckham of the Bays’.

According to Christina, “He once walked into his grandmother and great-grandmother’s house and she said ‘Oh Beckham of the Bays.’ Paul looked at her and said ‘No, I’m Paul.’”

“Did he like it? Yeah, I don’t think he cared, but he was like, ‘I’m Paul.'”

In 2005, a year that was supposed to mark the peak of his abilities, Hunter was diagnosed with cancer and would later undergo chemotherapy.

Multiple tales from around the snooker circuit attest to the man’s extraordinary willingness to fulfill his commitments to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while undergoing treatment.

The money he donated was used to buy soft toys for children in the Bexley ward at Leeds Cancer Centre, at St James’s Hospital, where he attended his own appointments.

Despite the harsh side effects, Hunter continued to play through the illness and received a standing ovation at the Crucible Theater in Sheffield, when he competed in that year’s World Championship.

When he died in October 2006, the close-knit snooker family lost one of its most popular brothers.

“He was given an 80 percent chance of living,” Christina says. “The odds were very good. It didn’t work out.

“It’s terrible. I wouldn’t wish any mum or dad to lose a child.

“I think all the players thought he would be fine and come back. This will be a shock for them.”

At their son’s funeral, at Leeds Parish Church, Alan remembers people “queuing in front of the church” and lining the road behind it.

“We did not expect the turnout,” he says. “They loved him at Leeds.”

Forever Beckham of the Bays, Hunter’s parents will receive “the biggest bunch of flowers you can imagine”, as well as a message of condolence from Princess Zara Phillips, whom he and Alan met at Royal Ascot a few years ago.

It’s hard to imagine many other snooker players, past or present, transcending the sport to the point of rubbing shoulders with royalty.

However, Hunter’s true legacy will not be felt in palaces and castles, but in snooker halls and clubs across the UK.

The Paul Hunter Foundation, set up before his death with the help of his wife Lindsay and late manager Brandon Parker, will provide free snooker sessions to children across the country.

Chris Lovell, Head of Training and Director of Training Development at the World Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), helped deliver several sessions that focused on etiquette and behaviour, as well as table skills.

He says the scheme has been very successful, according to police in the Lancashire town of Accrington, where local youth crime has fallen significantly.

“The idea was a platform to help keep kids off the streets,” Mr Lovell says.

“Snooker has always been a game that is open to itself, respects its fans and believes in the grassroots. We were able to do things we wouldn’t normally be able to do because we were doing it in memory of Paul.”

“This has been an honor for you and you are very humbled by it.”

The Foundation will help lay the foundation for WPBSA’s massive training program, which has expanded playing opportunities for children around the world over the past 15 years.

The organization says that women’s game and disability snooker are among the branches of the sport that have particularly benefited.

“Paul would have loved what we did with the sport and where it is today,” says Jason Ferguson, WPBSA president.

“When he was playing, there were six, seven or eight events [a year] maximum. Now there are 20 events worldwide. He would have been very accepting of that.”

Lindsay says she and Evie are “so proud of Paul’s legacy and what his charity has done for so many young and upcoming players.”

Classic footage of their son’s matches posted on YouTube helps Christina and Alan stay “close to him.”

“I can bring this up, and I can watch Paul anytime,” Christina says. “It’s great!

“I can see him walking and moving.

“Some people don’t want to talk [when they’re grieving]But we don’t mind talking about Paul. Before there were tears, but I’d rather have someone speak up than not mention it at all.

“We have [Paul’s sister] Leanne, we have grandchildren and you take each day as it comes. “I can’t believe it’s been almost 20 years.”

Alan adds: “I can talk about Paul 24/7. I’m proud of that.”

Although he never won a world championship, the very likely notion that Hunter would have gone on to lift snooker’s greatest prize in Sheffield is etched in the folklore of the sport.

The Masters, the competition for which he is best known, begins at Alexandra Palace in north London later this month. The winner will lift the Paul Hunter Trophy.

But for all his achievements, two decades after his death, it is the character of Paul Hunter, as dazzling as his snooker ability, that will ensure he will never be forgotten.