'He was a joy': Reflecting on snooker's lost great two decades on.

Everything the young snooker player ever wanted to do was compete on the baize.

A sporting bug, caught at the age of three with the help of a small snooker set on his parents' coffee table in his Leeds home, would result in a life on the tour that saw him win six major trophies in half a dozen years.

Now marks 20 years since the adored Hunter passed away from cancer, mere days prior to his 28th birthday.

But in spite of the loss of a once-in-a-generation player that rose above the game he loved, his influence and memory on the game and those who knew him remain as powerful today.

'The game was his life': The Formative Years

"We could not have predicted in a billion years the boy would become a pro on the circuit," Hunter's mum says.

"But he just adored it."

Alan Hunter recalls how his son "cared little for anything else" except for snooker as a young boy.

"He was relentless," he adds. "He practiced every night after school."

After successfully badgering his dad to take him to a nearby hall to play on professional-standard tables at the age of eight, the young Hunter made the leap from home play with aplomb.

His mercurial talent would be coached by the 1986 World Champion Joe Johnson, from neighbouring Bradford, at a now closed venue in the Leeds district of Yeadon.

Quick Success: A Star is Born

With his mother and father's requests to do his homework increasingly falling on deaf ears as practice took priority, his parents took the "risk" of taking Hunter out of school at the fourteen years old to fully dedicate himself to carving out a career in the game.

It proved a masterstroke. Within a short period, their still-teenage son had won his first ranking title, the 1998 Welsh Open.

Considered one of snooker's toughest events to win because of the presence of only the top competitors, Hunter was victorious three times, in the early 2000s.

'A Cheeky Charm': A Legacy of Character

But for all his success on the table, away from the game Hunter's humble charm never left him.

"He was incredibly composed did Paul," Alan says. "He was liked by everybody."

"When encountering him you'd take to him," Kristina states. "He was enjoyable. He'd make you relaxed."

Hunter's wife Lindsey, with whom he had a child, describes him as an "amazing, young cheeky beautiful soul" who was "witty, generous" and "never the first to depart from the party".

With his easy charm, boyish good looks and straight-talking media manner, not to mention his considerable talent, Hunter quickly became snooker's poster boy for the new 21st Century.

No wonder then, that he was dubbed 'The Beckham of the Baize'.

A Brave Battle: His Final Years

In that year, a year that should have marked the zenith of his talent, Hunter was told he had cancer and would later undergo chemotherapy.

Multiple stories from across the professional tour highlight the man's extraordinary commitment to fulfill commitments to charity matches, tournaments, and media duties, all while enduring treatment.

Despite harsh reactions, Hunter played on through the illness and received a standing ovation at The Crucible Theatre when he turned out for the World Championships that year.

When he passed away in October 2006, snooker's close-knit fraternity lost one of its best-loved members.

"It is tragic," Kristina says. "I wouldn't wish any mum and dad to lose a child."

A Foundation for the Future: The Paul Hunter Foundation

Hunter's true impact would be felt not in high society but in local sports centers across the UK.

The foundation he inspired, 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 aim remained for a program to help offer a constructive activity," one official said.

The Foundation helped lay the groundwork for a huge coaching programme, which has provided playing opportunities to children all over the world.

"It would have thrilled him what we've done with the sport and where it is today," a senior official in the sport stated.

Never Forgotten: 20 Years Later

Classic footage of their son's matches via the internet help his parents stay "in touch with his memory".

"I can bring it up and I can watch Paul anytime," Kristina says. "It's wonderful!"

"We don't mind talking about Paul," she continues. "At first it was sad, but I'd rather somebody remember him than him not be recalled."

Although he never won the World Championship, the widespread belief that Hunter would have gone on to lift snooker's ultimate trophy is etched into the sport's history.

The Masters, the competition with which he is forever linked, starts later this month. The winner will lift the trophy named in his honor.

But for all his achievements, 20 years after his death it is Paul Hunter's spirit, as much his dazzling snooker ability, that will ensure he is always remembered.