BGC golf day - STARS COME OUT FOR HUNTER FOUNDATION LAUNCH - 15/16th may 2007

It was a roller coaster season for Ronnie O’Sullivan, victory at the Saga Wembley Masters, defeat by eventual winner John Higgins at the 888.com World Championship and his now infamous walkout against Stephen Hendry at the Maplin UK Championship.

But O’Sullivan won’t remember the 2006-2007 season for any of those reasons. It was the death of his friend and rival Paul Hunter that cast the biggest shadow over his campaign. And so it was he spoke movingly about the tragic Yorkshire ace during the official launch of the Paul Hunter Foundation at Goodwood House in Sussex.

O’Sullivan was among many fellow professionals and celebrities who attended the function. He was accompanied by partner Jo Langley who was eight months pregnant at the time. "When Paul died, I didn’t take it very well to be honest," admitted the emotional Essex star. "It never really hit me until I actually got to his funeral. 

He was young and a fighter and he had this happy, smiling personality which I thought would pull him through the cancer."

"When I got to the church and I saw his wife Lindsey and their little baby Evie, I thought ‘This is wrong’.  I took it very badly. Paul is in my thoughts a lot.  I have a little girl myself and to know Paul is not able to have that time with his family hurts.  “It’s an awful thing to have happened. Horrible. One of the saddest things I’ve ever experienced."

"Losing Paul really put everything into perspective. Paul was a fantastic person and a fantastic player" added O’Sullivan.  "He was always an optimist and well-liked by everybody. To keep Paul’s memory going and to have this charity is brilliant.  It would have been terrible if nothing like this had happened.  All of us snooker players want to support Paul because he was a good friend to all of us."

"There was always a rivalry between me and Paul.  He was one of the top players.  But Paul was the sort of person who, whether he’d just won or lost, you could never tell – he took losing the same way as winning."  "We were competitive on the table but, as soon as we came off the table, Paul would be the first to say ‘Come on, let’s go and have a drink…’  He was a good spirit."

"Hunter achieved most things in the sport-apart from winning the world title. Many believed it was only a question of time. You can never really tell what someone’s going to do," said the ‘Rocket.’  "The biggest compliment I can pay Paul is that he was one of the few players that it didn’t matter what you’d done, because he was so good that when he was on you couldn’t keep him under wraps. Sometimes you hadn’t done anything wrong, but he kind of murdered you.  You’re sitting there thinking ‘It doesn’t look like he’s going to miss…’  He just put you under so much pressure."

 "I never played Jimmy White when he was at his absolute prime, but Stephen Hendry once told me that when Jimmy was on song there was nothing you could do. The only players I’ve known like that are Stephen Hendry and Paul Hunter.  Paul was an amazing talent.  He could have won 6 Masters, 2 World titles, 2 UK’s…. He was 27-add another 13 years on to that and think what he could have won…he could have been up there with the all-time greats."

O’Sullivan has won two world championships but should have probably won more. "I know I’m capable, but I know I need to sharpen up my game a little bit," he says.  "We’ll have to wait and see really, but I think having a family will help me because I get so locked in to what I’m doing that sometimes I’m too involved. When I have Jo with me at tournaments, I seem to play well.  When she doesn’t come with me, I don’t do so well. I’m the kind of person who wants his family there with him.  I just wish Paul Hunter could be here with his."

Lindsey Hunter was a regular supporter of Paul throughout his career and she is devoting much of her time keeping his memory alive through the Paul Hunter Foundation. To help boost funds she competed in the recent Leeds half marathon for a second successive year.

"Along the route, people shouted things like ‘We loved Paul and we’ll never forget him’, which was touching," she explained.  "Last year when I turned the final corner, I saw Paul and Evie at the finishing-line.  This time, at the same point, I expected to see Paul there again and I got very emotional. "I’m not doing that again. Next year, I’ll do the Moonwalk, which is women walking 26 miles wearing only their bras up top.  Paul would have loved that!"

Paul’s great snooker pal Matthew Stevens was another who attended the Goodwood House launch and golf day, organised by Paul’s former sponsors, BGC Partners. "It’s very important for me to be here,"he said. "Paul was my best mate on the circuit, he was a fantastic person and everyone loved him.  It was unbelievable what happened to him.  This is such a good cause."

“Probably because of our friendship, neither of us ever played too well against each other.  We were rivals on the tables but, no matter what the results, we’d hug at the end and be best mates again.  We enjoyed a few wild nights over the years!"

"You don’t expect this to happen to one of your closest friends, especially as Paul was so young, had not long before got married and then became a father. I thought he’d recover, and I can’t describe how it felt to lose him.  It’s very hard to take and still hasn’t really sunk in."

A pall-bearer at Paul’s funeral, Matthew adds: "I keep a photograph in my living-room of me and Paul together.  His wife Lindsey has been fantastic, and I’ll always support her and this Foundation as much as I possibly can."