Paul Hunter insists his rock and roll lifestyle has gone for good as he aims to retain the British Open title.

The 25-year-old is one of a host of top class players who is competing in the £450,000 event at the Brighton Centre which starts on Saturday and culminates in the final on Sunday week.

Hunter, currently ranked eighth in the world, won the title last year in Telford after beating Ian McCulloch 9-4 in the final.

The victory came after he had become only the third player in history, after Cliff Thorburn and Stephen Hendry, to win back-to-back Benson & Hedges Masters titles.

It also fulfilled the potential Hunter had promised as a young player which at one time threatened to be wasted by the excesses of his party lifestyle.

Hunter has a reputation as one of the wild men of the snooker world because of his self confessed fondness for the nightlife in his home city of Leeds.

He hit the headlines during the 2001 B&H Masters when he infamously credited a superb comeback to an afternoon of passion with his girlfriend. Trailing Fergal O'Brien 7-3 in the final, he roared back after spending the interval in his hotel bedroom with her to win the title.

But Hunter insists he has now found a balance between enjoying himself and snooker and is determined not to let anything get in the way of his bid to win the British Open again this year.

He said: "I still go out, have a drink and get drunk, but I just do it at the right times now. You don't want to be called boring and you want to enjoy your life, but then again I'm still going to behave myself and do things right.

"Before, I was going out the day before the match and not getting in until three or four in the morning. But you can't do that because there are too many good players about.

"I see myself as one of the main players now, but three years ago I wasn't proving it. I was going out and not doing the practice, just like a normal 21-year-old would do. But then my mum and dad sat me down and said there was no point wasting my talent just to go drinking. I agreed with them and just cut it out."

Hunter has a refreshing outlook on his chosen sport, although his love for snooker is obvious.

He began playing when he was three-years-old and had made his first century break by the time he was 11.

It was at the 1998 Regal Welsh Open where he made his first mark in a tournament when he beat five top 16 players on the way to the first of two titles in the competition.

He said: "Snooker is what I always wanted to do, but there is definitely more to life and I think it is important to have a social life as well. My dad and granddad started me off and I left school at 14 to concentrate on playing. I had a tutor for an hour a day at first, but that only lasted about a month.

He turned round and said: 'You just want to be playing snooker and that is what you should be doing so I won't bother coming back.'

"Now I do about three or four hours of practice a day. If I was to play seven or eight hours a day, which some snooker players do, I would get bored and frustrated and it would end up doing my head in. I wouldn't look forward to it.

The only major title still to elude Hunter is the World Championship. He reached the semi-finals earlier this year only to lose 17-16 to Ken Doherty.

Hunter is desperate to win the title at least once during his career. He said: "I would rather be world champion than world number one. This year I got to the semis which I was happy about, but at the same time I was devastated.

"Hopefully one day I will win it. I don't care if it's this year or in ten years time as long as I win it once, then I will be happy. I wouldn't want to go through my career not doing it and being a nearly man like Jimmy White was."

White will be one of the stars in action during the British Open as well as John Higgins, Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan.

However, it is world number one Mark Williams who poses the biggest threat to Hunter's title.

Hunter added: "Williams is the man to beat at the moment and he is the favourite, but the other players are going to be tough as well.

"I have always said that any of the top 15 players can win these tournaments because of the nature of the best of nine matches and because no-one is really afraid of anyone else."