His first ranking tournament
victory came at the 1998 Regal
Welsh Open, where he defeated
no fewer than seven players to
lift the title. Paul Wykes,
Neal Foulds, Steve Davis,
Nigel Bond, Alan McManus and
Peter Ebdon all fell at the
hands of the 19-year-old,
before he overcame World
Champion-elect John Higgins
9-5 in the final. He followed
up that success by reaching
the semi-finals of the 1998
Liverpool Victoria UK
Championship in Bournemouth
and was named the Snooker
Writers Association's Young
Player of the Year for that
year.
Hunter's first appearance at
the Crucible came in 1999,
where he lost 10-8 in the
first round to the eventual
champion Stephen Hendry. His
form that season elevated him
to number 12 in the 1999/2000
world rankings resulting in
automatic qualification into
the final stages of ranking
tournaments for the first
time.
After a below par 1999/2000
campaign, demoting him to
number 14 in the 2000/2001
world rankings, he announced
his arrival as a genuine force
at the top of the professional
game by reaching the
quarter-final stage or better
of six tournaments the
following season. He was a
runner-up at the Regal Welsh
Open, a semi-finalist at the
British Open and Regal
Scottish Open and a
quarter-finalist at the Grand
Prix and China Open - but he
saved his best form for the
Benson & Hedges Masters.
Masters champion
In the 2001 Benson & Hedges
Masters, Hunter beat his close
friend and defending champion
Matthew Stevens 6-5 in the
last 16, Peter Ebdon 6-3 in
the quarter-finals and Stephen
Hendry 6-4 in the semi-finals
before recovering from a 7-3
deficit against Fergal O'Brien
to win the final 10-9. The
match turned on pivotal
eleventh frame, where Hunter
looked like trailing 8-3 but
recovered to reduce his
deficit to 7-4, before
knocking in four centuries in
six frames on his way to a
famous 10-9 victory.
Twelve months on and he
retained his title but it
didn't get any less exciting
along the way. After a
relatively straight-forward
6-3 victory at the round of 16
stage over Stephen Lee, Hunter
triumphed in final frame
shoot-outs against Peter Ebdon
in the last eight, Alan
McManus in the semi-finals and
most memorably coming from 5-0
down to beat Mark Williams
10-9 in the final. In doing
so, he became only the third
player in history to retain
the Masters trophy.
It represented a fantastic
start to the year for Hunter,
who only two weeks earlier had
lifted his second Regal Welsh
Open title, gaining revenge
over the man who beat him 9-2
in the previous year's final,
Ken Doherty. Two months on, he
was defeated in the first
round at the Crucible for the
third time in four years but
nothing could deny the
23-year-old of a trophy-filled
2002.
His success was to continue at
the 2002 British Open, staged
in Telford, where he captured
his third ranking title by
beating Ian McCulloch 9-4 in
the final. A third successive
Masters title, however, was a
bridge too far for him in
2003, as he bowed out 6-3 in
the semi-finals to the
previous year's runner-up and
eventual champion Mark
Williams. His greatest success
that campaign, though, was
only a few months away.
World championship success
After his best ever season, in
which he had been a contender
in virtually every tournament
he played, it was time for the
Yorkshireman to perform in the
biggest tournament of all, and
that he most certainly did. In
the 2003 Embassy World
Championship, he beat Allister
Carter 10-5, Matthew Stevens
13-6 and defending champion
Peter Ebdon 13-12 in an epic
encounter to reach the
semi-finals.
In the last four, he
established a 15-9 overnight
lead over Ken Doherty by
playing some of the best
snooker of the tournament. It
was only an inspired Doherty
comeback, winning eight of the
remaining nine frames, that
would deny him a place in his
first Crucible final. The
2002/2003 campaign was still
his most consistent, winning
one title, reaching a further
four semi-finals and three
quarter-finals. It earned him
a place in the world's top
eight in the 2003/2004 world
rankings for the first time in
his career, having been ranked
number nine for the previous
two seasons.
In 2003/2004, his biggest
achievement of another
successful season was winning
the Masters for the third time
in four years. The final was
arguably the most dramatic of
all his Masters triumphs,
trailing Ronnie O'Sullivan
throughout the entire match
before pipping him to the
trophy in the final frame. In
fact, Hunter trailed 2-0, 6-1,
7-2, 8-6 and 9-7 before
reeling off the final three
frames to seal the sixth title
of his professional career.
The great sportsman
Not even Hunter could deny
Jimmy White a first ranking
title in nearly 12 years at
the 2004 Daily Record Players
Championship, although it
looked as if one of his
trademark comebacks was on the
cards. Trailing fellow-crowd
favourite White 8-5, he
reduced his deficit to 8-7
before White sealed victory in
the next frame. It may not
have been a victory for Hunter
on the table, but the genuine
humility and affection he
showed his boyhood hero after
the match underlined his
impeccable sportsmanship,
displayed towards all his
opponents on and off the table
throughout his career.
