Bill Werbeniuk reached the World Snooker Championship quarter-finals four times (Image: Getty)

Snooker star drank 42 pints in one match, split his trousers on TV and lost all his money

The legendary figure became a recluse in retirement after leaving the sport in bitter circumstances.

Bill Werbeniuk never won a professional snooker tournament and he only reached two finals - but he has gone down in history as a larger-than-life figure with a reputation for incredible alcohol consumption. A Canadian cueist born to a father of Ukrainian heritage who committed armed robberies and dealt drugs, Werbeniuk was once ranked as the eighth-best snooker player on the planet.

The Manitoban reached the quarter-finals of the World Snooker Championship on four occasions and beat just about every top player in his era at one time or another. One of the things that set Werbeniuk apart and made him such a memorable character was his remarkable drinking regime.

A number of his alcohol-related feats have gone down in folklore. Werbeniuk is said to have drunk six pints at a minimum before each match and another pint per frame during it, with some claims indicating that he sunk a remarkable 50 pints her day at his peak.

He got through 42 in a single match against Scottish snooker star Eddie Sinclair, with Werbeniuk believing that alcohol consumption was the best way to cure a tremor in his cueing arm. At one point, according to The Guardian, the self-employed sportsman was allowed to register his spending on lager as a tax deductible expense

Bill Werbeniuk died of heart failure in 2003 (Image: Getty)While Werbeniuk was therefore able to keep some of the effects under wraps, his weight spiralled out of control, and he shot up to 20 stone. That had knock-on consequences as, at the World Team Cup challenge in 1980, he split his trousers live on the BBC