Remembering ‘Snooker Spice’ Paul Hunter

Variously dubbed ‘Snooker Spice’ or ‘The Beckham of the Baize’, the colourful career of the prodigiously talented Leeds cueman Paul Hunter was tragically cut short by stomach cancer.
SNOKER SPICE: Paul Hunter during his World Snooker semi-final match against Ken Doherty at The Crucible Theatre in May 2003. PA: Rui Vieira.SNOKER SPICE: Paul Hunter during his World Snooker semi-final match against Ken Doherty at The Crucible Theatre in May 2003. PA: Rui Vieira.
SNOKER SPICE: Paul Hunter during his World Snooker semi-final match against Ken Doherty at The Crucible Theatre in May 2003. PA: Rui Vieira.

When he died in 2006, five days short of his 28th birthday, the sport came together to mourn a player who had enjoyed more success – and accrued more column inches – in his abbreviated career than most manage in a lifetime.

The blond-maned Leeds star won three Masters titles, all in final frame deciders, and reached the World Championship semi-finals in 2003, losing by another final frame decider to Ken Doherty.

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Following his 2001 Masters final win over Fergal O’Brien, Hunter hit the headlines by revealing the unorthodox way in which he had sought fresh momentum after trailing 6-2 at the end of the opening session.

“Sex was the last thing on my mind,” recalled Hunter, who had retired to his dressing room with his girlfriend, Lindsey Fell. “But I had to do something to break the tension.

“It was a quick session – around 10 minutes or so – but I felt great afterwards. She jumped in the bath, I had a kip and then played like a dream.”

Hunter made a memorably disastrous appearance on the BBC’s Superstars programme in 2003. “There were 39 athletes and me,” Hunter told The Independent. “There was only me who smoked and drank.”

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The Paul Hunter Classic was named in his honour in 2010. The Paul Hunter Foundation continues to give disadvantaged, able bodied and disabled youngsters an opportunity to play snooker.

Meanwhile, it is 35 years since Dennis Taylor won the 1985 final on the final black – the greatest Crucible decider of them all.

The Northern Irishman had trailed red hot favourite Steve Davis 9-1 before a remarkable comeback saw him prevail 18-17 in the early hours in front of millions of BBC2 viewers.

Taylor was famed for his upside down glasses and he told the Betfred Punters’ Guide Podcast: “BBC commentator Jack Karnehm was the person that made my upside down glasses and he made the pair that I won the World Championship with. I wouldn’t have won it without Jack making those glasses.”

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