His season ended at the hands
of Matthew Stevens in the
second round at the Crucible,
losing an epic 13-12, having
lead 10-6 and 12-10. Hunter
had chances to clinch the
match in each of the final
three frames but was on the
wrong end of a Crucible
comeback for the second
successive year. He was,
nevertheless, magnaninous once
again in defeat as he embraced
his close friend after the
match.
Hunter was quick out of the
blocks the following season,
reaching the semi-finals of
the 2004 Totesport Grand Prix
but it was to be the last time
that the Yorkshireman would
reach that stage in a ranking
event. He did, however, reach
the last eight of the China
Open in March-April 2005, just
days after discovering that he
was suffering from cancer. His
career-high ranking was number
four in the world during the
2004/2005 season, which
dropped to number five in
2005/2006.
Later years and illness
Hunter and Lyndsey Fell
married in the summer of 2004
in Jamaica. On 26 December
2005, Lyndsey gave birth to
their first and only child,
daughter Evie Rose, who
weighed 8 lbs, 2 oz.
On 6 April 2005, Hunter
announced that he was
suffering from malignant
neuroendocrine tumours, a rare
form of stomach cancer. A
spokesman for the World
Professional Billiards and
Snooker Association said at
the time: "Paul will undergo
treatment to cure himself of
this illness. He would like to
reassure his fans and
supporters that, as with his
snooker career, he is
tenacious and positive in his
fight against the disease."
He returned to the circuit for
the start of the following
season, but lost to Rory
McLeod in the opening round of
the Grand Prix tournament,
having only returned to
practice 2 weeks earlier, and
not confirming his
participation until three days
before the match.
Hunter, a smoker, had been
receiving chemotherapy for his
illness and had been
struggling to find form since
beginning treatment. He
dropped out of the World's top
32 in the rankings after
losing 10-5 to Neil Robertson
at the World Championship.
It is believed that Hunter's
treatment was of limited
success and that he was often
in some pain. On 27 July 2006,
the WPBSA confirmed that,
following a members' vote, the
organisation's rules would be
changed to allow Hunter to sit
out the entire 06/07 season
with his world ranking frozen
at 34. He intended to devote
the year to treatment for his
cancer.
Death
Hunter died on October 9 2006
- just five days short of his
28th birthday - at the
Kirkwood Hospice in
Huddersfield. His funeral took
place on October 19 2006.
Following his death, thousands
of tributes poured in from
some of the most famous names
in snooker:
World Snooker chairman Sir
Rodney Walker said: "I'm
sure that everyone who met
Paul, as well as his millions
of fans and the sporting
public as a whole, will join
me in sending most sincere
sympathies to Lyndsey, Paul's
parents, his family and
friends. Paul was a man who
had everything going for him –
an outstanding talent, good
looks, fame, riches, charm and
a beautiful wife. This shows
us just how quickly life can
change. It’s a bitter blow for
snooker but most importantly
for his family and our
thoughts are with them."
Stephen Hendry said:
"I'm absolutely devastated by
the news. He’s got a young
family and he had a fantastic
future in front of him. It’s
everyone’s worst nightmare and
puts everything into
perspective."
John Parrott, the 1991
world champion and a member of
the BBC TV snooker team, said:
"It's a great loss to the
sport but more importantly
than that, it's a great loss
to his family. Paul played the
game with a smile on his face.
He was a bright and bubbly
character and I never heard
him complain. He was always
such a happy person. We’re all
going to miss him, very much."
Jimmy White, six times
World Championship finalist,
revealed he was playing for
Hunter's charity when he heard
of the news: "I was halfway
through the exhibition and a
guy gave £10,000 to the
charity, and then we got the
news", he said. "He was a
tiger on the snooker table,
but off the table you couldn't
have met a nicer fellow. As
soon as he got beaten, or he
won, he was back to Paul
Hunter, and that's a very hard
quality to have. I can't tell
you how special he was. He was
a credit to life."
Ken Doherty, the 1997
World Champion, paid tribute
to Hunter calling him a 'great
character': "It's a very sad
day, not only for snooker but
also for the sporting world",
said Doherty. "We've lost a
great character and champion
and a great friend. It's a
shocking loss." He added:
"Everybody was dumbfounded
when he was diagnosed with the
disease. In someone so young
we all thought he would come
through it after chemotherapy.
Words can't explain what his
family must be going through
and they are all in our minds
and our prayers."
Prior to the Premier League
Snooker matches on October 12
2006, players Jimmy White,
Ronnie O'Sullivan, Ken Doherty
and Ding Junhui, along with
referee Alan Chamberlain and
commentators Willie Thorne and
Phil Yates, all stood for a
moment of silence to remember
Hunter. There was also a short
video tribute.
Fellow professionals Stephen
Hendry, Mark Williams and Ken
Doherty have led calls for The
Masters trophy to be named in
Hunter's memory. [5]
Hunter's funeral took place at
Leeds Parish Church on 19
October, 2006.
