Big Bill a larger than life figure

SNOOKER: Cliff Thorburn  has led the tributes to fellow Canadian, Bill Werbeniuk who has died of heart failure at the age of 56.

Werbeniuk, who passed away on Monday in Vancouver, spent the last three months of his life in hospital in his home country.

Thorburn, the 1980 world champion, has fond memories of the man known affectionately as "Big Bill".

"Every time I come to Britain people always ask me about Bill," he said. "He was a larger than life character.

"When Bill was at his peak, Canada had three players ranked in the top eight in the world and I always thought we were the only real team competing in the World Cup. We weren't just team-mates, we were great friends off the table."

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba on January 14th, 1947, Werbeniuk became a cult figure in the 1980s as a result of his ability to drink copious amounts of lager during matches.

He recalled last year: "I'd down six to eight pints of lager before I started. Then I'd have one pint a frame. Obviously over the longer matches I'd get through quite a lot of lager but I managed to burn off alcohol very quickly."

The 20-stone giant joined the fledgling professional circuit in 1973 and reached a career highest eighth in the world in 1983.

He reached the world championship quarter-finals four times and made the highest break of the 1985 event, a 143.

In 1983, he was runner-up to Steve Davis in the Lada Classic and was part of the victorious Canadian team in the 1982 World Cup.

Three years earlier in the same event, he split his trousers live on television, leading Thorburn to quip: "This is a needle match and I was hoping Bill was going to sew it up for us."

Werbeniuk spent several seasons in the top 16 but his career was effectively ended when inderal, a drug he said he took to help his heart cope with the large amounts of alcohol he was drinking, which he claimed counteracted a tremor in his arm, was banned.

"I would always maintain that inderal was performance enabling, not performance enhancing.

"I got a letter one day saying don't bother to turn up because you're not playing."

Werbeniuk's last professional match was his 10-1 defeat to Nigel Bond in the preliminary rounds of the 1990 world championship.

Afterwards he declared: "I've had 24 pints of extra strong lager and eight double vodkas and I'm still not drunk."

Since retiring, Werbeniuk returned to Canada and last year he revealed he was out of work and living on disability benefits.

"I live with my mother and brother and watch sport on the TV. You have to make the most of whatever situation you find yourself in," he said.

Thorburn reflected: "We didn't speak that often after Bill retired from the game but whenever we did, it was as though we had never been apart."

Jimmy White said: "There aren't as many characters as there were years ago but Bill was definitely one. He was a great drinker but also a very good player. Only he could get tanked up with 10 pints before a match and still win."