Bill Werbeniuk

Werbeniuk was noted for the copious amounts of alcohol he consumed before and during matches – at least six pints before a match and then one pint for each frame. In total, he drank between 40 and 50 pints of lager per day.[1][3] Doctors advised Werbeniuk to drink alcohol to counteract a familial benign essential tremor.[4] Later in his career he also took propranolol, a beta blocker, to cope with the effects of his alcohol consumption on his heart.[5]

Bill was also famously reported in the UK tabloid press as successfully claiming the cost of 6 pints of lager before every match as a tax deductible expense.[2]

Some of Werbeniuk's most famous feats of drinking include: 76 cans of lager during a game with John Spencer in Australia in the 1970s;[1] 89 pints of lager in a snooker match/drinking contest against Scotsman Eddie Sinclair in which, after Sinclair had passed out following his 42nd pint, Werbeniuk was reported to say "I'm away to the bar now for a proper drink";[6] 28 pints of lager and 16 whiskies over the course of 11 frames during a match against Nigel Bond, in January 1990 – after which Werbeniuk then consumed an entire bottle of Scotch to "drown his sorrows" after losing the match.[1]

A memorable incident occurred during a televised match against Dennis Taylor in the World Team Tournament. Werbeniuk tried to stretch across the table, but due to his size was having some difficulty. Eventually he split his trousers. The ripping noise it made caused many in the audience, including his opponent, to laugh out loud. Werbeniuk took it in good humour, asking the audience "who did that?" as if insinuating that the noise was attributed to flatulence.[7]

In another incident, playing against Joe Johnson, Werbeniuk made what the announcer termed the "pot of the century" when he potted a long red by jumping the cue ball so that it bounced in front of and over an interposing red, knocking the object red in.[8] Later in the match, he got an unusual fluke, when he missed a simple brown to the top corner, but it cannoned out of the pocket, off the opposite cushion and into the centre pocket on the same side.[9]

Werbeniuk was ranked 8th in the world in 1983[3] and reached the quarter-finals of the World Snooker Championship four times before propranolol was banned in snooker competition, as it was classified as a performance-enhancing drug by the International Olympic Committee, the anti-doping rules of which were adopted by World Snooker.[3] Werbeniuk insisted that his use was medicinal only and under doctor's orders, but was fined and sanctioned anyway.[3] He played his last match in 1990.[10]

His career effectively over, he returned to Vancouver,[11] where he lived with his mother and brother.[2] A bankruptcy order was filed against him in 1991, and he lived on disability benefits.[1]

• Canadian Professional Championship - 1973
• New Zealand Masters - 1983
• North American Championship - 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976

• World Team Classic with Canadian team - 1982