KID HUNTER POTS FINE

Teenage snooker star Paul Hunter has been fined and rapped - for using pot
during a major championship.

Hunter, 19, appeared before the WPBSA disciplinary committee in Bristol
after being caught out when a routine test proved positive.

Officials discovered Hunter, from leeds, used cannabis during the 1997
Grand Prix in Bournemouth.

Now the shamed star has been knocked down five places in the sport's world
rankings from 19 to 24.

He has been forced to forfeit #4,550 prize money from the tornament - 0ne
of the heaviest fines in the history of snooker. Hunter made his name by
beating Willie Thorne to reach the quarter-finals of the UK Championships
in 1996.

Hunter's hearing was held behind closed doors before the World
Professsional Billiards and Snooker Association board.

He was hauled in front of the chairman Bob Close and committee members
David Taylor and Jim Meadowcroft.

Other hearings rsulted in Stephen Ormerod being fined #800 and Peter
Gilchrist #100 for also using banned substances.

Snooker was the first professional sport to introduce an official drugs
testing policy in April 1985.