SNOOKER'S glamour boy, Yorkshire's own Paul Hunter, makes his bow in this year's UK Championship in York at 10am on Wednesday morning.

His second round opponent will be the winner of the first round match between world number 31 Anthony Davies and world number 41 Stephen Maguire. The second session of Hunter's opening match is on Wednesday evening.

Should Hunter win, and it would be a major upset if he doesn't, his third round foe will be one of David Gray, the world number 12, Mark King (ranked 22) or French-Canadian Alain Robidoux (ranked 91).

A great favourite with the crowd, Hunter is more interested in becoming world champion than in his image, though he has gone into the public arena with distinctively different hairstyles in the past month. At the LG Cup in Preston he had his blonde locks in a fancy design and last week at the British Open in Brighton his hair was much longer and tied back behind his head akin to David Beckham.

He insists he's not copying the England football captain, he just happens to like like the same hairstyles, which also happen to suit him.

Quiet and well-mannered in the way he presents himself in public, he is at the age of only 25 one of snooker's elite band of millionaires but says that money is much less important to him that his quest to be world champion.

Clearly no fitness fan, as his performances recently in Superstars confirmed, he believes he can win the world crown without having to concentrate on physical fitness.

He reached the Embassy semi-finals at Sheffield earlier this year, losing 17-16 to Ken Doherty after having led 15-9 and 16-14 in a match Hunter should have won. That defeat still hurts in the Leeds star's mind.

At the start of this season he had an easy 5-1 win over Stuart Bingham in the LG Cup, but then lost 5-3 to Joe Swail. Last week he went into the final stages of the British Open at Brighton as defending champion. Last November he beat Ian McCulloch 9-4 to take the British title.

In the past two years Hunter hasn't faired too well in the UK Championship, going out 9-4 to Doherty in the third round last year and losing 9-5 to John Higgins in the third round the previous year.

All being well he is due to clash with Doherty again this year, in the quarter-finals on November 26, when he will be eager to get his revenge on the Dubliner.

Updated: 10:33 Saturday, November 15, 2003