Neal Foulds snooker column: Remembering Paul Hunter as Masters snooker returns

I hope you all had an enjoyable and restful Christmas, but it’s back to business now with one of the highlights on the snooker calendar, the Masters, starting with a blockbuster showdown at Alexandra Palace on Sunday.

This has always been a very special event, from its days at the Wembley Conference Centre through to its new home at the Ally Pally, and we’ve had some of the most memorable snooker moments played out at this very tournament.

For the players, this is the pinnacle. The top 16 in the world, a one-table set-up and only one match per session, it really is all about you, reward for being the one of the best players in the world. If you’re in the Masters, you can be sure you’ve earned it.

That wasn’t always necessarily the case, when the cut-off in the rankings came after the World Championship, but more recently that has been moved to the conclusion of the UK Championship. The rankings move much quicker nowadays, meaning the 16 players competing for a huge prize fund next week are the form players, the cream of the crop so to speak.

That prize fund has received another boost this year, meaning the winner will take home £350,000, so when you add all that to the rich history and heritage of this tournament, it’s plain to see why every player wants to win the Masters.

I’m not sure why that financial boost has been injected this year. Perhaps World Snooker Tour felt they wanted to give the Masters another shot in the arm, as if it was needed, but it won’t do any harm in a competitive market which now includes those big-money events in China and Saudi Arabia.

But as much as money and history is a big part of the allure of the Masters, the atmosphere served up for this tournament really is something special, and quite unique to other events. Make no mistake, it gets rowdy in the venue, more so than at pretty much any other, but it makes for an incredible atmosphere. And I think the crowd generally find the right balance, just about staying on the right side of the line.

Even John Higgins on Sunday – a Scot in London playing hometown hero Ronnie O’Sullivan – will receive a terrific reception. And so he should. It was much the same when he and Mark Williams met here a few years back. The noise the crowd made at the start of that match, it made the hairs on your neck stand up.

As for that match between Ronnie and John, it’s hard to imagine a better clash to open the tournament. Two of the great players in the history of the game, two great rivals, all set to do battle on the biggest stage one more time. Perhaps even for the final time.

You hope that won't be the case, but all three members of the Class of 92, Ronnie, John and Mark, turn fifty this year. Age is just a number, this trio keep proving that, but in the cold light of day, it’s quite amazing to think all three are still in the top 16 and heading back to the Masters.

Ronnie will be returning as defending champion, and he’ll once again be a firm favourite with fans, and not far off favourite with most bookmakers.

I think facing John first up has the potential to be a good thing for Ronnie. The two have so much respect for each other and he’ll know he needs to play well in order to win. In front of a big crowd, on the big occasion, that usually brings out the best in Ronnie.

There is no escaping the fact that he’s lost four of his last five matches, and on bare results alone, it’s hard to have too many expectations. But the funny thing is, I actually don’t think he has played badly at all.

Rewind to Saudi Arabia just before Christmas, and he lost to Mark Allen who went on to lift the trophy. Prior to that he made all the early running before losing a very good match against Barry Hawkins at the UK Championship. Barry ended up reaching the final of that event, just as Xiao Guodong did at the Champion of Champions after he too had played brilliantly to beat Ronnie.

If Ronnie doesn’t play well at the Masters, perhaps people would be right to question him and the state of his game, but it would be a brave man to write him off at an event he has won eight times already.

It sounds as if he has been working hard on the practice table, and is due to play the Championship League this week, so it will be interesting to see how he goes given he has been working with coach Lee Walker for a little while now.

I do think the hunger is still there for Ronnie, at the very biggest tournaments anyway, and while he has nothing left to prove, he himself might not feel that way after a quiet season so far. That could make him very dangerous.

The other big tie of the first round is Judd Trump against Barry Hawkins in a repeat of the UK Championship final only last month.

This should be another terrific match. There wasn’t a lot between the pair in York and Barry has a pretty good record at the Masters, including reaching a couple of finals, the most recent only in 2022. Barry has real Masters pedigree.

There will be pressure on Judd, too. Along with the three Triple Crown events, World Snooker Tour are making a big thing of the trying to tag the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters, which Trump won earlier in the season, onto that group. The fourth major, if you like.

If Judd won the Masters next week, he’d give himself a shot at being the first man to achieve the feat of winning all four, as well as the huge financial incentive there is in winning the biggest prizes in snooker.

That could easily be another classic to add to the long list at this tournament over the years. From the old Wembley Conference Centre to Ally Pally, the Masters never fails to deliver.

You only have to go back to 2022 for one of the most remarkable matches I think I’ve ever seen. Neil Robertson won it in the end, beating Mark Williams in a deciding frame to their semi-final, before then lifting the trophy a day later.

But that doesn’t tell half the story. Williams had the game won, Robertson needing two snookers and with no apparent route back into the frame and match. And then, suddenly, Williams had lost, unable to escape from an almost impossible trap as Robertson snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.

His interview straight after the match said it all: it was almost disbelief. What a match, and not one any of us will forget in a hurry.

I’ve been reminded in recent days of a couple of my own Masters memories, and I lost three times in semi-finals at this event, to John Parrott twice and then to Alan McManus. I came close on a couple of those occasions to reaching the final.

I would have had the dubious pleasure of meeting my good friend Stephen Hendry in all three finals, but would’ve dearly loved to have got there and had a crack at it.

The match with Alan was close, and though I’ve never been one to look back too much and remember particular matches or bad defeats, the first semi-final I lost to John in 1989 isn’t one I’ve ever really forgotten. It’s hard to, because my dad reminds me of it regularly.

It was a tight game, but the defining moment really came when I had John in a difficult snooker on both remaining reds. John didn’t have much of a shot on, so played a wild hit and hope which, quite remarkably, saw him smash into the reds and fluke them both into different pockets. Having landed plum on the next colour, John went on to win the match.

That one does stick in my mind, as does a black I missed off its spot early in my World Championship semi-final with Joe Johnson. It takes a really big tournament to do that to you, and the Worlds and the Masters, well it doesn’t get much bigger for a snooker player.

When we talk about great Masters matches, the late Paul Hunter can never be too far away from our thoughts and I'll dedicate the last words to him. What a loss he was to the sport, and life in general.

It’s amazing to think he won three Masters finals, all by a 10-9 scoreline. Paul trailed Fergal O’Brien 6-2 before winning in 2001, and was 5-3 down to Mark Williams the following year before again coming out on top.

But to come from 7-2 behind to beat Ronnie in 2004, that was surely his greatest achievement and one of the greatest comebacks we have seen at the Masters, indeed in all of snooker. Who does that the Ronnie at the Masters?

Paul gave us so many treasured Masters memories and I think it’s right we always remember him when this tournament rolls around. His memory most certainly lives on, this special week of all weeks.