Snooker manager Geoff Feint will stick by Paul Hunter after the 19-year-old was fined by the game's bosses for testing positive for marijuana.

Hunter, from Yeadon, has been fined £4,550 and docked 1,140 ranking points by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association's disciplinary committee after traces of the drug were found in a random urine sample taken by Sports Council testers on October 14, 1997.

The world number 43, who won the Regal Welsh Open ranking tournament four months ago, failed the test during the Grand Prix in Bournemouth.

He has had the ranking points he earned in that event withdrawn but escaped a ban following the disciplinary committee hearing.

It is the second time in Hunter's career that he has been hauled before a disciplinary tribunal.

In January 1996 he was fined £2,500 with £2,000 suspended for a year for bringing the game into disrepute.

And Feint said: "I feel it's a satisfactory outcome. The incident occurred prior to him joining us and we will be standing by him."

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