Snooker: Hunter's Ranking Will Be Protected

Paul Hunter, the three-times Masters champion, is expecting to miss the whole of the coming season while he continues to receive treatment for the tumours with which he was diagnosed in March last year. Weakened by extensive chemotherapy and in constant pain, the 27-year-old Yorkshireman won only one match last season as his ranking fell from No5 to No34 but is now expecting that ranking to be frozen following an EGM of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association in Sheffield yesterday. It agreed to the constitutional change allowing for rankings to be fixed in cases of long-term illness or injury. It is now expected that tomorrow's WPBSA board meeting will grant Hunter the medical exemption within its powers so that he can withdraw from the qualifying competition for the Northern Ireland Trophy, which begins on Saturday, without jeopardising his ranking.