| Along with Cliff Thorburn
and Kirk Stevens, ‘Big Bill’ Werbeniuk formed a powerful
trio of Canadian players who challenged for every tournament
in the early 1980s. One of the great characters of the game
Bill was famous for consuming huge quantities of lager during
his matches but was nevertheless a very fine player indeed.
He also goes down in history as the first man to split his trousers
during a live television snooker broadcast!
Bill began playing snooker at the age of nine in Vancouver
and turned professional in 1973 winning the North American
and Canadian championships in that first season. The following
year he made his first visit to Britain for the World Championships
where he reached the last 16. He got to that same stage for
the next two years as well but missed the entry date for the
1977 event. In stead he went off to America where he is reputed
to have won $20,000 in ten hours playing 9-ball pool. "The
trouble was," Bill recalled, "I lost it all in the
next twenty minutes, but there was a guy there with $200,000
in his briefcase and I was hoping to win that as well!"
When he returned for the 1978 Embassy he got to the quarter
finals losing to Ray Reardon and in 1979 he reached that stage
again, on the way equalling the then record break for the
event of 142. Later that year he made it to the semi-finals
of the UK championship. By this time Bill had based himself
in this country, setting up home in a converted bus in which
he travelled from tournament to tournament.
He was in the top 16 in the very first ranking list and over
the following eight seasons only once dropped out of that
elite group. His best position was eighth for the 1984/5 season.
The vast amounts of lager he consumed were not just for pleasure.
Bill suffers from a rare disease which causes his hand to
shake and lager seemed to be the only way of controlling it.
As a result, he was able to set-off the cost of the lager
against tax. It was however partly responsible for his 20
stone plus figure.
Several more quarter-finals were achieved over the next few
seasons including the 1981 and 1983 world championships. His
first major final came in the 1984 Lada Classic but Steve
Davis proved too good on the day winning 9-5. He and his Canadian
colleagues won the World Team Cup in 1982.
Concerned of the effect his large intake of lager was having
Bill started to take the drug Inderal on the advice of his
doctors. The trouble is that this was on the list of banned
substances and the WPBSA would not make any exceptions. Bill
was faced with the dilemma of either stopping the drug and
risking his health or taking it and having to give up the
professional game. Quite naturally he chose the latter option
and so in 1989, having already received fines from the governing
body for taking a banned substance, he quite the circuit and
returned to Canada to try to earn a living playing pool.
He retained his membership of the association despite the
lack of sympathy shown to him and did return to play in the
Embassy qualifying rounds in both 1991 and 1992. He had to
play without the drug he had come to rely on and failed to
get beyond the second qualifying round on either occasion.
Bill always seemed to have a special place in the hearts
of the British snooker fans. He always appeared to enjoy what
he was doing and it is sad that problems outside his control
forced him to give up the game he loved.
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