US Edition Paul Hunter, who died on Monday aged 27, was an exceptionally gifted young snooker player whose talents promised to take him to the very top of the professional game; he had already won British snooker's prix d'honneur, the Benson & Hedges Masters, three times and had been tipped as a potential world champion.
Not only was he an accomplished and sportsmanlike exponent of the game, Hunter also had the charisma and blond good looks that led him to be known as the "Beckham of the baize". He compiled 114 competitive century breaks in the course of his career, including, last year, a personal record break of 146.
Paul Alan Hunter was born on October 14 1978 in Leeds, where he attended Cardinal Heenan High School. As a boy, encouraged by his family and friends, he spent many hours at the practice table, and by the time he was 12 was already recognised as an outstanding junior talent.
Guided by two seasoned snooker professionals — Jimmy Michie and the former world champion, Joe Johnson — young Paul made his professional debut in July 1995 when he was 16. He was immediately hailed as a teenage prodigy.
The following year he became one of the youngest players ever to reach the last four of a major snooker event when he was a semi-finalist in the Welsh Open.
His first ranking tournament victory came in 1998 when he won the Regal Welsh Open, beating John Higgins in the final. The Snooker Writers' Association named him young player of the year.
Hunter's burgeoning career faltered only briefly when he began to neglect practice in favour of boozy late-night parties; but he quickly recognised the pitfalls of life on the professional snooker circuit and knuckled down.
He recorded one of his greatest triumphs at the 2001 Masters at Wembley. Finding himself 6-2 down, he retired to his hotel room and went to bed with his fiancée, Lindsey Fell. Hunter later admitted that, although he had not been in the mood, "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. I reeled off four centuries in six frames. I won easily."
Having also won both the Welsh and British Opens in 2002, Hunter achieved a remarkable hat-trick by winning the Wembley Masters three times in four years.
In 2003 he reached the semi-final of the World Championship at the Sheffield Crucible, only to lose by one frame to the Irishman Ken Doherty.
Hunter continued his rise through the rankings; in 2003 he reached the top eight, and the next year the top four. Also in 2004, he won the British Open and Regal Welsh tournaments for a second time, but was diagnosed with testicular cancer.
In April last year, Hunter, a smoker, announced that he was suffering from neuroendocrine tumours. He returned to the circuit at the start of the new season, but lost the opening round of his first tournament and struggled to find his form after receiving chemotherapy.
Last July, following a members' vote, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association changed its rules to allow Hunter to sit out the entire current season with his world ranking frozen at 34.
Paul Hunter, who died five days short of his twenty-eighth birthday, married Lindsey Fell in 2004; she survives him with their daughter, who was born on Boxing Day last year.