Paul Hunter remembered: Death of ‘the Beckham of the Baize’ 10 years ago is still hard to take for family and fellow stars
THREE-TIME Masters champ was just 27 when he fell victim to a rare stomach cancer at the peak of his powers and popularity
EVIE ROSE looks at pictures on the wall of her grandad’s house as she learns about ‘Daddy Paul’.
About a stunning lad who illuminated a sport when the light was threatening to fade.
A flash of colour across a green baize that was here and then, all too soon, gone.
Paul Hunter was at the peak of his powers, the prime of his life, when he got a nagging pain in his side. Within two years he was dead. He was 27.
A rare stomach cancer ripped the three-time Masters champ of his strength and of his trademark braided blond hair.
It took away the feeling in his hands and so the talent with his cue.
It denied snooker a superstar and denied Evie Rose her daddy — just ten months after she was born. Sunday marked ten years since Paul died.
His best friend, and two-time world championship finalist, Matthew Stevens helped carry his coffin into Leeds Parish Church. He said: “He was a character, a great talent, everyone loved him.
“He was so laid-back, probably the nicest guy I ever met. I miss those chats and laughs. We used to talk rubbish but it was funny.
“I went to see him a couple of days before he died. I had a call from his parents to say he is not going to make it and went up to Leeds, to the hospice.
“It was horrible, seeing him like that. It was really hard. He was unconscious at the time and I just gave him a kiss.”
Stevens wipes his face as the memories come rushing back.
Alex Higgins took on the mantle of the people’s champion in the 1970s, the baton was passed to Jimmy White in the 1980s and later Ronnie O’Sullivan.
But snooker needed a boost in the mid-1990s and it came in the form of a young Leeds lad, dubbed “the Beckham of the Baize” for his looks and style.
His three Masters victories at Wembley between 2001 and 2004 are legendary.
He came back from five frames down in two and four in another, beating each of Fergal O’Brien, Mark Williams and O’Sullivan on the final frame to win 10-9.
He famously put his first win against O’Brien down to “Plan B” — a romp with his wife-to-be Lindsey Fell back at his hotel before the final’s evening session.
Williams was his second Masters final victim. He said: “I will never forget it. I was 5-0 up and he won 10-9. He was one of the best under pressure.
“He would have won the world championship maybe two or three times.”
The third of those Masters titles, to go with two Welsh Open crowns and the British Open, was won by the time he was 25. Two years later he was dead.
“Whirlwind” White was one of those in Leeds Parish Church a decade ago when Hunter’s coffin was carried in. The whole of snooker had turned out to pay tribute.
This was no celebration of a life, it was a tragic, heart-wrenching occasion and there was not a dry eye when wife Lindsey arrived with daughter Evie Rose and placed a white rose on the coffin.
O’Sullivan broke down crying outside the church afterwards.
White said this week: “His style of play and his looks brought the game into the modern era. He gave it a buzz.”
Paul’s dad, Alan, went everywhere with his son during his career. He says life still feels “empty” now without him.
Alan turns up to some tournaments to see old friends and was in Manchester this week at the English Open.
He goes to Germany to present the trophy for the Paul Hunter Classic.
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From next year, the Masters trophy will be renamed in Paul’s honour, something the sport feels is long overdue.
Alan said: “It is great. It means it keeps his name alive, his memory.”
Paul also has a foundation that has raised more than £1.2million to help disadvantaged kids into snooker.
Alan is still close to Lindsey, who has remarried, and dotes on his grand-daughter. He said: “She has a bit of X factor like her dad, she is swimming for the school, does gymnastics.
“She is asking questions about what he was like, she knows he was a good-looking kid. She has a lot of pictures of her own.
“She asks questions about when he started playing snooker.”
Evie Rose will be 11 in December. She has a picture next to her bed of “Daddy Paul”, the dad she never knew but will never forget.