'Paul was fun': Reflecting on snooker's taken talent a score of years on.

All the young snooker player always wished to do was practice the game.

A sporting bug, sparked at the age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his parents' coffee table in Leeds, would lead to a life on the tour that saw him win six major trophies in six years.

Now marks a score of years since the popular Hunter passed away from cancer, just days before to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But notwithstanding the loss of a once-in-a-generation player that went beyond the sport he adored, his enduring mark on the sport and those who knew him remain as vibrant now.

'His passion was clear': A Childhood Obsession

"We could not have predicted in a billion years our son would become a career sportsman," his mother recalls.

"However he just adored it."

His dad recalls how his son "wasn't bothered about anything else" besides snooker as a young boy.

"He never stopped," he notes. "He practiced every night after school."

After repeatedly pleading with his dad to take him to a community venue to play on regulation tables at the age of eight, the aspiring talent made the transition from miniature games with remarkable ease.

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

Quick Success: From Teenager to Champion

With his mother and father's requests to do his homework regularly going unheeded as training came first, his parents took the "gamble" of taking Hunter out of school at the fourteen years old to fully focus on building a career in the game.

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

Considered one of snooker's hardest tournaments to win because of the lineup featuring only the top competitors, Hunter won a trio of times, in consecutive years.

'A Gracious Competitor': The Man Behind the Cue

But for all his achievements in competition, away from the game Hunter's approachable nature never deserted him.

"He had a great temperament did Paul," Alan says. "He connected with everybody."

"If you met him you'd take to him," Kristina states. "He brought joy. He'd make you relaxed."

Hunter's partner Lindsey, with whom he had a daughter, describes him as an "wonderful, youthful, and fun personality" who was "humorous, caring" and "typically the final guest at the party".

With his easy charm, youthful appearance and straight-talking media manner, not to mention his considerable talent, Hunter quickly became snooker's leading figure for the new 21st Century.

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

Facing Adversity: A Fight Against Cancer

In 2005, a year that should have been the zenith of his talent, Hunter was diagnosed with cancer and would later undergo aggressive treatment.

Multiple stories from across the professional tour highlight the man's extraordinary willingness to honor obligations to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while enduring treatment.

Despite difficult symptoms, Hunter played on through the illness and received a tumultuous reception at The famous Sheffield venue when he turned out for the World Championships that year.

When he succumbed in the mid-2000s, snooker's close-knit fraternity lost one of its best-loved members.

"It is tragic," Kristina says. "No parent should experience any mum and dad to lose a child."

A Lasting Impact: Giving Back

Hunter's true impact would be felt not in palaces and castles but in community venues across the UK.

The charity in his name, set up before his death, would provide no-cost coaching to children all over the country.

The initiative 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 significant coaching programme, which has extended playing opportunities to children internationally.

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

Never Forgotten: 20 Years Later

Classic footage of their son's matches via the internet help his parents stay "connected to him".

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

"We don't mind talking about Paul," she continues. "Before it would be tears, but I'd rather somebody mention him than him not be spoken of."

While he never won the World Championship, the highly probable notion that Hunter would have secured 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 Paul Hunter Trophy.

But for all his accomplishments, 20 years after his death it is Paul Hunter's spirit, as much his spectacular skill with a cue, that will ensure he is never forgotten.