A snooker player Bill Webeniuk was famous for his drinking ability
William Alexander “Bill” Werbeniuk (14 January 1947 – 20 January 2003) was a Canadian professional snooker and pool player. Recognisable for his girth, he was nicknamed “Big Bill”.
William Werbeniuk was born on 14 January 1947 in Winnipeg. His paternal grandfather had immigrated to Canada from Ukraine; his father, according to Werbeniuk, “was one of the biggest fences in Canada” and “committed armed robberies, peddled drugs, every larceny in the language.” His father also owned Pop’s Billiards on Logan Avenue in Winnipeg, where Werbeniuk began playing snooker as a child. Werbeniuk spent a portion of his youth traveling with Cliff Thorburn and playing pool for money.
His playing record included an 8-9 quarter-final loss to John Pulman in the 1975 Canadian Open and quarter-final losses in the 1978 and 1979 World Championships to Ray Reardon and John Virgo respectively. He reached the semi-finals of the UK Championships
In the Lada Classic 1983, Bill reached his first major final, but was beaten by Steve Davis 5-9. Werbeniuk again reached the quarter-finals of the World Championships, in the same year, losing 11-13 to Alex Higgins, and reached his second major final in the summer, losing 3-7 to compatriot Cliff Thorburn in the Winfield Masters in Australia.
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. Doctors advised Werbeniuk to drink alcohol to counteract a familial benign essential tremor. Later in his career he also took propranolol, a beta blocker, to cope with the effects of his alcohol consumption on his heart.
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.
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; 43 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”; 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.
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