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 suffered 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.