Remembering Bill Werbeniuk – the snooker star who could sink 50 pints a day and whose dad was an armed robber

Modern snooker's pristine image is a long way from the heyday of the sport - when it was played in smoke-filled rooms, with players who almost always had a pint within touching distance.

Nobody encapsulated the era more than Bill Werbeniuk, a four time World Championship quarter-finalist - but a man who was better known for his heavy drinking and chain-smoking whilst playing than for his incredible exploits with a cue in hand. Big Bill, as the 20 stone Canadian was known throughout the game, famously once downed an incredible 76 cans of lager during a match - and then went on to continue drinking for another seven hours into the night.

Werbeniuk's remarkable drinking ability was because he suffered from hypoglycaemia, a condition which enabled his body to burn off sugar and alcohol exceptionally quickly. In his prime Big Bill would polish off at least six pints of lager before a match, a pint per frame during it, and then usually had time for a few more with friends or rivals afterwards. As his career progressed he ballooned in weight however as he decided that alcohol was the best way to control the pronounced tremor he developed in his cue arm - and his story, which saw him forced to retire due to the medication he was taking, has a tragic ending.

Born in Canada on January 14, 1947 Werbeniuk had an unconventional childhood, with his father known to have committed armed robberies and sold drugs. His dad owned a snooker club called Pop's Billiards meaning that Bill took up the sport at a young age and spent time in his childhood travelling with 1980 World Champion Cliff Thorburn. The two players would go on to become rivals, with Bill winning the North American Amateur Championship against Thornburn in 1973. From there