Looking for material on Bill Werbeniuk

cliff thorburn#1
paul thornlea#2
john bear from bc#3

message me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3C4kDRaKF8 in this interview listen at 9.00, hope this helps.

bill werbeniuk comes to Montreal Quebec Canada in the Seventys

HI I remember Bill Werbeniuk when he came to Montreal Quebec Canada back in the Seventys looking for action

We do find a player for Bill his name is Eddie Atomic AGHA so we arrange a match race to six frames for $500 Dollars and Bill Werbeniuk won the match.

The next day we arrange a match between Bill and Robert Paquette the best snooker player in Quebec for 1000 Dollars race to 6 frames and Bob Paquette wins the match.

The next day Bill wants to play 100 Dollars a game and Bill winds up winning 7 frames to 2 frames and that was the end of match

Bill was a very nice person and you could ask him all kinds of questions and he would answer them.

Cheers Leonard Ponzie

from wikipedia...

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] 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";[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]

WTF was this man all liver?

jchown said:

from wikipedia...

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] 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";[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]

WTF was this man all liver?

Click to expand...

That's one thirsty man.

jonornoy said:

Hi all,

I'm a Canadian filmmaker developing a dramatic film about Big Bill's life and I'm trying to track down any interviews he may have done, does anyone have any leads they might be able to share?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Hi!

The 80s in snooker are rightfully considered the Golden Age. This period is also called the "Time when snooker ruled the world". The audience for the legendary 1985 World Cup final was over 18 million. A special charm to snooker was given by the special charisma and originality of the players. In those years, the Canadian snooker player (Ukrainian by origin) Bill Verbenyuk, nicknamed "Big Bill", successfully performed in the professional arena. He became a cult hero during the snooker television boom of the 1980s and became famous for his habit of drinking impressive doses of lager (light beer) before matches and during the game, and is also remembered as a great player, appearing in four quarterfinals of the World Cup.
Verbenyuk was born in Winnipeg, where his father ran a club called Pop's Billiards. Bill mainly made his living traveling Canada and playing for money, and in 1975 he even won the North American Championship by beating Cliff Thorburn 11-9 in the final. Verbenyuk became a professional snooker player in 1973. Then the snooker season consisted of only a few games, but soon snooker began to be of more and more interest to television, accordingly, new opportunities for players appeared, the requirements for them became higher.
Bill, who resembled comedian Oliver Hardy with a cue stick, has always been a prominent figure in snooker. He did not look like a desperate sports hero, but he had a very aggressive competitive nature, hardened in Canadian "battles" for money.
Verbenyuk played his first quarterfinal within the walls of the Crucible Arena in 1978, and a year later he managed to score 142 points. It was the first break above 140 points to be televised for the World Cup. In 1985, Bill broke his record, earning 143 points in one run.
Also on account of Verbenyuk's quarterfinals in Sheffield - in 1979, 1981 and 1983. In the latter case, he beat Alex Higgins 9: 7, but lost in the last session - 13:11.
For eight seasons, Bill Verbenyuk has been in the elite TOP 16, reaching the eighth spot in the rankings in 1983, and also helped Thorburn and Kirk Stevens win Canada's Cup of Nations in 1982. In 1983, Bill reached the final of the Lada Classic, but lost the championship to Steve Davis. Later that year, he lost to Thorburn in the Australian Masters final.
The working hand let down Verbenyuk because of the constant tremor with which he tried to cope with large portions of lager.
He drank at least six beers before the game, one during each frame and several after the match. He preferred to live in a mobile home, in which beer was literally "on tap", he once said about himself: "My reputation was such that one day I was even offered £ 500 to go to one of Middlesbrough's pubs and drink beer all evening. No snooker - just drink glass after glass. ”One day, Verbenyuk decided to compete with the Scottish professional Eddie Sinclair in drinking, and beat him with a score of 42:41 pints of beer. Bill found an excuse for his defeat in the 1990 World Cup qualifier against Nigel Bond: "I drank 24 pints of the strongest lager and eight doubles of vodka without ever going to the toilet."
Verbenyuk was taking inderal, a beta-blocker, which helped his heart cope with huge doses of alcohol. In 1985, doping control was introduced for snooker players, according to which Inderal was considered a prohibited drug. From that moment on, the career of Bill Verbenyuk quickly went to the bottom.
Attempts to justify the reception of Inderal to Bill failed, the management was too demanding on the public image of the game, so the use of beta-blockers was strictly prohibited. One day Bill was punished by the WPBSA: "I received a letter asking me not to worry too much about returning to snooker as I will not be allowed to play anyway."
The legendary moment of the 1983 World Cup during the televised match against David Taylor is remembered with special warmth. Preparing for the blow, Verbenyuk tried to stretch across the table, however, due to his size, he had great difficulties. In the end, his trousers burst at the seams with a loud crash, which led the audience and the rival to indescribable delight. There was no underwear on Bill. But he took it with humor, asking: "Who did this?" Hinting at the uterine sound. Another time, in a match with Joe Johnson, Verbenyuk made the “blow of the century” when he was about to hit the distant red, while the cue-ball jumped over the ball and, hitting the target, sent him into the pocket. Later in the same match, Bill did not hit a brown ball into the corner pocket, which bounced off the bow and hit the opposite side, rolled into the middle pocket.
Bill played his last professional match in 1990. Later, until his death, he played pool.
At the end of 2002, Verbenyuk was taken to the hospital due to heart problems. In January 2003, Bill died. He was 56 years old.

jonornoy said:

Hi all,

I'm a Canadian filmmaker developing a dramatic film about Big Bill's life and I'm trying to track down any interviews he may have done, does anyone have any leads they might be able to share?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Did you ever find much material? I’m currently writing a musical entitled ‘Bill’ loosely based on Big Bill’s life and, like yourself, am looking for more information and anecdotes to flesh out the storyline and libretto. Thanks